Bob Murphy

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Gene Callahan and Abba Lerner Insist on Plain English in the Debt Debate

After my Rodney King-ish post trying to say we’ve all been groping around this complex issue, Gene Callahan announces that Abba Lerner was right all along, and that Nick Rowe has just been playing a verbal trick. Lerner says that if we use plain English, it is obvious that government debt can’t burden future generations. […]

Debt Burdens: How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes

You guys aren’t going to believe it, but I have had another epiphany. The debt and future generations issue is like this: At first I was deeply troubled, because I realized that I had said at least two false things in my arguments with Ken B. today, and that I had unfairly dismissed a point […]

At Least This Guy Appreciates Me

In contrast to jokers to the left of me and clowns to the right, this guy understands me:

Shocker! Perhaps the Debt Burden Is Really About Future Taxes…?

Yes I’m being saucy, but Daniel in the comments just wrote this: “I am more curious right now how to take Grant’s point that what changes things is the taxes, not the debt. It only hurts future generations when you change the financing scheme.” Everyone, let’s take a deep breath. Of course that’s what makes […]

Generations vs. GDP

Yes, I have much more to say on the debt debate, not least because Dean Baker chimed in on a previous post (linking to his latest). I am waiting for clarification on his attempt to ballpark the empirical significance of the Nick Rowe Effect, and once I’m sure what Baker is saying, I will either […]

A Post on Debt Burdens for the Masses

I devoted my American Conservative column this time to everyone’s favorite question. For what it’s worth, I think this is the most succinct explanation I’ve given yet. Some key excerpts: What Baker and Krugman want to explode is the man-on-the-street’s moralistic objection to government budget deficits as being irresponsible and a burden on future generations, […]

A Challenge on the Great Debt Debate

Here’s a challenge I gave to Daniel Kuehn in his comments: ==> Do you agree that Krugman said there is a sense in which debt makes a household or a family poorer? But that he denied this truth for the individual family could be aggregated to the USA as a whole? ==> If you agree […]

Scott Sumner Confirms My Own Hypothesis

Quick question everybody: Suppose a man were insane. What would the world look like from his perspective? OK, perhaps apropos, here’s Scott Sumner today: “My working hypothesis for the last four years has been that the entire world went insane on or about Oct 1st 2008.”