France is number one:
LONDON, Sept 11, 2006 (AFP) - Seven French business schools are among the top 10 in Europe, according to a ranking published Monday by the Financial Times.
First is HEC Paris, second is Cems, a network of 17 different European universities including HEC, and third is ESCP-EAP in Paris, according to Britain's leading business daily.
The ranking assesses Masters in Management programs, which most students join after their undergratuate degree, rather than those of Masters of Business Administration which usually requires several years of work experience.
But they suck:
PARIS, Sept 11, 2006 (AFP) - French industrial output fell 1.3 percent in July from the June figure, notably in the automobile industry, official figures showed Monday, a decline economists said highlights the fragility of the French recovery.
The July performance, announced by the national statistics institute INSEE, followed a 0.1 percent slide in June.
.... While overall French momentum is projected by some economists to come 2.5 percent in 2006, after a disappointing 1.2 percent in 2005, "the figures published today reflect the fragility of the current economic climate," said analyst Alexander Law of the research group Xerfi.
For Nicolas Bouzou of Asteres, also a research group, "the problem today is to know if the French economy can continue to pick up with a tired industrial sector".
He said: "It's difficult to believe."
Monday, September 11, 2006
Friday, September 08, 2006
About that great European health care...
We beg to differ, if this is an example:
A Russian policeman has attempted suicide after performing a transgender surgery on himself. He was found with a rope around his neck in a pool of blood — his genitals had been cut off and the wound scrupulously stitched up. Painkillers and a bloody needle, as well as the remains of his genitals, were lying on the floor next to him.
Alexei’s wife Irina, who found the man half dead in his country cottage in the suburbs of Moscow, called the ambulance immediately. The doctors managed to save his life, but said he would never be able to have sex again, Zhisn daily reports.
When Alexei, 31, came to his senses in hospital, he said he had been attacked by a strange man who broke into the house, but the investigation has a different version.
“We found women’s cosmetics and lingerie, brand new, in the house,” local policemen who investigate the case said.
“Alexei’s wife said it was not hers. It looks like he had bought the stuff to put on after the surgery.”
“The wound was very neat, it did not look like made by someone in a rage or in a hurry. Besides, next to it doctors found an old scar, bearing resemblance to the new wound and also stitched up — as if it was not the first attempt.”
A Russian policeman has attempted suicide after performing a transgender surgery on himself. He was found with a rope around his neck in a pool of blood — his genitals had been cut off and the wound scrupulously stitched up. Painkillers and a bloody needle, as well as the remains of his genitals, were lying on the floor next to him.
Alexei’s wife Irina, who found the man half dead in his country cottage in the suburbs of Moscow, called the ambulance immediately. The doctors managed to save his life, but said he would never be able to have sex again, Zhisn daily reports.
When Alexei, 31, came to his senses in hospital, he said he had been attacked by a strange man who broke into the house, but the investigation has a different version.
“We found women’s cosmetics and lingerie, brand new, in the house,” local policemen who investigate the case said.
“Alexei’s wife said it was not hers. It looks like he had bought the stuff to put on after the surgery.”
“The wound was very neat, it did not look like made by someone in a rage or in a hurry. Besides, next to it doctors found an old scar, bearing resemblance to the new wound and also stitched up — as if it was not the first attempt.”
Looks healthy enough to us
But the Spaniards want to put some meat on her bones:
MADRID — Skinny models are to be banned from Madrid Fashion Week for the first time, the city council said on Friday.
Almost a third of the models who were to take part in the Pasarela Cibeles later this month have been rejected after they did not meet strict body mass index (bmi) rules.
....Spain's best-known model Esther Canadas does not qualify under the new rules which were brought in by Madrid city council.
The rules stipulate models who are 1.75 metres tall must weigh a minimum of 56 kilogrammes.
....Concha Guerra, of Madrid city council which sponsors Madrid Fashion Week to the tune of EUR 400,000 each year, said a nutritional expert would check all the models who took part.
Models whose bmi is below 16 would receive health treatment.
Que lastima.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
The Law and Order, Work Harder, School Choice Candidate
French Socialist Segolene Royal, back from the beach, picks another fight:
PARIS, Sept 6, 2006 (AFP) - French presidential front-runner Ségolène Royal has once again upset bigwigs inside her own Socialist Party (PS), this time with a call to liberalise the school system which brought a ringing condemnation Wednesday from the party hierarchy.
In a speech earlier this week, Royal — who is France's most popular politician according to a recent opinion poll — questioned one of the PS's educational taboos: the so-called "scholastic map" which obliges parents to send children to schools designated by the authorities.
The "map" has been regularly attacked by the political right, which says it removes parental choice and blocks educational improvement, but for the left it is an important mechanism for ensuring that all schools have a social and academic balance.
However Royal said in the southern Lozere department that, "We need to loosen the constraints associated with the 'map' — because some people have the feeling they are being dumped in underperforming establishments."
Previous spats arose over her ideas on the mandatory 35 hour work week and criminals.
PARIS, Sept 6, 2006 (AFP) - French presidential front-runner Ségolène Royal has once again upset bigwigs inside her own Socialist Party (PS), this time with a call to liberalise the school system which brought a ringing condemnation Wednesday from the party hierarchy.
In a speech earlier this week, Royal — who is France's most popular politician according to a recent opinion poll — questioned one of the PS's educational taboos: the so-called "scholastic map" which obliges parents to send children to schools designated by the authorities.
The "map" has been regularly attacked by the political right, which says it removes parental choice and blocks educational improvement, but for the left it is an important mechanism for ensuring that all schools have a social and academic balance.
However Royal said in the southern Lozere department that, "We need to loosen the constraints associated with the 'map' — because some people have the feeling they are being dumped in underperforming establishments."
Previous spats arose over her ideas on the mandatory 35 hour work week and criminals.
Pick a Card, Any Card...
...but not a Swede, for the team:
A magician has been recruited by Ian Woosnam, the European Ryder Cup golf captain, to advise his players during the tournament later this month
Jamil Qureshi, a golf psychologist who works on the mental side of the game with some of the best names in the sport, will work with the squad at the K Club in Ireland when they attempt to retain the trophy against the American team in a fortnight.
....Qureshi has given frequent displays of psychological illusion on stage and television.
It was Gary Evans, who finished fifth in the 2002 Open championship at Muirfield, who first sought his services. If Qureshi could produce a rabbit out of a hat, he could surely come up with a few ideas on how to get a ball to disappear into a hole, thought Evans.
The golfer got in touch with Qureshi's agent and asked, "Can this guy help me?" and Qureshi obliged. As Evans' results showed a marked improvement, so other players followed in Evans' footsteps.
Qureshi's best-known client is Sweden's Thomas Bjorn, the player who gave Woosnam a volley of abuse last Sunday when he was not handed one of the captain's two wild cards for the Ryder Cup.
Qureshi said he did not follow the Swedish approach to golf's mental side, in which all emotions are kept so ruthlessly in check that the players look as if they have escaped from Madame Tussauds.
A magician has been recruited by Ian Woosnam, the European Ryder Cup golf captain, to advise his players during the tournament later this month
Jamil Qureshi, a golf psychologist who works on the mental side of the game with some of the best names in the sport, will work with the squad at the K Club in Ireland when they attempt to retain the trophy against the American team in a fortnight.
....Qureshi has given frequent displays of psychological illusion on stage and television.
It was Gary Evans, who finished fifth in the 2002 Open championship at Muirfield, who first sought his services. If Qureshi could produce a rabbit out of a hat, he could surely come up with a few ideas on how to get a ball to disappear into a hole, thought Evans.
The golfer got in touch with Qureshi's agent and asked, "Can this guy help me?" and Qureshi obliged. As Evans' results showed a marked improvement, so other players followed in Evans' footsteps.
Qureshi's best-known client is Sweden's Thomas Bjorn, the player who gave Woosnam a volley of abuse last Sunday when he was not handed one of the captain's two wild cards for the Ryder Cup.
Qureshi said he did not follow the Swedish approach to golf's mental side, in which all emotions are kept so ruthlessly in check that the players look as if they have escaped from Madame Tussauds.
Not Cricket, Old Boyz!
In Ty Cobb's hometown as well as The Hood:
One of the fastest-growing games in the United States is, surprisingly, cricket.
The game flourished there for a while in the 19th century, but a combination of war and baseball sent it into decline. That is, until now.
Atlanta, Georgia is not a place you normally associate with cricket. It is famous for a fizzy drink and a baseball team called The Braves. So I was pleasantly surprised, on a recent visit, to hear the distinctive "thock" of leather on willow.
....Today, Atlanta boasts 23 teams, with 600 players competing in a well-organised league.
Though few people either side of the Atlantic know it, cricket has a long history in the United States.
It was once the national game and the annual fixture against Canada, which was first played in the 1840s. It is the oldest international sporting event in the modern world, predating today's Olympic Games by nearly 50 years.
....by 1860 an estimated 10,000 Americans were playing the game. Presidents turned out to watch. When Chicago hosted Milwaukee in 1859, Abraham Lincoln was among the spectators.
....Today, thanks to a huge influx of immigrants from India, Pakistan and the West Indies, cricket is bouncing back.
There are 29 leagues nationwide, with an estimated 700 clubs and 50,000 active cricketers. As well as traditional bastions like Philadelphia and New York, where Mayor Bloomberg recently announced a $1.5m investment for a purpose built pitch in Queens, cricket is now being played in such unlikely places as Dallas, Texas, and Wichita, Kansas.
In Los Angeles, a team called Compton Homies & Popz uses cricket to teach "boyz from the hood" old-fashioned virtues like discipline and manners.
One of the fastest-growing games in the United States is, surprisingly, cricket.
The game flourished there for a while in the 19th century, but a combination of war and baseball sent it into decline. That is, until now.
Atlanta, Georgia is not a place you normally associate with cricket. It is famous for a fizzy drink and a baseball team called The Braves. So I was pleasantly surprised, on a recent visit, to hear the distinctive "thock" of leather on willow.
....Today, Atlanta boasts 23 teams, with 600 players competing in a well-organised league.
Though few people either side of the Atlantic know it, cricket has a long history in the United States.
It was once the national game and the annual fixture against Canada, which was first played in the 1840s. It is the oldest international sporting event in the modern world, predating today's Olympic Games by nearly 50 years.
....by 1860 an estimated 10,000 Americans were playing the game. Presidents turned out to watch. When Chicago hosted Milwaukee in 1859, Abraham Lincoln was among the spectators.
....Today, thanks to a huge influx of immigrants from India, Pakistan and the West Indies, cricket is bouncing back.
There are 29 leagues nationwide, with an estimated 700 clubs and 50,000 active cricketers. As well as traditional bastions like Philadelphia and New York, where Mayor Bloomberg recently announced a $1.5m investment for a purpose built pitch in Queens, cricket is now being played in such unlikely places as Dallas, Texas, and Wichita, Kansas.
In Los Angeles, a team called Compton Homies & Popz uses cricket to teach "boyz from the hood" old-fashioned virtues like discipline and manners.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Ya think?
The climate for business isn't warming in Belgium:
BRUSSELS — Belgium has slipped in the rankings of nations in a World Bank study examining favourable business climates.
....Belgium did not perform as well and is now ranked behind countries such as Estonia, Lithuania, Thailand and Puerto Rico, newspaper 'De Standaard' reported on Wednesday.
On the other side, Belgium is performing better than the Netherlands, France and Germany in establishing a favourable climate for new businesses.
.... company tax rates which claim on average 70 percent of a firm's profits are a negative factor. The average in the 30 OECD nations is 45 percent.
BRUSSELS — Belgium has slipped in the rankings of nations in a World Bank study examining favourable business climates.
....Belgium did not perform as well and is now ranked behind countries such as Estonia, Lithuania, Thailand and Puerto Rico, newspaper 'De Standaard' reported on Wednesday.
On the other side, Belgium is performing better than the Netherlands, France and Germany in establishing a favourable climate for new businesses.
.... company tax rates which claim on average 70 percent of a firm's profits are a negative factor. The average in the 30 OECD nations is 45 percent.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Corn...David Corn
The swashbuckling columnist and blogger wanders into the casino and places a few chips on a high stakes game:
Valerie Plame was recruited into the CIA in 1985, straight out of Pennsylvania State University. After two years of training to be a covert case officer, she served a stint on the Greece desk, according to Fred Rustmann, a former CIA official who supervised her then. Next she was posted to Athens and posed as a State Department employee. Her job was to spot and recruit agents for the agency. In the early 1990s, she became what's known as a nonofficial cover officer. NOCs are the most clandestine of the CIA's frontline officers. They do not pretend to work for the US government; they do not have the protection of diplomatic immunity. They might claim to be a businessperson. She told people she was with an energy firm. Her main mission remained the same: to gather agents for the CIA.
Mr Corn has the lovely Val moving from no cover at all, a State Department employee in the Athens embassy, to a deep cover "NOC". That would really fool everybody!
Valerie Plame was recruited into the CIA in 1985, straight out of Pennsylvania State University. After two years of training to be a covert case officer, she served a stint on the Greece desk, according to Fred Rustmann, a former CIA official who supervised her then. Next she was posted to Athens and posed as a State Department employee. Her job was to spot and recruit agents for the agency. In the early 1990s, she became what's known as a nonofficial cover officer. NOCs are the most clandestine of the CIA's frontline officers. They do not pretend to work for the US government; they do not have the protection of diplomatic immunity. They might claim to be a businessperson. She told people she was with an energy firm. Her main mission remained the same: to gather agents for the CIA.
Mr Corn has the lovely Val moving from no cover at all, a State Department employee in the Athens embassy, to a deep cover "NOC". That would really fool everybody!
When it rains...
...it pours more wine into the lake:
PARIS, Sept 5, 2006 (AFP) - A wet month of August will mean a bumper grape crop for French vineyards, wine industry officials said Tuesday as harvesting got underway in several regions. ....
A high yield is not necessarily good news for producers and dealers, as France already produces a large annual surplus of wine and unsold stocks continue to build despite subsidies every year from the EU to distil large quantities.
But at least fuel prices should decline:
Producers like Sylvain Pitiot, who makes the seductive, voluptuous Clos de Tart, a grand cru Burgundy, are doing exceptionally well, regardless of how many gallons of French wine the European Union wishes to convert to fuel.
PARIS, Sept 5, 2006 (AFP) - A wet month of August will mean a bumper grape crop for French vineyards, wine industry officials said Tuesday as harvesting got underway in several regions. ....
A high yield is not necessarily good news for producers and dealers, as France already produces a large annual surplus of wine and unsold stocks continue to build despite subsidies every year from the EU to distil large quantities.
But at least fuel prices should decline:
Producers like Sylvain Pitiot, who makes the seductive, voluptuous Clos de Tart, a grand cru Burgundy, are doing exceptionally well, regardless of how many gallons of French wine the European Union wishes to convert to fuel.
Socialistas for Growth?
That's what the European Union thinks Romano Prodi had better be:
(ANSA) - Rome, September 5 - Italy is in economic decline and Romano Prodi's government must take urgent action to stop the rot, according to a panel of European experts.
A new report by the European Union's observatory for the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy said Italy is in trouble because of a "series of structural lags that the country has accumulated with respect to its main competitors".
The Lisbon Strategy is a 10-year EU-wide plan devised in 2000 to address the problem of low productivity, unemployment and economic stagnation in Europe.
The Observatory for the Lisbon Strategy identified four main areas of concern - Italy's bloated public sector, excess market regulation, falling productivity and lower investment in human resources, and high taxes.
The report revealed that central and local government employ five million people in Italy, a fifth of the working population. It said that this level is "without equivalent in Europe".
....the report said the government should also "intervene where the interests of its own electoral base" are at stake.
This means making the pension system sustainable by raising the retirement age, cutting the number of public-sector employees and introducing greater flexibility to the labour market by making it easier to hire and fire workers .
(ANSA) - Rome, September 5 - Italy is in economic decline and Romano Prodi's government must take urgent action to stop the rot, according to a panel of European experts.
A new report by the European Union's observatory for the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy said Italy is in trouble because of a "series of structural lags that the country has accumulated with respect to its main competitors".
The Lisbon Strategy is a 10-year EU-wide plan devised in 2000 to address the problem of low productivity, unemployment and economic stagnation in Europe.
The Observatory for the Lisbon Strategy identified four main areas of concern - Italy's bloated public sector, excess market regulation, falling productivity and lower investment in human resources, and high taxes.
The report revealed that central and local government employ five million people in Italy, a fifth of the working population. It said that this level is "without equivalent in Europe".
....the report said the government should also "intervene where the interests of its own electoral base" are at stake.
This means making the pension system sustainable by raising the retirement age, cutting the number of public-sector employees and introducing greater flexibility to the labour market by making it easier to hire and fire workers .
Geek Chic
Well, at least useful:
Britain's biggest electrical retailer is threatening to make 12-year-old nephews redundant with a "rent-a-geek" service that will repair broken computers, sort out wi-fi systems and even help to programme the video.
DSG International, the parent company of Currys and PC World, yesterday announced a nationwide fix-it service aimed at tackling the complexity of modern electrical gadgets.
The move follows the growing popularity of companies such as Geeks on Wheels that help to sort out domestic computer problems.
According to some retail experts, rent-a-geeks could one day become as common as plumbers, electricians and decorators.
DSG said its TechGuys team would offer homes and small businesses round-the-clock help via a telephone line and on-the-road engineers.
Britain's biggest electrical retailer is threatening to make 12-year-old nephews redundant with a "rent-a-geek" service that will repair broken computers, sort out wi-fi systems and even help to programme the video.
DSG International, the parent company of Currys and PC World, yesterday announced a nationwide fix-it service aimed at tackling the complexity of modern electrical gadgets.
The move follows the growing popularity of companies such as Geeks on Wheels that help to sort out domestic computer problems.
According to some retail experts, rent-a-geeks could one day become as common as plumbers, electricians and decorators.
DSG said its TechGuys team would offer homes and small businesses round-the-clock help via a telephone line and on-the-road engineers.
Unemployed Shrinekeepers Alert
The FLUBA Committee on Dealing With the Uneducable notes this exchange from Russell Roberts' interview with Milton Friedman:
Russ Roberts: Focusing on the central bank role, going back again to the '70s when I was in school and shortly after your book came out, the focus was on the money supply—the quantity of money, counting it, controlling it through open market operations.
Something changed in the last 25 or 30 years. That's not what Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke talk about. They talk about other things and they play with that short-term interest rate, not the so-called stock of money that you focused on so intensely in the book.
Milton Friedman: That's what the talk about but that's not what they do.
Russ Roberts: What do they do?
Milton Friedman: They use the short-term interest rate as a way of controlling the quantity of money. ....
The Fed says the short-term interest rate should be 4.5 percent. How do they keep it there? By buying and selling securities on the open market. Now you're Mr. Bernanke; you're Mr. Greenspan. You're watching that. And with the current short-term interest rate, you find that the quantity of money is starting to creep up more rapidly than you really want. Well, then you will tend to be favorable to raising to a higher rate of interest.
At that higher rate of interest, the demand for money is less and so the supply of money under that phenomenon, instead of having to sell government bonds to keep it there, they have to buy government bonds to keep it there or vice versa. Maybe I'm getting it mixed up. But in any event, the short-term interest rate is a tool with which you can control the quantity of money.
Russ Roberts: But they don't talk about it that way.
Milton Friedman: No, they don't talk about it that way.
Russ Roberts: Focusing on the central bank role, going back again to the '70s when I was in school and shortly after your book came out, the focus was on the money supply—the quantity of money, counting it, controlling it through open market operations.
Something changed in the last 25 or 30 years. That's not what Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke talk about. They talk about other things and they play with that short-term interest rate, not the so-called stock of money that you focused on so intensely in the book.
Milton Friedman: That's what the talk about but that's not what they do.
Russ Roberts: What do they do?
Milton Friedman: They use the short-term interest rate as a way of controlling the quantity of money. ....
The Fed says the short-term interest rate should be 4.5 percent. How do they keep it there? By buying and selling securities on the open market. Now you're Mr. Bernanke; you're Mr. Greenspan. You're watching that. And with the current short-term interest rate, you find that the quantity of money is starting to creep up more rapidly than you really want. Well, then you will tend to be favorable to raising to a higher rate of interest.
At that higher rate of interest, the demand for money is less and so the supply of money under that phenomenon, instead of having to sell government bonds to keep it there, they have to buy government bonds to keep it there or vice versa. Maybe I'm getting it mixed up. But in any event, the short-term interest rate is a tool with which you can control the quantity of money.
Russ Roberts: But they don't talk about it that way.
Milton Friedman: No, they don't talk about it that way.
Monday, September 04, 2006
France's Thatcher?
It may not be Labor Day in France, but the election campaign is in full swing:
MARSEILLE, France, Sept 3, 2006 (AFP) - French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy appeared almost certain to lead the right into next year's presidential election, after a triumphant party congress which concluded Sunday in Marseille with a blistering attack on the "generation of May 1968".
Speaking before 7,000 young members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Sarkozy, 51, said modern France had been betrayed by the left-wing ideals that took root after the 1968 student uprising, and called for a society built around "a reassertion of the value of work".
"(The generation of 1968) inculcated everywhere — in politics, in education, in society — an inversion of values and a political correctness of which today's young people are the principal victims," Sarkozy said to applause.
"The truth is that the students of May '68 were the spoiled children of 30 years of prosperity. You are the children of crisis. They lived a life without constraints. Today you are picking up the bill," he said.
MARSEILLE, France, Sept 3, 2006 (AFP) - French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy appeared almost certain to lead the right into next year's presidential election, after a triumphant party congress which concluded Sunday in Marseille with a blistering attack on the "generation of May 1968".
Speaking before 7,000 young members of the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), Sarkozy, 51, said modern France had been betrayed by the left-wing ideals that took root after the 1968 student uprising, and called for a society built around "a reassertion of the value of work".
"(The generation of 1968) inculcated everywhere — in politics, in education, in society — an inversion of values and a political correctness of which today's young people are the principal victims," Sarkozy said to applause.
"The truth is that the students of May '68 were the spoiled children of 30 years of prosperity. You are the children of crisis. They lived a life without constraints. Today you are picking up the bill," he said.
Francs for FRappers
Who'da guessed it would be a Socialist Mayor:
NANTES, France, Sept 3, 2006 (AFP) - Two French rappers from the western city of Nantes are facing possible legal action after they used a local council grant to make a video accused of glorifying violence against the police.
Downloadable over the Internet, 'Colt 44' by rappers Tipikal and K-Pster contains images of guns and drugs as well as scenes filmed during a clash earlier this year between police and youths in a poor suburb of the city.
The lyrics include the words, "Fill the police HQ with mustard gas, do it Russian-style", as well as other threats.
The Socialist Party (PS) mayor of Nantes Jean-Marc Ayrault admitted Friday that the rappers had received a subsidy of EUR 700 euros to make a video "on the malaise in the suburbs" following last year's riots, but he said the city hall later withdrew its support from the project.
NANTES, France, Sept 3, 2006 (AFP) - Two French rappers from the western city of Nantes are facing possible legal action after they used a local council grant to make a video accused of glorifying violence against the police.
Downloadable over the Internet, 'Colt 44' by rappers Tipikal and K-Pster contains images of guns and drugs as well as scenes filmed during a clash earlier this year between police and youths in a poor suburb of the city.
The lyrics include the words, "Fill the police HQ with mustard gas, do it Russian-style", as well as other threats.
The Socialist Party (PS) mayor of Nantes Jean-Marc Ayrault admitted Friday that the rappers had received a subsidy of EUR 700 euros to make a video "on the malaise in the suburbs" following last year's riots, but he said the city hall later withdrew its support from the project.
Economists Not Ready for Prime Time
Max Sawicky makes the mistake of reading only the Washington Post rather than the Nick Eberstadt paper on which the Post piece is based, and says something worse than dopey:
The fundamental value of the measure is to compare different points in time, not to provide a scientific assessment of deprivation at any point in time. Criticizing it in this dimension is idiotic. A rate of 11.7 percent means nothing in and of itself. It could mean something compared to, say, 10.5. The rate is based on a family budget that inevitably derives from prevailing social standards, not the cost of biological survival.
Had Max bothered to even read the beginning of Eberstadt's lengthy paper, he'd have known that, in fact, Mollie Orshanky, an economist at the Social Security Administration, devised it to be a fixed and unchanging measurement of absolute poverty. She based it on the cost of providing food at a minimal level (i.e. 'biological survival' as we emphasized in the hapless Max's prose).
Whether one agrees with Eberstadt's analysis of its efficacy, is irrelevant to the history of the metric.
The fundamental value of the measure is to compare different points in time, not to provide a scientific assessment of deprivation at any point in time. Criticizing it in this dimension is idiotic. A rate of 11.7 percent means nothing in and of itself. It could mean something compared to, say, 10.5. The rate is based on a family budget that inevitably derives from prevailing social standards, not the cost of biological survival.
Had Max bothered to even read the beginning of Eberstadt's lengthy paper, he'd have known that, in fact, Mollie Orshanky, an economist at the Social Security Administration, devised it to be a fixed and unchanging measurement of absolute poverty. She based it on the cost of providing food at a minimal level (i.e. 'biological survival' as we emphasized in the hapless Max's prose).
Whether one agrees with Eberstadt's analysis of its efficacy, is irrelevant to the history of the metric.
Friday, September 01, 2006
Why, oh why can't Bad, Bad DeLong be a better economist?
Or, at least grow up. Cheap shot at Mickey Kaus Dept:
But what is the "good poverty news" in the Census Bureau's report? What is the "good poverty news" in this table?
Is it that there are more people in extreme poverty than in any year since 1993? Is it that the proportion of Americans in extreme poverty is greater than in any year since 1997? Is it that the extreme poverty rate is 0.9%--2,336,000 people--higher than in 2000, at the last business cycle peak?
....If you parse Kaus closely, he doesn't actually say that there is "good poverty news."
We regretfully have to point out to the distinguished economist that one only makes valid comparisons by using same points in the business cycle. And when we do, we find that Mickey Kaus could have easily pointed to 'good poverty news'.
Say, that four years after the 1990 recession ended (1994) the percentage of people living in 'extreme poverty' was 5.9%. And at the same point in the cycle (2005) it's only 5.4%.
Of course, as we've posted earlier, the poverty rate is a bogus construct anyway, since it moves in the wrong direction on good news.
We'd expect 'trained professionals' to know these things.
But what is the "good poverty news" in the Census Bureau's report? What is the "good poverty news" in this table?
Is it that there are more people in extreme poverty than in any year since 1993? Is it that the proportion of Americans in extreme poverty is greater than in any year since 1997? Is it that the extreme poverty rate is 0.9%--2,336,000 people--higher than in 2000, at the last business cycle peak?
....If you parse Kaus closely, he doesn't actually say that there is "good poverty news."
We regretfully have to point out to the distinguished economist that one only makes valid comparisons by using same points in the business cycle. And when we do, we find that Mickey Kaus could have easily pointed to 'good poverty news'.
Say, that four years after the 1990 recession ended (1994) the percentage of people living in 'extreme poverty' was 5.9%. And at the same point in the cycle (2005) it's only 5.4%.
Of course, as we've posted earlier, the poverty rate is a bogus construct anyway, since it moves in the wrong direction on good news.
We'd expect 'trained professionals' to know these things.
It Will Be a Dark and Stormy Night
In Holland, at the soccer game next week:
AMSTERDAM — Economic Affairs Minister Joop Wijn has lashed out at power company workers who have threatened to cut electricity during Wednesday's European Cup qualification match between the Netherlands and Belarus.
.... LME, the central organisation of workers councils in the energy industry, notified the Dutch soccer federation KNVB on Thursday evening that workers of the four major power companies will cut electricity in and around the stadium during the soccer international.
It is a protest against the plan to split up the generation and distribution activities of the power companies. MPs have already voted in favour of the legislation and now the matter is before the Senate.
AMSTERDAM — Economic Affairs Minister Joop Wijn has lashed out at power company workers who have threatened to cut electricity during Wednesday's European Cup qualification match between the Netherlands and Belarus.
.... LME, the central organisation of workers councils in the energy industry, notified the Dutch soccer federation KNVB on Thursday evening that workers of the four major power companies will cut electricity in and around the stadium during the soccer international.
It is a protest against the plan to split up the generation and distribution activities of the power companies. MPs have already voted in favour of the legislation and now the matter is before the Senate.
In Troyes, Not an Ounce of a Clue
France goes to war to reduce their unemployment rate to about 8.2%:
TROYES, France, Aug 31, 2006 (AFP) - The French government vowed Thursday to knock unemployment — the chief concern of French voters — below the symbolic two-million mark, as it unveiled a new jobs plan eight months ahead of presidential elections.
Jobless figures for July showed the unemployment rate below nine percent — at 8.9 percent of the workforce, or 2,159,900 people — for the first time in four years, and the government said it was confident it could slash the rate further still.
"Getting unemployment below the two-million mark: that is the next frontier. All our decisions must tend towards that aim," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said as he unveiled the latest employment measures.
Villepin has put fighting unemployment at the centre of his agenda and has pledged to lower the number of unemployed workers to below two million by 2007.
Don't bite off more than you can chew, Monsieur. Remember that little fiasco the last time?
TROYES, France, Aug 31, 2006 (AFP) - The French government vowed Thursday to knock unemployment — the chief concern of French voters — below the symbolic two-million mark, as it unveiled a new jobs plan eight months ahead of presidential elections.
Jobless figures for July showed the unemployment rate below nine percent — at 8.9 percent of the workforce, or 2,159,900 people — for the first time in four years, and the government said it was confident it could slash the rate further still.
"Getting unemployment below the two-million mark: that is the next frontier. All our decisions must tend towards that aim," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said as he unveiled the latest employment measures.
Villepin has put fighting unemployment at the centre of his agenda and has pledged to lower the number of unemployed workers to below two million by 2007.
Don't bite off more than you can chew, Monsieur. Remember that little fiasco the last time?
Perversion of Poverty
Nick Eberstadt has a lengthy piece out today that provides more evidence that the government's official measurement of poverty is misguided:
The curious behavior of the official poverty rate in relation to these four other important measures bearing on material deprivation is underscored by simple econometrics, through regression equations in which these other measures are utilized in an attempt to “predict” the poverty rate for a 30-year period (1972–2002). Under ordinary circumstances, we would expect unemployment and poverty to be positively associated (the higher the unemployment level, the higher the poverty level), while per capita income, educational attainment, and anti-poverty spending should all correlate negatively with any absolute measure of poverty. Between 1972 and 2002, however, the official poverty rate happens to correlate positively with increases in per capita income — and the statistical association is a strong one. Indeed, controlling for changes in unemployment levels, a rise in real U.S. per capita income of $1,000 (in 2002 dollars) would be predicted to push up the official poverty rate for the entire population by over half a percentage point.
If we exclude per capita income from the tableau, the other three measures — unemployment, education, and anti-poverty spending — can in tandem do a very good job of predicting changes in the poverty rate, together explaining over 90 percent of the variation in the poverty rate during the period in question. But the relationships between the poverty rates and these other variables are perverse: The poverty rate falls when unemployment rises; and when education or anti-poverty spending rise, the poverty rate rises too. And if we use all four measures to try to predict the poverty rate, the common-sense (i.e. negative) correlation between per capita income and poverty at last emerges, and that relationship is statistically strong — yet strong relations between the poverty rate and the other three measures also emerge, and all of those are perverse. Those relationships, in fact, imply that an eight-point jump in the unemployment rate would reduce the official poverty rate by a point, while a ten point drop in the percentage of adults without high school degrees would raise it by a point! No less striking: A nationwide increase in means-tested public spending of $1,000 per capita (in 2002 dollars) would be predicted to make the official poverty rate rise — by over three percentage points.
Clearly, something is badly amiss here.
No kidding, and it should be obvious to anyone with their eyes open, but usually isn't.
As should be Eberstadt's conclusion:
The official poverty rate is incapable of representing what it was devised to portray: namely, a constant level of absolute need in American society. The biases and flaws in the poverty rate are so severe that it has depicted a great period of general improvements in living standards — three decades from 1973 onward — as a time of increasing prevalence of absolute poverty. We would discard a statistical measure that claimed life expectancy was falling during a time of ever-increasing longevity, or one that asserted our national finances were balanced in a period of rising budget deficits.
Central as the “poverty rate” has become to antipoverty policy — or, more precisely, especially because of its central role in such policies — the official poverty rate should likewise be discarded in favor of a more accurate index, or set of indices, for describing material deprivation in modern America.
The curious behavior of the official poverty rate in relation to these four other important measures bearing on material deprivation is underscored by simple econometrics, through regression equations in which these other measures are utilized in an attempt to “predict” the poverty rate for a 30-year period (1972–2002). Under ordinary circumstances, we would expect unemployment and poverty to be positively associated (the higher the unemployment level, the higher the poverty level), while per capita income, educational attainment, and anti-poverty spending should all correlate negatively with any absolute measure of poverty. Between 1972 and 2002, however, the official poverty rate happens to correlate positively with increases in per capita income — and the statistical association is a strong one. Indeed, controlling for changes in unemployment levels, a rise in real U.S. per capita income of $1,000 (in 2002 dollars) would be predicted to push up the official poverty rate for the entire population by over half a percentage point.
If we exclude per capita income from the tableau, the other three measures — unemployment, education, and anti-poverty spending — can in tandem do a very good job of predicting changes in the poverty rate, together explaining over 90 percent of the variation in the poverty rate during the period in question. But the relationships between the poverty rates and these other variables are perverse: The poverty rate falls when unemployment rises; and when education or anti-poverty spending rise, the poverty rate rises too. And if we use all four measures to try to predict the poverty rate, the common-sense (i.e. negative) correlation between per capita income and poverty at last emerges, and that relationship is statistically strong — yet strong relations between the poverty rate and the other three measures also emerge, and all of those are perverse. Those relationships, in fact, imply that an eight-point jump in the unemployment rate would reduce the official poverty rate by a point, while a ten point drop in the percentage of adults without high school degrees would raise it by a point! No less striking: A nationwide increase in means-tested public spending of $1,000 per capita (in 2002 dollars) would be predicted to make the official poverty rate rise — by over three percentage points.
Clearly, something is badly amiss here.
No kidding, and it should be obvious to anyone with their eyes open, but usually isn't.
As should be Eberstadt's conclusion:
The official poverty rate is incapable of representing what it was devised to portray: namely, a constant level of absolute need in American society. The biases and flaws in the poverty rate are so severe that it has depicted a great period of general improvements in living standards — three decades from 1973 onward — as a time of increasing prevalence of absolute poverty. We would discard a statistical measure that claimed life expectancy was falling during a time of ever-increasing longevity, or one that asserted our national finances were balanced in a period of rising budget deficits.
Central as the “poverty rate” has become to antipoverty policy — or, more precisely, especially because of its central role in such policies — the official poverty rate should likewise be discarded in favor of a more accurate index, or set of indices, for describing material deprivation in modern America.
Look for the Union Libel?
An e-mail correspondent with children in NYC's public schools alerts the FLUBA to how his tax dollars are at work:
Forty-four assistant principals are so inept that no city school wants to hire them - but they'll all have jobs when classes begin next week, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein bemoaned yesterday.
Klein said he must waste "millions of dollars creating jobs we don't need" - money that could be used to hire 80 teachers - because the assistant principals' jobs are protected by their union contract and state law.
In a letter to city principals, Klein said even though he has to find spots for the assistant principals, he will not "force them upon you."
"I believe that is wrong for you and, more importantly, wrong for our kids," he wrote.
"This means I have no choice but to create new jobs - jobs that I wouldn't otherwise create and jobs that this system doesn't need . . .,"
To which the Principals Union had this response:
"If I were one of these 44 [assistant principals], I would try to sue the chancellor for defamation of character," said Jill Levy, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. "In fact, the union may investigate [a lawsuit] ourselves."
Forty-four assistant principals are so inept that no city school wants to hire them - but they'll all have jobs when classes begin next week, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein bemoaned yesterday.
Klein said he must waste "millions of dollars creating jobs we don't need" - money that could be used to hire 80 teachers - because the assistant principals' jobs are protected by their union contract and state law.
In a letter to city principals, Klein said even though he has to find spots for the assistant principals, he will not "force them upon you."
"I believe that is wrong for you and, more importantly, wrong for our kids," he wrote.
"This means I have no choice but to create new jobs - jobs that I wouldn't otherwise create and jobs that this system doesn't need . . .,"
To which the Principals Union had this response:
"If I were one of these 44 [assistant principals], I would try to sue the chancellor for defamation of character," said Jill Levy, president of the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators. "In fact, the union may investigate [a lawsuit] ourselves."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)