Monday, November 5, 2012

Richard Koo — Explain the disease to help US citizens

In 2008, Barack Obama told the US people the nation’s economic crisis would take a long time to overcome. In 2012, many of those voters are losing patience, because they have not been told why this recession has lasted so long or why his policies were the correct response. Here is the missing explanation – based on not only the US experience, but also that of Japan and Europe.
The Financial Times | Opinion
Explain the disease to help US citizens
Richard Koo

12 comments:

Malmo's Ghost said...

The uneducated crackpot, Karl Denninger's response:

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=213520

Denninger is not only dense but he's easily the crudest megalomaniac you'll ever encounter. Baker Act that nut.

Matt Franko said...

Deninger: "Let us say that you run a 5k race in 22 minutes. You then snort 2 lines of cocaine and run a second race, completing it in 20 minutes.

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to complete a third race in 20 minutes without the drugs. Yet if you use the drugs in each instance to compete pretty soon you will find that the drug "boost" becomes your "new normal" and worse, your performance will start to slip due to the deleterious effects of the drug upon your body.

You might then be compelled to do four lines instead of 2 before the next race in order to "keep the economy going."

????????

Can this guy ever just use professional analysis such as accounting and system mathematics?

Now it's "drugs".... ????

Tom Hickey said...

All rhetorical effect. And the rubes buy in, like Pavlov's conditioned dogs.

Matt Franko said...

Ha! KD continues:

"Koo, like so many others, believes that somehow one can engage in these self-destructive behaviors and then never suffer the consequence. Mathematics, however, says otherwise, just as do the laws of thermodynamics when it comes to energy. "

LOL! just because he says so?

Let's see him use math and closed system theory to actually prove his assertions...

Matt Franko said...

Also I would add that Koo is not "MMT"... rsp,

Malmo's Ghost said...

So much for the college dropout's math acumen-- Denninger compares the fate of the US to Greece's fate. Nuff said. LOL.

Tom Hickey said...

Matt Also I would add that Koo is not "MMT"

True but at least he understands accounting.

Matt Franko said...

He definitely knows what a "Balance Sheet" is for sure Tom ;)

paul meli said...

"Mathematics, however, says otherwise, just as do the laws of thermodynamics when it comes to energy."

Thermodynamics was the course that seperated the men from the boys in engineering school. It was considered the biggest barrier to moving forward.

In Thermodynamics 101 the average test grade in my class (on the curve) was around 35-40. A 60 or 70 got you an A. Good old Hal Ingman RIP. Men!…he would begin…

I guess there's a reason KD never graduated.

Tom Hickey said...

He definitely knows what a "Balance Sheet" is for sure

This is a point that Michael Pettis makes quite often: Many economist can't read a balance sheet.

Anonymous said...

@paul

They're all weed out courses!

Thermo, Heat Transfer, Diff Eq, Control Systems, Chem, Dynamics, Fracture Mechanics

paul meli said...

Matt, here's an interesting study re math anxiety…

http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/11/triggering-math-anxiety-may-be-like-the-experience-of-physical-pain/