David Friedman

Archive for David Friedman

Does the Rest of Society Care if You Work?

So if you followed my orders, you have already listened to my critique of Paul Krugman, when he claims that the rest of society doesn’t benefit if rich people work more. (Krugman says that free-market economists like to claim that workers get paid their marginal product, so–he concludes–they can’t then turn around and say marginal […]

Three Oldies But Goodies on Utility Theory

Ah, my previous post on Mises vs. David Friedman has sparked controversy over cardinal vs. ordinal utility. Here are three things I wrote on this general topic: one, two, three. However, I should admit that at some point, I am pretty sure I made a major concession to David Friedman (we were going back and […]

Do Individuals Measure Value? Mises vs. David Friedman

You guys may remember that a a week or so ago, I asked for help in sourcing a David Friedman quote, that Bryan Caplan had put at the top of his blog post. That led to… My latest blog post at the Independent Institute. An excerpt: As the quotation above indicates, Mises agrees with Friedman […]

David Friedman Bask

(Remember, we don’t beg on this blog, we ask.) In a recent EconLog post, Bryan Caplan quotes from Friedman’s book *Hidden Order*: Economists are often accused of believing that everything – health, happiness, life itself – can be measured in money. What we actually believe is even odder. We believe that everything can be measured […]

Tom Woods and I Talk Austrian vs. Chicago, Bitcoin, Gold Standard

Here’s his blog post with various formats, below is the YouTube version.

The Bogus “97% of Climate Scientists Agree” Claim

If you have the temerity to challenge calls for the government to take aggressive action to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, you will probably have someone call you a “climate science denier.” You will further be lectured that “97% of climate scientists agree” on this consensus. But there’s a bait-and-switch going on here, as Joseph Bast […]

Let’s Be Careful With “Spreading Out” Damages

Lately at his blog, David Friedman has been doing a great job challenging the “the science is settled, we need a big carbon tax NOW” dogmatism. However, in a recent critique of an older piece by William Nordhaus (which I myself criticized at IER when it came out), Friedman makes a move that seems rather […]

Answering David Friedman’s Questions About Austrian Economics

[UPDATE below, then UPDATE #2.] In a recent post, David Friedman writes: Yesterday I spoke at a Students for Liberty Conference. Before the talk I had a conversation with several students who identified themselves as supporters of the Austrian school of economics. I asked them if they could explain what that meant by identifying a […]