Economics

Archive for Economics

How Low Does Krugman Have to Go…

…before his Keynesian colleagues abandon him? In a recent post Krugman writes: Mark Thoma catches Kevin Hassett playing for Team Republican; really, no surprise. But Mark’s catch has me thinking: what, if anything, would make reasonable, moderate conservative intellectuals accept that the GOP no longer offers them a home? For such people do exist — […]

Mises Gives Fodder to Conspiracy Theorists

I talk with plenty of people who think a small group of bankers basically run the world–and the odd thing is, I can’t really see a flaw in their argument. (Of course, given my religious views, I would take it one step further.) In that context, check out this passage I just ran across in […]

A Sponge for Contraception Discussions

Oh man, some foolish reporter decided to cross swords with Steve Landsburg, not realizing that this is the email equivalent of invading Stalingrad. In light of my recent post, and the comments in Steve’s latest, let me clarify my own “contribution” to this saga: (1) Originally, I thought Steve’s post was hilarious. Rush Limbaugh had […]

Update on Scott Sumner Showdown

Sorry for not mentioning this sooner, but here’s an update: At my request, Scott and I have postponed our debate that was originally scheduled (I think) for January. The reason is simple: I got bogged down with “day job” stuff and couldn’t prepare. I think for sure if I had debated Scott in January, it […]

Near-Miss On Stossel

Well here was the guy (David Barker) I was talking to in the green room at my taping with John Stossel. So far as I can tell, my clip is not available. It’s the man keeping me down! Anyway as this guy and I talked, we slowly realized that we were each as crazy as […]

Landsburg Has Another Talk With Us About Sex

I have long maintained that Steve Landsburg is a modern-day Swift, whose essay “More Sex is Safer Sex” is the best critique of mainstream externality arguments ever penned. The only problem is, Landsburg was serious. Landsburg displays similar skills with the ladies in his recent posts on the Fluke fiasco. Initially, Steve expressed disappointment with […]

Krugman Admits He Doesn’t Understand Econ 101 201

I know this is a standard ploy–to decry your opponent not understanding undergrad economics–but how else can we interpret this recent statement from Krugman? 1. Even in microeconomics, we don’t insist on using models built up from maximizing behavior all the time. Exhibit A: supply and demand! I mean, we kind of know how something […]

Don’t Mess With Mises

On the plane back from Canada I was going through the relevant portion of The Theory of Money and Credit for my online class. I thought this passage was pretty funny: The most important results of research in the social sciences leave the multitude apathetic, but any set of figures awakens its interest. Its history […]