Yesterday, the Senate—in line with expectations—rejected the most basic of gun control proposals. In light of the Newtown massacre—an event that shook all of us—this might seem shocking. For example, even leaving aside the emotional pull that perhaps we can as a nation call that horrible day back and make it right, the proposal arguably … Read more
[This is an installment in my irregular series of articles on the minutiae of what I do, “Inside Baseball.”] Lately I have been working on a couple of models with various signaling aspects. It has led me to think a lot more about both “testing models” and common knowledge of beliefs. Specifically, a central question … Read more
President Obama proposed his 2014 budget this week. A huge document, it contains a number of interesting policy proposals. One that is attracting a lot of attention concerns the “chained CPI.” In a nutshell, this change will reduce the rate of growth in social security payments over the next decade. Overall, the proposal arguably represents a compromise with … Read more
I have been thinking a lot lately about this very interesting post by Kristina Lerman. The post is excellent: succinct and well-written, data-centric, and relevant beyond the data’s idiosyncratic qualities. In a nutshell, Lerman’s central question is whether the rate of information production is outstripping the rate at which we (choose to or can) consume and … Read more
Note: This is the first of what might be an irregular “column” of sorts, “Inside Baseball,” focusing on the minutiae of my research, as opposed to current events. The heart of game theory is “what would everyone else think if I do what I am about to do differently?” This is slightly different than … Read more
So, dispensing with technicalities, the efforts to curtail NSF funding of political science research have apparently succeeded, at least for now. I think this is a good opportunity to post something that has bothered me over the past few years. In a nutshell, I am unsure that the “Coburn amendment” is a bad thing for … Read more
Just a quick post. Yesterday, the Senate voted to invoke cloture (63-35) on the Mikulski-Shelby substitute to (i.e., the Senate version of) the continuing resolution, HR 933. In a nutshell, this obviates threats to delay this funding bill, which I have discussed previously (here and here). I bring this up because it bolsters the case I … Read more
In my previous post, I discussed the Senate’s consideration of a continuing resolution (or CR) that includes some provisions relevant to gun control. In so doing, I mentioned a form of unanimous consent agreement, or UCA, (like this one) that the Senate has been using for consideration of measures that would presumably otherwise fail to obtain … Read more
The Senate is considering a continuing resolution (CR) that both extends funding operations of the federal government through the rest of the fiscal year (Sept. 30, 2013) and also makes permanent several provisions that stymie enforcement of gun control laws. While the reality is that the provisions in the Senate bill do not represent a significant change in … Read more
Bad money drives out good. – Gresham’s Law Gresham’s law was coined (hahaha!) back when it was apparently okay to call things laws based on a hunch. Nonetheless, it has a solid theoretical foundation. To understand it, just consider how you would pay for things if gold and lead were both made legal tender at … Read more