Locator: 48783SIR.
Let's say prior to 1913, Henry Ford needed a 100,000 employees to manufacture his automobiles. Productivity is "x."
Then, he adopts the moving assembly line. After adopting the modern assembly line, all else remaining the same, Henry Ford requires 25,000 employees to manufacture the same number of automobiles. Productivity is "4x."
All of a sudden, unemployment spikes and productivity surges.
And the Fed reacts to the unemployment spike.
The Fed's mandate, dual:
- inflation;
- employment.
The right metrics?
I'm going to the pool. Good luck to all. See you later this afternoon.
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The Book Page
Author / personality of the day: Cynthia Griffin Wolff. Wiki.
Cynthia Griffin Wolff, briefly, from one of my journals, from a letter I sent one of my Yorkshire friends back in 2008:
You may have gathered that I'm starting to enter an Emily Dickinson phase.
I've told you about the discount book stores in San Antonio; they are fantastic. I went there specifically to get a biography of Emily Dickinson and found a hardcover in almost perfect condition ("withdrawn" by some library somewhere; original price $25 for $6.28).
I would have bought this particular biography regardless, but the biography of the author (Cynthia Griffin Wolff) is too remarkable to pass by. This is the author (not Emily):
She was born in St Louis; when to Radcliffe; medical degree at Harvard, and then went on to get a Ph.D. in English at Harvard. She taught at Amherst and then holds a specially-designated chair as Professorship of the Humanities at MIT.
She is also author of "highly acclaimed" biographies of Edith Wharton (who I will eventually get to) and Samuel Richardson (Clarissa, which I am now reading, five pages a night). As you know, L-- F-- spent a significant amount of her adult life in St Louis, got her medical degree at Harvard, and then became a published author (albeit pretty low in stature, just beginning) just before she died. Life is full of coincidences.The lady at the checkout counter must have been a librarian once upon a time or she herself is an avid Emily Dickinson fan (had she been wearing a white dress, I would have believed in reincarnation), because when I went to pay, as she was ringing up my three books, she mentioned that there was a wonderful book on understanding Emily's poems, over in the clearance section. It took quite some time to find the book; it was pretty obscure confirming that the woman who alerted it to me must have been an Emily Dickinson fan, but when I found it -- well worth it. Again, in perfect condition, originally sold for $15.95, marked down in half, and then on clearance for $2.70.
(With teacher's discount, the book was essentially given to me for free.)
