Economics

Archive for Economics

Believing Is Seeing

Presumed “wonk” Neil Irwin writes: The [latest GDP] report details this stuck-in-neutral economy. It’s not without bright spots, but there aren’t enough of them, and they aren’t bright enough to make up for the forces dragging the recovery, most significantly a drop in government spending. Indeed, the biggest culprit in the weak report was the […]

Why Economists Will Soon Be Lynched

I am going to accelerate my transition into stand-up comedy, because the public is going to turn on economists very, very soon. Look at this: 1) Krugman argues that severe US fiscal austerity explains our dismal economic growth. 2) I say no, there hasn’t been fiscal austerity. In fact, we have record-high spending, and that […]

Why “Potential GDP” Loads the Keynesian Deck

Krugman is back to his oh-so-objective presentation of the facts, which smuggle in the Keynesian policy prescriptions: There is some tendency among economic commentators to think that austerity policies in a deeply depressed economy are mainly a European thing; you even find a fair number of people imagining that the United States is still engaged […]

Stockman Bask

I am reviewing David Stockman’s book, The Great Deformation, for Barron’s. I want to run two things by you folks that gave me pause. These probably won’t make it into the review, but I’m nonetheless curious: ==> On page 61 he writes: This arrangement [of Asian countries keeping their currencies artificially low vis-a-vis the dollar […]

Potpourri

==> Not sure if I even mentioned it here, because the main event sold out…but anyway I will be at the “Anarchy in the NYC” event this Saturday. Afterward there is a karaoke party hosted by Tatiana Moroz, but you need a ticket to get in. (I am now calling myself a professional singer for […]

Krugman Gloating on Gold

This really makes no sense. As everybody knows, gold just had the biggest one-day drop in three decades. Here’s Krugman’s reaction: So, the slide in gold has turned into a rout. As Joe Weisenthal says, this should be seen as really good news, because it offers strong evidence that the goldbug/inflationista view of the world […]

Potpourri

==> Whether North Korean officials actually said this, or whether it is US propaganda to get Americans mad, either way it’s hilarious: They allegedly called the US mainland a “boiled pumpkin.” Who can drop bombs after such a funny insult? ==> Robert Higgs looks around at today’s libertarians, and he’s none too impressed. His op […]

Bitcoin From an Austro-Libertarian Perspective, Part I

[NOTE: If my memory is right, two or three years ago Chris Brunner encouraged me to write an article on Bitcoin since it was getting popular. I started an article, intending Chris and Silas Barta to be co-authors, since both of them had expertise in certain areas (Chris from a network / commercial point of […]