Stats for nerds
1recommend
2mentions
2people
2023–2024years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- > The fed has successfully redefined the word “inflation” to mean “an increase in cost”, which conveniently leaves room to blame others for rising prices.
This was not the Fed (entirely), but the entire economic profession as a whole as the dismal science learned more about how things worked. This 1997 paper form the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland goes over the development history:
* https://www.clevelandfed.org/publications/economic-commentar...
* PDF: https://www.clevelandfed.org/-/media/project/clevelandfedten...
This was in response to a better understanding, going back to (at least) Keynes' General Theory of 1936, that the quantity theory of money was not very useful in the first place:
> By referring to inflation as a condition of “too much money,” economists were forced to struggle with the operational issue of “how much is too much?” The quantity theory offered a clear answer to that question: Too much money is an in- crease in the money stock that is accom- panied by a rise in the general price level. In other words, an inflated money supply will reveal itself through its effect on the price level. When Keynesian economic theory challenged the direct link between money and the price level, inflation lost its association with money and came to be chiefly under- stood as a condition of prices.
As even the Monetarist's monetarist, Milton Friedman, stated himself (Financial Times (UK), 7 June 2003):
> The use of quantity of money as a target has not been a success. I'm not sure I would as of today push it as hard as I once did.
Not even during the 1980 heydays of right-wing economic thinking under Thatcher and Reagan did anyone bother with monetarism, certainly Paul Volcker didn't. A few chapters on this in Samuelson Friedman by Nicholas Wapshott:
* https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393285185
(His book Keynes Hayek is also good.)
- If I had to pick one: The rise and fall of American growth: the U.S. standard of living since the Civil War by Robert Gordon. The gains that we have made in the (early) 20th century are unlikely to ever be repeated, and progress in many metrics has measurably slowed or even stalled since ~1970s (likely being asymptotic). And while the Internet (classified under the Information, Communication, Technology (ICT) chapters) gave a bump in the 1990s, it's mostly been flat since 2004.
More economic history with Slouching towards Utopia: an economic history of the twentieth century by J. Bradford Delong. More economic ideas stuff in Value(s): building a better world for all by Mark Carney (ran the Banks of Canada and England). Also Waphsott's Keynes Hayek: the clash that defined modern economics and Samuelson Friedman: the battle over the free market.
The currency of politics: the political theory of money from Aristotle to Keynes by Sefan Eich, Money: the true story of a made-up thing by Jacob Goldstein, and The power of gold: the history of an obsession by Peter Bernstein (also his Against the Gods on risk). Show how much of a human construct "money" is, how its meaning changes in different times and places/cultures. Should be required reading by all the 'hard money' folks (gold standard, BTC).
The good life: lessons from the world's longest scientific study of happiness by Waldinger and Schultz (directors of the Harvard study). If there's one 'magic' thing for health and happiness it seems to be having good relationships (family, friends) in your life.
Religion: what it is, how it works, and why it matters by Christian Smith and Strange rites: new religions for a godless world by Tara Burton. While many think that religion is in decline, the non-material/supernatural things that people believe in has actually shifted. And having beliefs in a super-human entity seems to be the basis of most societies and civilizations. Related, The warfare between science and religion : the idea that wouldn't die, a series of essays; the conflict thesis bunk, both historically and presently.
The origins of Canadian and American political differences by Jason Kaufman, two seemingly-the-same neighbouring countries that have had different development paths when it comes to culture and government. (I'm Canadian.)
Speaking of government: Civil resistance: what everyone needs to know by Erica Chenoweth. Seems violence/force is generally a less effective way to affect change in society than non-violence.
The week: a history of the unnatural rhythms that made us who we are by David Henkin. Seems that while seven days has been around for a long while, making it a really 'hard' structure/schedule around it is a more recent phenomenon than you'd expect.
If you have kids, Karen Le Billon's French kids eat everything (and yours can, too) and Getting to YUM: the 7 secrets of raising eager eaters, her husband is French and she lived there for a year and found many things done better there than US/CA. See also The happiest kids in the world: how Dutch parents help their kids and themselves by doing less by Acosta and Hutchison.
Flying blind: the 737 MAX tragedy and the fall of Boeing by Peter Robison is an HN favourite. While we get a lot of engineer vs MBA comments, I think the bigger problem (associated with the MBA-types) is financialization, i.e., returns over everything else. Having non-engineers/MBAs can be 'fine' also long as trying to squeeze blood/money from a stone at the cost of everything else.
Some philosophy with Alasdair C. MacIntyre: After Virtue is a good starting point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue
