Consulting by RPM || Free Advice Blog

Krugman Gloating on Gold

This really makes no sense. As everybody knows, gold just had the biggest one-day drop in three decades. Here’s Krugman’s reaction: So, the slide in gold has turned into a rout. As Joe Weisenthal says, this should be seen as really good news, because it offers strong evidence that the goldbug/inflationista view of the world [...]

Stockman-Bashing Is Seriously Getting Out of Hand

This is really amazing. I had coffee with a young finance guy (just graduating) today and I remarked, “I can’t believe the treatment David Stockman is getting, the proportion of ridicule to actual examination of his arguments. The only analogous thing I can remember is how people treated Ron Paul.” Seriously, this is insane. Look [...]

A Different Explanation of the “Productivity” and Wage Divergence

I have not read a single word from the EPI paper claiming that if the minimum wage had followed “productivity growth” it would now be $22/hour, so everything I am writing in this blog post is predicated on Daniel Kuehn’s interpretation being sound. Having said that, consider the following fable: In 1968, a nation of [...]

It Sounds So Much Prettier When He Says It

Learning From Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman

[UPDATE below.] Rather than have a long series of posts discussing the fallout from my (price) inflation bet with David R. Henderson, I decided to do one comprehensive reply to Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman. I had toyed with not even responding, but two things ruled that out: (1) This isn’t a case of two [...]

Clarification on Cantillon Effects

Steve Horwitz’s thoughts reinforced my own inkling that I should spell out what I had always filed away as “the Austrian point about Cantillon effects.” So the following is what I would have said, had you asked me a month ago. Note that I speak for myself, and I’m not even saying this is what [...]

You Might Be Talkin to a Market Monetarist If…

…you ask this clarifying question on his blog and you genuinely don’t know what answer to expect: Thanks Nick. One more from me please. (And I’m not asking these to trap you, I’m asking so I fairly recapitulate what your position is.) If the Fed were to suddenly dump its mortgage-backed securities and replace them [...]

Gold Money Apparently Existed Before the Big Bang

It is hilarious to me that even the harshest critics of the Mengerian account of the origin of money, end up relying on anthropological evidence that is in total agreement with his story, and makes little sense with the rival State narrative. For a recent example, consider the following extraordinary passage from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: It [...]