After The Gold Hush

Mathematica(1) Production Functions

agango1 — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:14:19 +0000

No updates in awhile, whatever.

My latest project has been developing some Mathematica skills. I thought I’d share a few notebooks with you over the weeks as I go…

So this first notebook is one I finished today. Essentially, given any production function, this Mathematica code should be able to output the factor demand, supply curve, and profit maximization functions.

Note, I’m relatively new to Mathematica, so if anyone has any advice on how to make this code more efficient, please let me know! Specifically, I wonder if there’s a better way to figure out the maximization problem as I take an indirect route via matrix algebra. Also, I wouldn’t mind learning how to install a plot function that would graph the supply curve (provided there are less than 3 inputs), given the domains of the output and factor prices.

Mathematica(1):Profit Functions

Space Krugs

agango1 — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 04:01:27 +0000

Unkle Krugs tackles the planet Trantor and the issue of determining present value of goods carried by ships that zip about at speeds near the speed of light.

http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/interstellar.pdf

Simon Johnson Senate Committee Hearing

agango1 — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:31:00 +0000

Here’s a pdf from The Baseline Scenario of S.J.’s August 3rd senate hearing on the state of the economy

And here’s my favorite point he makes in it:

4) Most of this fiscal impact is not due to the Troubled Assets Relief Program – and definitely not due to the part of that program which injected capital into failing banks. Of the change in CBO baseline, 57% is due to decreased tax revenues resulting from the financial crisis and recession; 17% is due to increases in discretionary spending, much of it the stimulus package necessitated by the financial crisis; and another 14% is due to increased interest payments on the debt – because we now have more debt.

Chinese Real Estate Bubble

agango1 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:39:11 +0000

Bah, Econbrowser links to Chinese property speculation

Hugh Hendry can shit himself again for making yet another correct and ultimately vague prediction.

You know your country is in trouble when you recognize the need to initiate a paradigm shift in the workforce (Italian Edition)

agango1 — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:30:52 +0000

Good luck Fiat

Bulls fans discuss the nba luxury tax, orlando magic, and marginal costs

agango1 — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 21:25:32 +0000

As I repeatedly say…

Dwight Howard is a bargain right at his current price. Shift that $7 million in tax payment to him and all of a sudden Redick and Howard are paid closer to their worth.

Sheesh.

In the past 10 years, just four team owners have not paid a luxury tax and are not on pace to pay one this year: Donald Sterling, Jerry Reinsdorf, Chris Cohen (Golden State), Bob Johnson (Charlotte).

Two owners’ teams averaged an operating income of over +$10 million per year while their teams have lost over 60% of their games: Donald Sterling and Jerry Reinsdorf.

by tyger1147 on Jul 15, 2010 12:15 PM CDT up reply actions

I don’t really agree with this reasoning

The last guy signed is the guy you are paying the luxury tax on. They can have Dwight Howard without paying the luxury tax. They can’t have JJ Redick without paying the luxury tax. Therefore, the expenditure forcing the paying of the luxury tax is JJ Redick. Now, you can go ahead and say because we have Dwight Howard at such a reasonable salary, it is ok that we are paying $14 million for JJ Redick, but I don’t think it really makes sense to add the $7 million to Howard’s salary.

by JSB on Jul 15, 2010 2:09 PM CDT up reply actions

“The last guy signed is the guy you are paying the luxury tax on”

you’re paying the luxury tax on the whole team. So it’s if you think the team is worth that much. They can find ways to shed salary from now until the end of the season (when the tax level is calculated)

BaB on Twitter | BaB on Facebook
“Don’t nag, flag!”

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Jul 15, 2010 2:17 PM CDT up reply actions 2 recs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marginal_cost

Brad Miller is god.

by Poloplaya14 on Jul 15, 2010 4:10 PM CDT up reply actions

Bingo

JSB’s reasoning is correct … just basic microeconomics.

by RM on Jul 15, 2010 4:11 PM CDT up reply actions

David Brooks lays out problems facing (financial) reform

agango1 — Wed, 26 May 2010 02:19:30 +0000

There are two approaches to financial reform (despite the bill for reform having just passed, I’m still inclined to believe reform will be a forever endeavor): those who favor baby steps (conglomerates, mega banks, and the politicians who back these two actors) toward reform, and those, such as economists Glenn Hubbard and Simon Johnson, who are convinced simply slapping the current system on the wrist is like installing a rusty thermostat in hell.

Both procedures have their merits: big sweeping changes can have spectacular instant success (emancipation, females suffrage, civil rights movement), but also much of the nation’s backbone was built on the trial-and-error-lets-ease-ourselves-into-the-water kind of reform (antitrust legislation, progressive tax reform – especially the slow TIF restructuring going on here in Chicago, immigration rights – barring Arizona). David Brooks writes a nice op-ed in today’s New York Times summarizing the Thinkers behind these two schools of thoughts.

In today’s New York

Illustrating copula behavior: contour plots

agango1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:04:41 +0000

Here is an illustration of the work I’ve done with copula behavior. This pdf shows the copulas for the dependency between China and the U.S. financial markets (the weakest link of dependency, as my pending paper will demonstrate) juxtaposed against the copulas for Japanese and Hong Kong financial markets. Thus the images on the left are what copulas look like when dependency is weak (notice that they are vague and undefined). The images on the right demonstrate the appearance of copulas that are very correlated (much more defined, compact, and predictable).

Contour plots

And Back…

agango1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:59:03 +0000

With some free time back in my grasps, I’ll be doing some upkeep on the site, trying to breathe some life back into After the Gold Hush.

I’ve been thinking about how I can contribute to the Web with something substantive. So far, I’ve believed that maintaining an archive of relevant papers (old and new) would be popular, but my hits aren’t nearly anywhere I’d like to achieve. So to spike my stats a little, I’m going to be addressing a broader topic on economics at large.

I’m also adding a new archive section soon, it will be presenting my research on copula methods for determining extreme dependency. I’ll add some follow up posts on my findings…keep in touch.

Uncle Krugs’ take on the Asian Financial “Miracle”

agango1 — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:53:54 +0000

Came across this one while wandering Asian Financial Crises papers. This one is from Foreign Affairs in 1994 – Well before the crisis hit. Krugman writes in his readable, understandable, and, of course, intensely dramatic style.

The Myth of Asia’s Miracle: A Cautionary Fable

“…economics is not a dismal science because the economists like it that way; it is because in the end we must submit to the tyranny not just of the numbers, but of the logic they express.“