|Peter Boettke|
The late great Milton Friedman declared that "inflation is everywhere and always a monetary phenomena." He said this at a critical time in our policy history, and his work on the history and theory of monetary mischief persuaded the bulk of his professional peers, policy makers, and the general [...]
Steven Horwitz
Multiple specificity/heterogeneity of capital: "Your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device."
(Part of a continuing series)
So the American Economic Association has produced the "Economists Calendar" in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of it founding.
Many readers of this blog (both those who consider themselves critics and those who consider themselves friends) have often asserted three things: (1) Austrian economists are ignored in the profession; [...]
One of my teachers, Kevin Grier, voices concerns with the monetary policies that quantitative easing implies --- including the Fed's ability to credibly commit to the monetary policy rules advocated. As Kevin says in the comments: "The idea that too tight of monetary policy led to or worsened [...]
Roger Koppl has an interesting post on the future of macroeconomics.
I agree with much of what Roger says. But I don't consider this trend progress in economic science. Instead, I think we have moved far away from the analytical agenda of coordination macroeconomics (Hayek to Leijonhufvud) and the [...]
Chris Coyne
Veronique de Rugy explores the answer to this question in her latest piece at Reason.com.
Co-bloggers Steve and Pete (Boettke) are quoted.
[...]|Chris Coyne|
Scott Beaulier and Pete Boettke answer this question in their latest op ed in the East Valley Tribune. Drawing on Adam Smith's discussion of the public debt, they conclude that:
Rather than erode debt obligations through inflation, the debt could be repudiated through bankruptcy proceedings. Like individual [...]
Steven Horwitz
CNN reports that the US Postal Service lost $3.8 billion last fiscal year. Delivering the mail is pretty easy compared to running the health care system. Why would anyone trust the folks who can't even deliver the mail to run health care? As usual, the basic idea [...]
Steven Horwitz
Want to really piss me off? Want to really piss off a college administrator? Here's what you do:
|Peter Boettke|
Alex Tabarrok discusses Stephen Landsberg's chapter on common knowledge in The Big Questions. I haven't read it yet, but I am sure Alex's description is accurate.
What concerns me is not so much Landsberg restating of the Aumann proposition on agreement, but what role the common knowledge [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Today is Sunday in the Fall, and in the US that means professional football from noon until midnight will be watched in millions of households across the country. And in the fall throughout the country one can watch HS football on Friday nights, and college football on Saturdays. So [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Adam Martin discusses the lies that the 19th century poets taught, and the truth that economists countered with.
Those re-entering the labor market are often finding that they have to accept a serious cut in their wages --- up to 40% less in some instances. Is this the market adjusting to clean-out the previous mistakes, or is this additional evidence in favor of the deflationary spiral?
Two claims are often made about praxeology. First, that it represents the method of Austrian economics. Second, that it represents not anything new with Mises, but the continuation of how the great economists in the past had in fact always done economics. Which claim is true?
On another matter, Mises [...]
Chris Coyne
David Saito-Chung has an article at Investor's Business Daily on how "Joseph Schumpeter spoke out for Capitalism."
Here is an excerpt:
In his view, classes did not form because of capitalism. They formed because people spent more time with other people of the same background, interests and social standing. Schumpeter argued [...]
|Peter Boettke|
That is the title of a recent talk by Anthony Evans, which is now available on video.
laconf09, Anthony Evans: "banking, Honest Money and the Free Market" from Sean Gabb on Vimeo.
[...]Steven Horwitz
No, not plastics.
It used to be that the stereotypical mother wanted her children to become doctors. If ObamaCare passes, she should want them to become medical lobbyists instead. If this monstrosity goes through, the lobbyists and rent-seekers will have decades of highly-paid employment in front of them. Plus, [...]
Steven Horwitz
Driving through the very leftist enclave of Ithaca, NY earlier today, I spotted the card this guy is carrying as a lawn sign.
One Nation, One Plan? Really? That about sums up the hubris of our new medical central planners doesn't it? [...]
Steven Horwitz
All you DC area libertarians might wish to know I'm doing a public talk at American University on Tuesday night the 10th at 830pm. The talk is in room Ward 1 on the AU campus. I'll be speaking on the Great Recession of 2008. I even have a [...]
|Peter Boettke|
November 9th 1989 --- forgive me if I still get choked up about it 20 years later -- is a critical date in modern history whose significance should never be forgotten. Those of us who believe strongly in the freedom of the individual and in the power of voluntary [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Greg Ransom linked to his discussion at Taking Hayek Seriously of this new paper in our comments, but the idea behind the paper might be too important to be left to the comments.
What do you think of the claim that rational expectations macroeconomics was the intellectual descendants of [...]
|Peter Boettke|
The insightful and always intellectual curious and amazingly energetic Anthony Evans provides this link from FT.com.
[...]|Peter Boettke|
Paul Krugman provides his take on the Beckworth graph showing the collapse of nominal spending and relates it to his 1998 work on Japan. The upshot, monetary policy will not produce the desired effect in our current situation. Scott Sumner responds and continues to push his position [...]
Steven Horwitz
The unemployment rate jumps to 10.2% for October.
Yesterday, Congress extends unemployment benefits.
My intro students (thanks to Pete and Dave's excellent textbook exposition) understand that supply curves slope up due the opportunity cost associated with alternative uses of the resource in question. The higher the opportunity cost of [...]
|Peter Boettke|
James Buchanan was my teacher. I learned much from him in and out of the classroom during my student days. But I have learned far more from him in the years since. I turn to his works constantly for not only insight on how to tackle problems in economics [...]
|Peter Boettke|
One of the great joys of teaching at GMU is the constant flow of interesting students that walk through our halls. Some of these graduates have moved on to teach at U Conn, UVA, U of Penn, Carnegie Mellon, UC Santa Cruz, Suffolk, WVU, U of Chicago, and of course [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Richard Wagner's new book reflecting his effort at reconstruction of the main ideas of neo-Mengerian economics and its implications for contemporary social science will be published in early 2010. Wagner's last book Fiscal Sociology and the Theory of Public Finance (Edward Elgar, 2007) represented [...]
|Chris Coyne|
1. Claudia Williamson on P.T. Bauer as "development prophet."
2. Julian Morris on why we should blame famine, not climate change or inadequate aid, but on trade restrictions. Here is an excellent comment on Julian's article.
3. The White Man's Burdern Documentary Trailer.
[...]When I try to make the distinction between knowledge and information to my students I often use the internet as an example. There is a ton of information available, I argue, but very little knowledge. The transformation of information into knowledge requires things like interpretation and judgement.
Bottom-line, there is [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Peter Leeson's The Invisible Hook, continues to impress scholars and academic commentators. The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses his book and its contribution in the November 1st edition.
[...]Back in 1985, Dave Prychitko and I attended a small gathering of economists and public policy intellectuals at the CATO Institute awaiting the arrival of Mario Rizzo and Gerald O'Driscoll's The Economics of Time and Ignorance, which was actually held up in customs. When [...]
Steve Horwitz
Since we haven't had a good post on intra-Austrian issues in awhile, I thought I'd weigh in on the quickly escalating Battle of the Toms taking place out in the libertarian blogosphere.
Said battle began yesterday when Tom Palmer of Cato and Atlas posted a review of Johan [...]
Last week, Tyler Cowen linked to this discussion by UCLA economic historian Matthew Kahn on why progress in economics is so difficult. There are two claims made in Kahn's post that are particularly relevant to readers of this blog. First, there is the claim that economics is inherently [...]
Steven Horwitz
"I'm not throwing up and hungover, I'm just reallocating the malinvested resources of the boom."
[...]Steven Horwitz
I have returned home from the Southern Leg of my Liberty Tour Fall 2009. I gave talks this week at Mercer University and Berry College in Georgia and Loyola University of New Orleans. Thanks to Scott Beaulier at Mercer, Frank Stephenson at Berry, Nicole Youngman and Dan D'Amico [...]
Did Smith Deliberately Place “led by an invisible hand” in the Middle of His Tomes?
Here, Brandon Lucas and I provide fresh evidence that he did.
We say that we would put the probably of deliberate centrality somewhere between 60 and 90 percent.
What range would you give for the probability? Justify [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Tyler Cowen today predicts the future of the economics profession. What do you think? And if he is right, what does that mean for those of us who believe good economics is grounded in humanly rational choice theory and institutional analysis? Does the future of good economics lay [...]
Steve Horwitz
It's now up on the PBS-NBR site. A little snippet:
The irony is that bank executives weren't the primary cause of the crisis, the very politicians and Federal Reserve who are now on their moral high horse were. Capping executive pay may make them feel good, but the consequences will [...]|Peter Boettke|
The other night Jeopardy had economists as a category. The looks on the participants faces are priceless. I guess we have our work cut out for us in terms of cultural recognition.
HT: Jeremy Horpedahl and Will Luther.
John Stossel writing at Townhall.com stresses how free individuals can solve problems even in the most difficult situations. In making his argument, he relies on the work of Elinor Ostrom on common-pool resources. He also references the interview with Lin and Vincent that serves as the post-script to [...]
George Soros can spend his money any way he pleases. He earned it. But he insists that economic theory and policy must be rethought. He is certainly entitled to his opinion, and I also agree with him that we need to re-examine economic theory and public policy. His [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Tyler links today to this interesting discussion of what we have learned from 85 years of research on what are the best predictors of success in choosing new hires in the workplace. General intelligence is #1 predictor, schooling and age are at the bottom. However, an interesting predictor is [...]
Steven Horwitz
This morning brought the publication of my op-ed "Fannie Med" as well as the latest in my monthly podcast series at SLU. This month's entry is more or less a rehash of my NBR blog on the Fed from earlier this month.
[...]Chris Coyne
The entourage entered the bazaar. The Afghans sensed that an important American had arrived, and they began to gather in groups inside the stalls. Then the general stopped and turned.
“What do you need here?” McChrystal asked.
A translator turned the general’s words into Pashto.
“We need schools!” one [...]
In December 2009, Ronald Coase will celebrate his 99th birthday. Amazing. But this month, we also celebrate the 50th anniversary of his brilliant article on the Federal Communications Commission published in Vol. 2 of the Journal of Law and Economics in October 1959.
Readers of this blog should concentrate their [...]
Late last night I stayed up talking with Will Wilkinson about blogging and the future of the intellectual culture that we live in. At one point, Will said that listening to me all he hears is "I don't like the music those young kids are playing. You just [...]
Many good efforts, but ultimately the judgement is "Stewart" won the contest. Please contact Peter Boettke's office to get your signed copy of Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development (Routledge, 2009).
|Peter Boettke|
John Stossel at TownHall explains why self-regulation and self-government is not the same as state regulation and government planning.
Steven Horwitz
I started this as a long comment on the Hayek and deflation thread, but figured I'd make it separate post.
Yes, during 1920-21 we had deflation and yes we didn't have a Great Depression. But we did have a significant drop in GDP and unemployment of around 12%, [...]
Scott has already talked about this at The Economic Way of Thinking, but we should dig a bit deeper into the discussion from Smith's Wealth of Nations, Vol. 2, pp. 929-2930. Smith argues in those pages that: (1) when the public debt reaches a certain level, the fiscal [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Liya Palagashvili, Vice President of GMU's Economic Society, published an op-ed today in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the health care debate. Liya is a former student and is one of the true gems of the GMU economic community -- smart, high energy, and friendly. [...]
Steve Horwitz
Greg Ransom has found a new book with an interview done with Hayek in 1979. In it, Hayek says the following:
“I agree with Milton Friedman that once the Crash had occurred, the Federal Reserve System pursued a silly deflationary policy. I am not only against inflation but I am [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Tomorrow (Monday) my Econ 880 (Austrian Theory of the Market Process I) graduate student class will be discussing 'profits, interest and investment'. Not Hayek's book per se, but the range of topics. This is also a stretch for me since this isn't my area [...]
|Peter Boettke|
Readers of the blog know that I think VERY highly of the work of Pete Leeson and I have linked to the various reviews and discussions of his The Invisible Hook. I have insisted that Pete's work is not "cuteonomics" but a substance exploration [...]
|Peter Boettke|
They come from Vincent Ostrom's The Meaning of Democracy and the Vulnerability of Democracies: A Response to Tocqueville's Challenge (University of Michigan Press, 1997, pp. 3-4; 114-115).
"... it is all too apparent that financial obligations associated with social entitlements intended to solve welfare problems and advance public welfare threaten the [...]
|Peter Boettke|
I wrote an essay for FEE on why those who value liberty should rejoice in Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize.
I have debated many times renaming this blog --- There is Only Good Economics. I honestly believe that --- Good Economics and Bad Economics. This, of course, were the infamous words of Milton Friedman at the IHS conference in 1974 that is often marked as the birth of the [...]
|Peter Boettke|
You haven't seen much discussion of Oliver Williamson here so far. But Williamson is a great choice. The main reason I haven't talked about him is because I knew that Peter Klein would write something excellent on Williamson, and he has. Peter was Williamson's PhD student and one [...]
It is not mathematics. When mathematical techniques are used correctly they are extremely helpful -- perhaps essential -- to clear thinking on many topics. But when questions are restricted due to mathematical tractability, or models are developed which assume what they are supposed to prove, mathematical techniques can hinder [...]
|Peter Boettke|
I have made a major sin of omission the past 24 hours in pointing to the various discussion of Nobel in not pointing to Lynne Kiesling at Knowledge Problems. Lynne is one of the most gifted economic teachers and communicators I know, and she is also one of [...]
Vernon Smith is one of the most amazing individuals I have ever had the opportunity to be around. He is a lifelong learner, always seeking to discover new things. He is also genuine as a human being. You enter the no BS zone when you are around Vernon. He [...]
On Saturday I was in beautiful Sante Fe, NM and was having a discussion with my good friend David Henderson. We were discussing the upcoming Nobel Prize in Economics. David tends to get the nod from the WSJ to write up the summary piece [...]
Steven Horwitz
The Society for the Development of Austrian Economics has just announced the details on its annual dinner at business meetings at the Southern Economic Association meetings in San Antonio TX next month. Details are below. If you'd like to attend, please click here to email the [...]
I've written much on Marxism and made a bit of a dent. Got away from it for a few years, but now Hardt and Negri's most recent book, published on October 1st, draws my attention. I'm [...]
Rereading Lachmann's articles, I was impressed that he could say and contribute so much in so few pages. And hardly any have "A Note" in the title. Today's journal articles in non-formal and non-econometric outlets (such as the RAE and ROPE, for example) are quite [...]
In 2002, my brilliant colleague Bryan Caplan challenged me to a debate on whether or not someone should pursue a career as an Austrian economist. Bryan argued no, I argued yes, and the debate in my opinion basically turns on a few points about what it actually means [...]
written by David L. Prychitko
I recall Daniel Fusfeld once claiming at a conference that the stock market reaches equilibrium every day. "At the end of the day we have one price for each stock," he remarked. I was a young economist at the time, but even I knew better and shook my head [...]
For the past year economists (across the ideological, methodological, and analytical spectrum) have fixed their attention on the financial crisis. Rightfully so, I would argue. But we need to remember that when we shine an intellectual flashlight on one topic, we often leave other [...]
A good friend of mine sent me this graph. He points out that gold is up 500% over the last decade, the only other thing up that much is debt at all levels. How would you interpret the graph?
HT: Ed Weick
Today is Professor Buchanan's 90th birthday. Professor Buchanan revitalized the discipline of economics and political economy with his pioneering research in public finance and public choice. But I think he doesn't get enough credit for his amazing contribution as a teacher [...]
Tyler Cowen was honored today at GMU for his contributions to scholarship. It was a well deserved recognition, and Tyler's acceptance speech was perhaps the most gracious one I have ever heard at these sorts of occasions.
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences has posted a [...]
Steven Horwitz
FEE has just added a bunch of new videos to its collection. This time it is all of the lectures from this past summer's seminar in " Advanced Austrian Economics." There are links to the videos and to "audio only." Thanks very much to Mike Van Winkle [...]
Much of the contemporary discussion on appropriate Fed policy focuses on technical questions in monetary theory. Consider the recent discussion on CATO Unbound. Also look at the comments on this blog made by Steve Horwitz and Bill Woolsey over the past year regarding monetary equilibrium theory and policy. [...]
to wish co-blogger Chris a very happy birthday. Aside from his long list of publications, Chris does a terrific job editing the Review of Austrian Economics as well as organizing the SDAE dinner the last few years. Hope it's a good one Chris!
I don't know how many this is for [...]
David L. Prychitko
In the September 28 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science University of Michigan researchers found a negative correlation between recessions and mortality rates:
Population health did not decline and indeed generally improved duringSteven Horwitz
Born today in 1881, Ludwig von Mises was one of the 20th century's most important intellectuals and one of its most passionate defenders of freedom. He is the economics equivalent of the giants of all the other disciplines (e.g., Einstein). And as Mario Rizzo notes over at [...]
David L. Prychitko
After listening to Russ Roberts' podcast interview with Tyler Cowen, and his case for the possible intellectual productivity of Twitter, I've signed up myself. No, I won't be twitting (is that what it's called?) about my hair.
Steven Horwitz
Last July when I spoke at "Evenings at FEE," I did an interview with the guys from Motorhome Diaries. Earlier that day, Wayne Olson the chair of FEE's board took them on a tour of the mansion and gave them a history of FEE and a sense [...]
Alex Tabarrok links together the separate discussion from 2 Nobel Prize winners -- Stiglitz and Prescott -- on how the environment of fear generated both the crisis last year and the policy responses. Stiglitz says "Economics would have suggested that if you did a debt to [...]
In the comment section of Mario Rizzo's excellent blog post on the policy of reinflating the bubble, Jerry O'Driscoll explains what is going on:
I think it is both economics and politics. Anna Schwartz remarked that Ben Bernanke studied the Great Depression, but learned the wrong lesson. He is [...]David L. Prychitko
I apologize for filling up this blog by posting links to my articles within the past couple days. But this one should be of great interest to our readers. No more self-promotion after this.
I went to GMU in 1984 to study under Don Lavoie, having discovered his early [...]
David L. Prychitko
I spent quite a bit of time reading, and trying to make sense of, Habermas's works. That began in the late 1980s and continued up to a couple years ago. It was a difficult and time-consuming process, but I thought his effort in political economy (backed by [...]
Peter Boettke, Steve Horwitz, Chris, Dave Prychitko
