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My Thoughts on the CPI Release

OK first I’ll deal with the CPI numbers as the media is handling them, and then I’ll question the numbers themselves. First off, the headline on CNBC today says, “Inflation Still Tame Despite Jump in Gasoline Prices.” Huh, so I guess that means there was a CPI reading well within the “comfort zone,” right? Well […]

The Brain and Mind Are Not the Same Thing!

Fresh off Gene Callahan’s discussion of methodology and the analyst’s decision to impute intelligence to a process, we have this NPR interview on Neal Conan’s “Talk of the Nation.” (Click here to get either the transcript or to listen to the audio.) In general it’s a fascinating interview for our health care debate. Leftists will […]

A Clarification on Auditing the Fed

I believe I have already linked to Lew Rockwell’s qualified case for letting Congress run the Fed (as opposed to a cartel of private bankers with no accountability at all). Robert Wenzel disagreed with Rockwell here. I am not taking sides on this one. In general, I think it’s dangerous to ever say you “are […]

Liberal Democrats Should Treat Others the Way They Want to Be Treated

This is really getting ridiculous. On NPR Juan Williams explained that there was something really disturbing going on with Saturday’s march on DC. It wasn’t merely that these people opposed Obama’s policies, but–gasp!–they challenged his very legitimacy as president. (!!) And Joe Wilson actually called the president a liar to his face. (!!) Williams explained […]

Producer Prices Up (Adjusted) 1.7% in August

Producer Prices didn’t get the memo from Mish, and rose (on a seasonally adjusted basis) 1.7% in August from the month before. Now you won’t see a headline for this anywhere at CNBC (at least not as of 2 minutes ago). If you were curious as to what the PPI report said, you would have […]

My Response to John Cochrane (Who Was Responding to Krugman)

========== Cochrane Threatens Austrians More Than Krugman Ever DidBy Robert P. Murphy Although some Austrian economists (e.g. Mario Rizzo) expressed disappointment with Chicago University economist John Cochrane’s response to Paul Krugman’s infamous NYT Magazine piece, for the most part the people on “my side” have high-fived Cochrane for kicking sand in Krugman’s face. This is […]

Potpourri

* I explain that civil libertarians should be as skeptical of the War on Carbon as they (correctly) are about the War on Terror. * I don’t know if they officially announced it yet, but I am an adviser to the Steve Poizner campaign. He’s running for governor of California. For those who care about […]

Gene Callahan on Methodology

Unfortunately the player froze up 7 minutes into his talk, but this looks like it will be a good one, especially for those of you who (a) think Gene is an idiot and/or (b) don’t understand how someone could doubt materialism. Let me repeat my own history: Several years ago I used to be a […]