Author Archive

Markets More Complicated Than Keynesians Or Austrians Said

I’m having trouble getting real-time quotes, since I’m now in Slovakia and Google keeps “helping” by switching to some weirdo site. But assuming the trends are the same today as they were yesterday, gold is getting crushed, while both nominal and TIPS Treasury yields are down too. On the face of it, that means neither […]

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The Final Installment of Man, Economy, and State

Still in Europe, so posting will be sparse until next week. In the meantime, have you ever seen such enthusiasm from me? I’ve enjoyed teaching all of my online Mises Academy classes, but I have never been more excited than I am to teach the upcoming class Money, Monopoly, and Market Intervention. This course covers […]

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Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme?

I say yes, then I say no.

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Murphy Retracing Mises’ Footsteps

I’m in Vienna for the Mises Institute’s Supporters Summit. I am going to force myself to be super productive by not paying for internet access in the room. (I can get online for free in the lobby, so that’s where I’ll get my materials and then go to the room and actually work.) Thus blogging […]

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Tom Woods Does New York

When Tom mentioned to me he was going to New York, I had no idea it would involve this: And here’s the ad he’s talking about:

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Follow-Up on GDP and “Potential GDP”

Karl Smith graciously gave an answer to my earlier request, asking for clarification of how government economists would handle a scenario in which “real GDP” had shot up 10% because of massive investment in oil drilling infrastructure. Specifically, when people discover next year that there’s no oil there after all, then obviously (other things equal) […]

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Taking On Krugman’s Latest Theory About Gold Prices

For those who follow these things, you know that in the past few weeks the “mystery” of soaring gold prices has apparently been solved by Paul Krugman. Far from signaling that some investors are worried about the fate of the USD, Krugman thinks soaring gold prices are the natural reaction to low real interest rates. […]

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Waiting for Godot Deflation

It’s that time of the month, when the BLS gives us the official price statistics. Relying on both the PPI and the CPI releases, here’s the breakdown. From August 2010 to August 2011, we had the following increases in these categories: Consumer Goods +3.8% Finished Goods +6.5% Intermediate Goods +10.3% Crude Goods +18.4% It’s weird. […]

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