Capital & Interest

Archive for Capital & Interest

Some Background on Capital Controversy

I am going to be putting out stuff in the coming month on why Thomas Piketty’s use of a neoclassical aggregate production function is so dubious–Austrians and Post-Keynesians agree–but if you just can’t bear the suspense, here are three links: ==> I walk through the “reswitching” controversy, focusing on Paul Samuelson’s excellent numerical example. […]

Compton and Long Beach Togetha on This One: Piketty Has No Clue About Capital

It’s rare that you will see Peter Klein and James Galbraith agree, but they do. And after getting my own copy of Capital in the 21st Century, I can join the party: Thomas Piketty doesn’t have the foggiest idea what economists are arguing about when they bring up concerns over aggregation in capital theory. Here’s […]

Two Quick Questions on Piketty

Help me out here. I haven’t read the book yet, but I gather a really important insight is that we currently live in a world where r > g, meaning the real return on capital exceeds the real growth rate of the economy. Everyone takes this to imply that the 1% (or the 0.01%, if […]

Potpourri

==> Lew Rockwell has a forthcoming manifesto on anarcho-capitalism. ==> Hmm, this is one case where fiat money may have been preferable. ==> Responding (on Twitter) to my Mises Canada post about TARP, John Taylor reminds us of some of the details of Paulson’s offer that banksters couldn’t refuse. ==> Arnold Kling on Solow on […]

The Continuing Importance of Capital Theory

My new post at Mises Canada, which on Facebook I summarize as “Friedrich Hayek >> Scott Sumner.” An excerpt: Now if Sumner’s explanation were the main thing going on, there would be two immediate implications: (1) Booms are good things. And (2) Booms should naturally slide back into normal growth as wages and prices adjust; there is no […]

“The Tension Between Economics and Religion”

The previous post reminded me that I touched on the familiar antipathy of Christianity to usury in my Lou Church memorial lecture at the Mises Institute in March 2006.

Christianity, Money, and Interest

I met Wayne Walton at the Music City Liberty Fest a few years ago. He is a great guy who has committed himself to educating people about the evils in our current monetary and banking systems, and promoting practical ideas for immediate improvements. Wayne is also an outspoken Christian and so we have that in […]

Danny Sanchez Interviews Me, Part 4/5 (Robinson Crusoe)

Here’s the fourth installment of my marathon interview with Danny Sanchez of Mises Academy. Remember, my online class starts this Thursday. I was looking through the textbook to arrange the courses, and man there’s some good stuff in this class! I’m pumped to teach it.