The Milton Friedman Institute

Today I read a funny report.
I can understand the controversy between conservative economics department and the generally liberal humanities and social sciences.
But I was shocked to read something like this:
"For many people who travel around the world, the university has had a pretty bad reputation that is tied to the Chicago School and economic principles that Milton Friedman advocated," said Yali Amit, a U. of C. statistics and computer science professor.

I have no idea that people in computer science have problems with Friedman!!??!!

Do you want to name it the Karl Marx Institute?
To avoid dispute, why don't we just call it the Nonpartisian Moderate Institute?

Rising Gas Price and Outsourcing

Rising gas price might have this impact on outsourcing.

Blinder Says that There Are Two Kinds of Bubbles

Two bubbles; two paths from NYT.

Spence Comission Report: A Watershed of Economic Development!?

I think that Spence Report on economic growth and development has a very important implication.
Here are some responses:
1. From Martin Wolf.
2. From Dani Rodrik.

The May Retail Sales Surprise

The news somehow challenges Permanent Income Hypothesis and Ricardian Equivalence.

Why is Economics the Largest Major in Harvard?

This article provides good answers.
I completely agree with this part: "Economics is good training for business school, law school, or a career in public policy."

A Video Interview with James Hamilton

Hamilton is an icon in time series econometrics. In this interview, he talked about a lot of insightful topics, e.g. regime switching model, monetary policy, current financial meltdown, oil price, future research, etc.