U.S.
Video: Fact Check: Texas Republican Debate
The New York Times checks assertions made from the Republican presidential candidates during Thursday’s debate in Houston.Nearly fact free.
2
N.Y. / Region
Retired Police Sergeant Pleads Guilty to Tapping Into Confidential Databases for Money
Ronald G. Buell, 49, admitted to providing restricted information to an investigator for criminal defense lawyers.We will not know what was worth the men's liberty.
3
Books
‘Strange Gods,’ by Susan Jacoby
Susan Jacoby examines the motives for religious conversion.Faith cannot be debated.
4
N.Y. / Region
Prosecutors Will Move to Dismiss Charges in Brownsville Rape Case
The effort to drop the case against five teenagers accused of attacking an 18-year-old woman came primarily as the victim’s credibility as a witness fell apart, officials said."The Brooklyn district attorney, Ken Thompson, said that he would ask the court to dismiss the charges."
The case is too twisted to take before a jury.
The social workers have the problems.
5
Books
Sarah Ruhl: By the Book
The playwright and author, most recently, of “The Oldest Boy” says what moves her most in literature is “the writer who says: Here I stood! I loved the world enough to write it all down.”http://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/sarah-ruhl?8qa
A dream world and not my dream.
6
N.Y. / Region
Woman Whose Daughter, 2, Died Alone in Fire Was Under Investigation
The woman, Leila Aquino, was already the subject of a New York City child welfare agency inquiry into whether the girl had previously been left unattended.Social Services has no attention for practicalities.
7
Opinion
The Wrong Way to Teach Math
Think about numbers as a language; we need to learn to be fluent in it.The numerical models used in daily life are simple.
The manipulations can be learned in minutes.
It is much like adding a word to a personal vocabulary.
Mathematics is a structure of proofs.
The numerical results can be useful.
It appears that computers do not do mathematics.
Computer programmers should be mathematicians.
8
World
Bahrain: Opposition Figure Sentenced
The figure, Ibrahim Sharif, the former secretary general of the National Democratic Action Society, was convicted of inciting hatred.Bahrain is an absolute monarchy and a sovereign nation.
9
T Magazine
Three’s a Trend: Multicolored Oversize Knits
The once-frumpy combination of volume and clashing hues has gone from geek to chic.Better than "street styles".
10
Books
Elizabeth Eisenstein, Historian of Movable Type, Dies at 92
In “The Printing Press as an Agent of Change,” Professor Eisenstein argued that the proliferation of print shops had a seismic effect on civilization.Mass literacy continues.
Her work continues.
Computer printing extends it.
11
N.Y. / Region
Review: Thai West Puts French Accent on an Asian Cuisine
Thai West restaurant in Westwood is run by the Premon family, who have experience at both Thai and French restaurants.Colonialism is only half the story.
12
Magazine
Failure to Lunch
The lamentable rise of desktop dining.A corporate office should be a social organization.
An army in the field has a different task and so a different organization.
The Republican Party has not understood the problem.
It assumes the nation is an army at war.
13
Books
Matthew Desmond’s ‘Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City’
Barbara Ehrenreich says that “Evicted,” like Katherine Boo’s “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” sets a new standard for reporting on poverty.I agree.
14
N.Y. / Region
Babysitter Tortured Staten Island Boy Who Died, Prosecutors Say
Gloria Fields is accused of subjecting Anthony Delgado, a toddler, to hours of physical and sexual abuse while he was left in her care.The story of how the appearance came to be is important.
15
Real Estate
Homes for Sale in New York and Connecticut
This week’s homes include a colonial in Katonah, N.Y., and a contemporary in Westport, Conn.The small comfortable house is not to be found in these listings.
16
T Magazine
Classic English-Made Shoes for Men, Without the Heft
The designer Paula Gerbase is bringing new life to the beloved British shoemaker John Lobb, while retaining codes from its 150-year history.City and tropical footwear.
There are places for it.
Coal and McAdam roads require the heft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Loudon_McAdam
17
Opinion
Texas Abortion Case
Dr. Mary Bassett, the New York City health commissioner, writes that the case’s impact is broader.Texas is insane.
"Multiple children have become an expensive luxury."
18
World
Italian Senate Approves Civil Unions for Gay Couples, but Not Adoptions
The bill passed handily once a provision allowing same-sex couples to adopt stepchildren was cut; gay rights advocates condemned the move.Gay adoptions would abrogate Priestly celibacy.
Italy is not a civil society.
19
T Magazine
Artful and Stunning Cabinets of Curiosities, Decoded
Mark Dion discusses major works in his new show, which displays live birds, puzzle pieces and old trash.The man is much more interesting than the work from here.
20
Business Day
Fed’s Transparency May Give Investors False Confidence, Economists Say
A paper by a group of economists argues that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to speak more clearly about its plans for monetary policy set up markets for disappointments.The Federal Reserve does not have simple and effective tools to carry out its
twin mandates.
It must try to work by indirect methods.
Transparency would destroy its effectiveness.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/23/realistic-growth-prospects/
Realistic Growth Prospects
God, I can’t
wait for the primary to be over, one way or the other. But it does seem
to me that I should talk a bit about what a progressive reasonably can
say about prospects for economic growth under a better policy regime.
There are, I would
argue, three numbers that are relevant. First, there’s the rate of
growth of the economy’s supply-side potential — the rate it can grow at a
constant rate of unemployment. Second, there’s the size of the output
gap — the amount of extra output we could gain by getting up to full
employment. Third, there’s the extent to which we can accelerate the
rate of growth of potential.
On the first number,
look at the chart: over the past five years US growth has fluctuated
around 2 percent, while unemployment — both the conventional number and
the broader U6 number — has gradually declined. This strongly suggests
potential growth under 2 percent. Why so slow? Productivity has been
sluggish, and the working-age population is growing much more slowly
than it used to as baby boomers hit retirement age.
What about the output
gap? Wage growth is still weak and inflation fairly low, suggesting that
unemployment can go significantly lower from here — maybe down to the 4
percent of the late 1990s, possibly even lower. The standard Okun’s Law
relationship would say that bringing unemployment down another
percentage point would add 2 percent to real GDP. Maybe, maybe we could
argue for an extra-large pool of discouraged workers that raises this to
3. That’s a lot of foregone output in an absolute sense.
However, it doesn’t
make a huge difference when we’re talking about longer-term growth
prospects. Closing a 3-point output gap over 10 years raises the 10-year
growth rate by only 0.3 percent. 2016 isn’t like 1933, when the output
gap was probably around 30 percent, making a huge growth rate over the
next decade possible when wartime mobilization finally brought full
employment and then some.
Finally, how much can
we reasonably project for a rise in potential growth? A big increase in
infrastructure investment would certainly help. Other progressive
priorities — while good things! — would be at best a mixed bag in terms
of their effect on measured GDP. For example, guaranteed pr-K and
childcare might free more parents to stay in the paid workforce; on the
other hand, better benefits would (and should) free some people to cut
hours to focus on their families.
And nobody knows the
secret of raising productivity growth. In general, any economist talking
about potential growth should start from a position of modesty: nothing
in what we know or have experienced in the past justifies making big
promises. By all means we should try everything we can think of — but
our policies should make sense even if it turns out that the effects on
long-run growth are modest.
What I would say is
that it’s unreasonable to assume growth over the next 10 years more than
a fraction of a percentage point above 2 percent — say 2.5 percent at
the upper end. Maybe we can do better, but we shouldn’t count on it.
And let me say that
the great thing about a progressive agenda is that it doesn’t require
big growth promises to make it work, because the elements of that agenda
are good things in their own right. Conservatives need to promise
miracles to justify policies whose direct effect is to comfort the
comfortable (cutting taxes on the rich) and afflict the afflicted
(slashing social insurance); progressives only need to defend themselves
against the charge that doing good will somehow kill economic growth.
It won’t, and that should be enough."
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