I can’t do much writing these days, since one of my thumbs no longer serves its opposable purpose.
But I can’t resist commenting on Professor DeLong’s attempt to grasp the reality of the current economic crisis—with two visible hands, no less.
On one hand, he admits that his batting average over the past six years has been very low. On the other hand, he offers an analysis of the sequences of processes that got us into the current mess without a single mention of inequality.
Not a word about the increasingly visible thumb on the scales of the distribution of income and wealth, starting in the mid-1970s, and therefore nothing about its role in creating the bubble that burst in 2007-08. That’s like trying to make sense of the causes of the Second Great Depression with one hand tied behind your back.
Unfortunately, all I can do right now is use my remaining good thumb to oppose any economic analysis, at the microeconomic or macroeconomic level, that fails to grasp the significance of inequality.
occasional links & commentary 
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