Bob Murphy

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Can Bitcoin Become Money?

A familiar question that Frank Shostak recently raised, so at Liberty Chat I gave my usual answer: The reason Mises needed to supplement his theoretical explanation of the purchasing power of money with his historical “regression theorem” was simply to protect the explanation from charges of infinite regress. In other words, since Mises was explaining […]

The Final Nail in the Coffin: MPK Is Not Sufficient For Interest, Either

For those who really want to understand what all the fuss is about capital & interest, you need to get a cup of coffee, perhaps even a piece of paper and pencil, and spend 20 minutes reading my latest Mises Canada post. You know I don’t often ask these things of you, but this is […]

Heterodox Economists School Krugman on His Flim-Flam Econ

Wow, I thought I was hard on the guy… In the debate over Thomas Piketty’s book on Capital, many of the heterodox leftist economists are coming out of the woodwork to complain. Specifically, the problem is that Piketty relies on the mainstream notion that interest in a market economy is determined by the “marginal product […]

Showing Problem With Piketty Using Neoclassical Models

I am an Austrian economist. My understanding of capital & interest comes (originally) from Mises, but then it was refined in grad school when I studied Bohm-Bawerk, Fetter, and Fisher. In case I haven’t been clear: One doesn’t need to be an Austrian to understand what’s wrong with Piketty’s conceptual remarks about capital & interest […]

A Question for the Piketty Defenders on National Income Accounting and Interest

OK Kevin Donoghue manages to escape the trap I had set for Piketty, much as Luke Skywalker–nursing his mangled arm–fled Vader at the end of The Empire Strikes Back. To refresh your memories: Piketty clearly had argued that if the “marginal productivity of capital” (and from his discussion it was clear that this was a […]

Bookkeeping: More Commentary From Others on Piketty

This post is mostly so I don’t lose these links… ==> George Cooper is a blogger after my own heart. He comes up with a fable of a kingdom trying to show why Piketty’s approach confuses cause and effect. However, I think Cooper leaves out one loose end when valuing his capital stock etc.; his […]

A Fleshed Out Example Showing Problems With Piketty

[UPDATE: Note that I clarified the thought experiment to make sure it’s obvious that all physical production is due to labor in an economic sense.] At Mises Canada I elaborate on an example showing Piketty’s approach is flawed even on its own terms. First I’ll refresh your memory about Piketty’s framework: Technology naturally plays a […]

Whether r < g or r > g, We Need Much Bigger Government

I was toying with this idea but hadn’t had time to go document my claims. But now Nick Rowe is saying the same thing, so I’ll let him put his head out there. Anyway here’s the claim: (1) A few months ago, Krugman was agreeing with Larry Summers that we were stuck in a period […]