What We Read Today 29 March 2014

Econintersect: Every day our editors collect the most interesting things they find from around the internet and present a summary “reading list” which will include very brief summaries of why each item has gotten our attention. Suggestions from readers for “reading list” items are gratefully reviewed, although sometimes space limits the number included.

• The New York Times Covers “Oligarch Welfare” – Tax Breaks for Private Planes, Yachts and More… (Michael Krieger, A Lightening War for Liberty) Hat tips to John O’Donnell and David Stockman, Contra Corner. A short and pointed review of “takers” in the oligarchy.

• Teen to government: Change your typeface, save millions (Madeline Stix, CNN Living) The federal government could reduce ink consumption by 30% simply by using only Times New Roman, Garamond and Century Gothic type fonts for printing. This was determined by a 14-year old boy for a high school science fair project.

• Maryland set to replace troubled health exchange with Connecticut’s system (Mary Pat Flaherty and Jenna Johnson, The Washington Post) Please don’t tell the midshipmen – there’s white flag flying over Annapolis. The state is finally admitting it wasted at least $125.5 million of an irreparably broken system.  More discussion on Obamacare ‘behind the wall’.
  

• What I Mean When I Talk About IS-LM (Wonkish) (Paul Krugman, The New York Times) This is almost a joke (but not quite because it is too sad). Prof. K defends his use of the IS-LM model because he did a better job with it than did those who predicted inflation from QE. Rephrasing the argument: If someone else makes more errors than I do then that justifies the value of my methods. The discussion of the value and limitations of IS-LM deserves a much better analysis. Prof. K is still going with his 2011 discussion IS-Lmentary column as the final word. What is lacking are definitions of boundaries on how such a crude conceptual model, with no empirical data to support, can be safely used. Citing examples of how it did better than some other similarly crude concept does nothing to avoid misapplication in other situations.
  

• International Effort Brings Boost for Bitcoin in Vietnam (Jon Southurst, Coin Desk) Hat tip to Rob Carter who writes from Vietnam: “This Bitcoin story comes from my received Diplomatic Post news brief of 24th March.” As we might say, ‘from our man in Hanoi’.

• In Advance of Flash Boys – Let’s Again Talk Latency Arb (Sal L. Arnuk and Joseph Saluzzi, Themis Trading) Hat tip to Roger Erickson. A post about Michael Lewis’ new book coming out Monday (Flash Boys). Also, don’t miss 60 Minutes Sunday evening with a segment on IEX Group, one of the featured subjects of the book. See also The Hero Of Michael Lewis’ New Book Is A Mysterious Stock Exchange That Goldman Sachs Loves (Linette Lopez, Business Insider).
  

Today there are 14 more articles discussed ‘behind the wall’.

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