Economics

Archive for Economics

Defender of Efficient Markets Hypothesis Gives Away the Game

For a while now, I have been a lone voice crying in the wilderness, claiming that the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH) had no empirical content. It was not a falsifiable theory, but rather a way of looking out at the world and organizing it. Note that this isn’t a criticism–it’s what Misesians think about pure […]

Debt Deal Bask

I’m probably going to be on Judge Napolitano’s show tomorrow (Friday), discussing the stock market drop and possibly the debt deal. Do you folks have any good summaries of the debt deal? E.g. people showing how much the debt still increases, how the tough spending cuts are pushed into the future, etc.? I know there […]

Examples for the Great Cash Balance Debate of 2011

Let’s try a new approach. The reason I’m persisting in this argument is that I get the sense there are plenty of people lurking who can’t decide who is right. (I.e. if it were just Major Freedom and a few others arguing with me, I would have dropped it long ago because we’re moving in […]

Rothbard Sides With Wenzel on Cash Balances

Such is my devotion to truth, integrity, and the scientific status of Austrian economics, that I am unilaterally reporting the following footnote that I discovered while preparing tomorrow’s lecture for my online tour of Man, Economy, and State. The context is Rothbard explaining how individuals’ rankings of present versus future units of money give rise […]

Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis

I was on a panel at FreedomFest offering commentary on this short documentary. I thought it was great. (I was sitting next to Andrew Schiff. Poor guy had a bunch of people come up to him, talking about his brother and his dad.)

Is Krugman Adding an Epicycle Regarding Debt Default?

In standard economic/financial analysis, without having libertarian views about government spending, I would think the standard answer would be, “If the US government defaults on its debt because of political squabbling, that is bad for the economy.” Just like, in standard analysis, government spending crowds out private spending, and government deficits raise interest rates. But […]

The Economics of Large Cities

Some light reading to get your week going. I draw on some obvious facts of the world and try to explain them using economic reasoning. For example, do you know why the best steakhouses are typically in a big city?

Some Clarifications on Cash Balances and Saving

Surprise surprise, my last post didn’t end the controversy. But in the comments, I realized there were some understandable misconceptions. Let me clarify what I am saying, and then answer one of Major Freedom’s better objections. The Clarifications: Part of the problem here is the difference between saving as a flow variable, that happens during […]