What We Read Today 02 May 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.

• How Not to Be Misled by the Jobs Report (Neil Irwin and Kevin Quealy, The New York Times) Way too much significance is attached to a very uncertain number. The measurement error uncertainty for the non-farms payrolls in any given month is of the order of +/-100,000. So, if the actual increase in non farms payrolls was 150,000, the 90% confidence interval for the report extends to about 55,000 on the low side and about 250,000 on the high side. Yet the headlines tomorrow will declare the world is coming to an end if the number reported is 55,000 and that a historic boom is starting if the report is 250,000.

• Opinion: The IMF or Uncle Vlad – Ukraine makes its choice (Alan Beattie, Financial Times) A parable about how to salvage a failing business, or in this case, country.

• How the Russian economy has taken a turn for the worse (Larry Elliott, The Guardian) Russia has five big economic problems ranging from the fallout from the Ukraine crisis to a sharp fall in the rouble. Yesterday we had discussion of an article that argued that Russia was entering a second quarter of contraction which would officially mark the start of a recession. See Russia experiencing recession now, says IMF (BBC News)

• Putin Demands That Ukraine Pull Its Troops From Southeast (Neil MacFarqhuar, The New York Times) Russian Prime Minister Putin told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday that thu Ukraine must withdraw troops from the southeastern part of the country where Russian militants have seized government buildings in about a dozen towns. Econintersect suggests that if Ukraine complied with the request then Putin would send in official Russian forces “to protect the people in the absence of Ukrainian forces”.
  

• Here’s 100 Years of Proof That Girls Are Better Students Than Boys (Brian Resnick, National Journal) Recently it has been felt that boys were falling behind girls in academic performance. A new study finds that boys have trailed girls in school for at least 100 years. The study covers school years through high school. No reason for the difference in performance is singled out. Perhaps the study should extend to college years and post-graduate studies. If the gap starts to narrow for older students it might be something as simple as faster rates of mental development which eventually even out as boys age. Of course it may be that women are just smarter than men at any age.

• Where Obamacare Is Strongest (and Where It’s Falling Short) (Sam Baker and Sophie Novack, National Journal) The final report on Obamacare sign-ups shows a huge swing in states’ success. The report shows a total 0f 8.02 enrollees during the six month open enrollment period. Demographic information is still incomplete.

Today there are 13 articles discussed ‘behind the wall’.

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