Economics

Archive for Economics

David Glasner Needs to Re-Read Mises

The mischievous von Pepe dangled a recent post by David Glasner in front of me. Glasner writes: [T]he notion of unsustainability [in Austrian business cycle theory] is itself unsustainable, or at the very least greatly exaggerated and misleading. Why must the credit expansion that produced the interest-rate distortion or the price bubble come to an […]

Potpourri

==> I finally give my thoughts on Krugman and the iPhone5. ==> I know this is “Dark Age of Macro” thinking according to Krugman et al., but I really liked this WSJ op ed on “the mess we’re in.” ==> The video of my recent participation in the discussion, “Is Capitalism Moral?” at IUPUI. If […]

Krugman on the 1920s: A One-Act Play

TOM WOODS & BOB MURPHY: The Keynesians are all wet when they distill their “lessons from the Great Depression” and recommend bigger deficits and looser money for today’s crisis. After World War I, the U.S. government had run up a massive debt, and yr/yr consumer price inflation was higher than 20%. In this grim situation, […]

I Am Taking Over YouTube

I’m trying to clear out my browser tabs. Here are some backlogged YouTube appearances: ==> My interview with Redmond W. of Mises Canada, right after the QE3 announcement. ==> “Messengers for Liberty” episode 2 and episode 3. (I don’t turn to the Dark Side in Episode III, sorry to spoil it.) ==> My interview with […]

Sumner Courageously Admits He Can’t Explain Housing Bubble

I know a lot of you wonder why I am always so quick to volunteer the fact that I made erroneous warnings about official price measures thus far, but the reason is that I can’t stand analysts who make all kinds of predictions, and then only pat themselves on the back for the ones they […]

Sumner on Predicting the Great Recession

Today Scott Sumner writes: There’s a reason most economic forecasters were not predicting a recession as of June 2008; net worth models are useless. The huge decline in house prices between 2006 would not be expected to cause a major recession, and indeed would not have caused one had NGDP not declined. OK so there […]

Carbon Tax Swaps and the “Tax Interaction Effect”

I have the EconLib article this month, on the above. Here’s the introduction: For years, many economists have advocated a tax on the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as a way to correct the negative externality of manmade climate change. More recently, even a growing number of conservative economists have embraced a […]

Gary North, King of the Internet

Gary North has written two great articles, one that I like because it’s about the Krugman debate, and the other that I like because it’s objectively great. Here’s North telling Krugman that he (Krugman) shouldn’t debate me: I strongly recommend that Krugman not accept the challenge. I think he is a rational man, so I […]