Shameless Self-Promotion

Archive for Shameless Self-Promotion

A Defense of Surge Pricing

I’m not defending the company Uber per se, but in my latest FEE article I walk through the logic of surge pricing. An excerpt: The wonderful thing about our smartphone age is that the dynamic pricing isn’t merely limited to a particular night, but can vary even in half-hour intervals. For example, Uber emailed its […]

Phil Magness on the Tom Woods Show Discussing Our Piketty Paper

Tom does a good job of pulling out the news you can use. Here are the show notes for this episode, and here is the link to get the paper. The neat thing about this episode is even I learned something: At the end Tom asks Phil how he got interested in this. Phil answers […]

My Response to Piketty’s Response to My Paper With Magness

At Mises CA. An excerpt: OK that is pretty astounding. I encourage readers who haven’t done so, to click on our paper and just read the short sections on the Hoover/FDR tax rates and the minimum wage discussion. If those were “typos,” then when Bill Clinton said he didn’t have sexual relations with Monica Lewinski, it […]

Austrian Economics and Math

I respond to that blog post I had earlier brought to your attention. An excerpt: I can’t think of a single prominent Austrian who ever said anything remotely like, “I hate math.”…So you can see why Albrecht’s whole premise seems foreign to me, and serves only to reassure outside critics that Austrians are a bunch […]

“But Who Would Build the Roads?”

Tom Woods and I tackle this old chestnut. Show notes here with lots of links.

Fiat Money and State Power

In my latest FEE article, I clarify the definition of “fiat money” and I also explain that the State doesn’t have the power to make something money “by fiat.” On social media, people have been pushing back against me, citing (e.g.) legal tender laws. I specifically addressed this in the article, but let me be […]

Krugman: I’m Only Keynesian to Botch 1980s Inflation Call

This one was too easy. He made the same faux pas in 2012. Krugman says it’s a myth that Keynesians were surprised by the 1980s disinflation, when there is an infamous 1982 Council of Economic Advisors memo in which he did just that.

Using FRED Graphs to Evaluate Keynesian Model

My latest Mises CA post accuses Krugman of changing his narrative on the economy: For years, Paul Krugman has been warning that the inadequate fiscal stimulus package of early 2009, coupled with the disastrous spending cuts of the “sequester” package, were leading to a “postmodern recovery” and “jobless trap” for the millions of Americans locked […]