May 9, 2008 4:31

On CNN this weekend: Your $$$$$ and some nice ties

I'm going to be on CNN's Your $$$$$ this Saturday and Sunday, talking with Ali Velshi about what the next president can really do about your $$$$$. Or your $$$. Or your $$$$. But not your $ or your $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, because I try to appeal to a middle-class audience.

Ali is, as far as I know, the most prominent Kenya-born broadcast journalist in America. He is also a leading member of CNN's vest mafia, and he had one on when we taped Friday morning. And an excellent tie. My tie was pretty good too. You can gaze upon them both sometime between 1 and 2 p.m. EDT Saturday or between 3 and 4 p.m. Sunday.

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May 9, 2008 1:41

Non-coverage of the Time 100 gala

Takeuchi Cullen writes that she didn't go because "besides childcare and wardrobe issues, I had a doctor's appointment I couldn't move."

Poniewozik just told me he didn't go because he doesn't own a tux.

And I didn't go because I was tired, Mrs. CC was about to leave town for a few days, we were gonna have tacos for dinner, and--either this or the tacos is the most important factor--I'm always a bit daunted at the prospect of putting on my tux (I bought it 13 years ago to get married in, and it's a little tight).

I'm writing, of course, about the Time 100 gala last night, which you can read about pretty much everywhere online except on Time's own blogs. Those of us of middling importance at Time (a group to which Lisa, Jim and I apparently all belong) get our invites two days before the event. I guess the idea is to hold out for actual Time 100 honorees and other important folks until the last minute, then fill the remaining seats with staffers.

It seems a reasonable enough approach. But the result is that we have failed to serve you the reader with glamorous photos and unbelievable dinner-table gossip (or even lame photos and lame gossip). So I hereby pledge to either lose 15 pounds or buy a new tux before I get my last-minute invite next May.

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May 9, 2008 1:01

On the endogenous nature of economic data (now that's what I call an attention-grabbing headline!)

Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at UMass Amherst, e-mails with a couple good criticisms of my "Don't Ditch the GDP" column:

First, no economist that I know of, either on or off the Sarkozy Commission, has advocated ditching GDP. What's under discussion is the possibility of developing good supplements to it.

Second, the viability of economic accounting measures is not completely determined by the ability of existing data. Once we decide something is important, we can figure out how measure it. Data are (at least partially) endogenous!

The first point is right--it's the non-economists (such as Sarkozy) who speak of actually replacing GDP. And as for the second, well, this is why we need to Save the American Time Use Survey!

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