Economics

Archive for Economics

Ferguson: A Crash Is Coming

I am not kidding when I tell people the economy is like Wile E. Coyote before he looks down. (And of course I didn’t invent that great metaphor.) I truly check the financial news every morning, wondering if the dollar had crashed earlier that hour. I was flipping through my radio yesterday and hit upon […]

The Dollar’s Demise?

Robert Wenzel has recently started the EPJ Daily Alerts. I try to check it out everyday; it reassures me to know Wenzel is out there, scouring the internet for new developments. (He’s not paying me to say that, but he’s also not charging me for the subscription.) In today’s Alert, Wenzel mentioned that the dollar […]

Now It All Makes Sense…

Has anyone ever seen Tyler Cowen and Paul Krugman in the same room at the same time?

Wall Street 1: Murphy Never Sleeps

In preparation for Sunday’s viewing of Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, I decided to watch the original. (Fortunately you can watch it instantly on Netflix.) This postponed by a day my usual catch-up on sleep, but it was worth it. I’m ashamed to say that I don’t think I ever gave the movie a […]

Wait a Second, a “General Glut” Is Conceivable

Recently PhD-minted Gene Callahan has been reading Thomas Sowell on the classical economists. Following Sowell’s lead, Gene thinks that modern free-market economists misrepresent the argument that Malthus (and Sismondi, with whom I’m unfamiliar) had with J.B. Say. In particular, the dispute has to do with the possibility of a “general glut.” In other words, is […]

Scott Sumner Doesn’t Know What Income Is

No, I’m not saying he doesn’t know what his income is. I’m saying, Scott Sumner doesn’t know what the concept of income is. Check it out: Income: A meaningless, misleading, and pernicious concept And I bet you thought I was exaggerating. No need to pick apart this post right now; it deserves a full-scale assault […]

Analogies for the Crash in Austrian Business Cycle Theory

Someone (who may or may not wish to reveal himself in the comments) emailed me and asked for some clarification regarding the Austrian view of the business cycle. In my sushi economy, it’s easy enough to see what the mistake is, and how the capital structure becomes misaligned during the artificial boom (provoked by advice […]

British Government Takes the Next Logical Step

You know how a lot of libertarians think a good reform would be for workers to get their full paychecks, and then write a check to the IRS? Well they’re proposing this–Bizarro-style–in Great Britain: The UK’s tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which […]