Economics

Archive for Economics

You Might Be Talkin to a Market Monetarist If…

…you ask this clarifying question on his blog and you genuinely don’t know what answer to expect: Thanks Nick. One more from me please. (And I’m not asking these to trap you, I’m asking so I fairly recapitulate what your position is.) If the Fed were to suddenly dump its mortgage-backed securities and replace them […]

Resolution of the Sumner/Richman Showdown

[UPDATE below.] You may recall that I was earlier puzzled at Scott Sumner’s commentary on a Sheldon Richman article talking about Cantillon effects. If you care, I now have the resolution, because of Scott’s follow-up post. Scott actually doesn’t dispute anything in what the Austrians have in mind when they say “it matters who gets […]

IMF OK With Capital Controls, Inflationists Shrug

Bloomberg: The International Monetary Fund endorsed nations’ use of capital controls in certain circumstances, making official a shift, which has been in the works for three years, that will guide the fund’s advice. In a reversal of its historic support for unrestricted flows of money across borders, the Washington-based IMF said controls can be useful […]

One More on Epistemic Closure and Conservatives

Last post on this and I will move on to greener pastures… There are two remaining ironies I would like to point out, in Krugman’s high-fiving of Bruce Bartlett for being so open-minded in his denunciation of those close-minded conservatives. (BTW a funny and apropos aside: I pass the Scott Sumner Turing Test.) (1) Look […]

Romer vs. Romers?

Earlier this year, Obama’s former head of the Council of Economic Advisors, Christina Romer, weighed in on the tax debate: AT least since Calvin Coolidge, politicians have trumpeted the supply-side benefits of cutting marginal income tax rates. Lower rates will unleash economic growth and the cuts will largely pay for themselves — or so it’s […]

We Already Went Over the Fiscal Cliff

My latest article at The American Conservative. Some excerpts: The hemming and hawing over the looming “fiscal cliff” is akin to passengers fighting over who gets to sit in the first class seats in a jumbo jet that just ran out of fuel. The U.S. government already sent the country over the cliff years ago; […]

Uno Momento Por Favor, Senor Krugman

I am not going to bother employing my army of employees to fact-check this, but it looks plausible enough to quote and walk away… (HT2 somebody in the comments of an earlier post.) Paul Krugman, May 2012: Matt Yglesias, who just spent time in Argentina, writes about the lessons of that country’s recovery following its exit […]

Potpourri

==> David Beckworth says the Fed isn’t monetizing the debt, and has Tyler Durden destroy something beautiful. (Actually that joke fails on two counts, because it’s not Tyler Durden but a guest blogger, and it wasn’t Brad Pitt but Ed Norton who messed up the pretty boy’s face in the movie.) ==> Mark Spitznagel applies […]