Brad DeLong says he is cranky today.
Brad DeLong's Website: Sigh Greg Mankiw: I am cranky, and annoyed. And I am not asking for very much. All I want is:
- No more claims that we know that carving-out Social Security revenues to fund private accounts will have no damaging effect on national saving. It might work. It might not.
- No more claims that the U.S. is a small open economy. It isn't.
- No more claims that there is no reason to think that slower economic growth will carry lower asset returns with it. There are good reasons to fear this.
- No more claims that the household employment survey is as good a guide to short-term labor market trends as the establishment survey. It isn't.
- No more claims that an honest forecast of what George W. Bush's policies are sees the deficit cut in half by the end of this decade. It doesn't.
I think Brad should be cranky more often. But then I don't have to live with him.
First Greenspan and now Mankiw. Robert Barro might have a principled argument here but the Bush cheerleaders will hate its full implications. See Angrybear for details.