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Jim Manzi is a private-sector expert in statistical analysis . He is my favorite commentator on the economics of climate change, because he dove into the IPCC reports and found that the proposed legislative “cures” (cap-and-trade or carbon-tax laws) are arguably worse than the disease, even according to the “consensus” numbers. Lately, Manzi has

In last Monday’s article I discussed Jim Manzi’s debate with economist Karl Smith. I pointed out that Smith’s evidence in favor of mainstream macroeconomic models was actually consistent with the view that fiscal and monetary “stimulus” policies only stoke economic crises. In the present article, I’ll show a different example of this same pattern.

For his Sunday column, Paul Krugman wrote a piece titled “ When Zombies Win. “ Krugman claims that “free-market fundamentalists” — including Ron Paul — have been successful politically, despite being thoroughly discredited by recent events. As we’ll see, it’s a good thing that these ideas of shrinking government refuse to die, no matter how often

Lately the supporters of big government have deployed an interesting twist to their arguments, claiming that it is a dirty right-wing lie that government has grown under the Obama administration. Unlike arguments over economic theory, surely this should be an objective exercise in looking up the facts. As we’ll see, yes Virginia there is indeed a

They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Indeed, a recent New York magazine article — with the dubious title “The Trouble With Liberty” — includes pithy quotes from Mises Institute president Doug French, which should appeal to open-minded readers. But even though the New York author, Christopher Beam, tries to be fair to libertarians, in

As a service to readers of the Mises Daily, I immerse myself in the sometimes-stultifying skirmishes of the economics blogosphere. Recently, those arguing that the solution to our current economic woes involves a pumping up of “aggregate demand” seem to have scored a major victory over the economists who believe the housing boom led to real

As many readers already know, last week Paul Krugman linked to one of my Mises Daily articles explaining the importance of capital theory in any discussion of the business cycle. Although Krugman graciously described my fable about sushi-eating islanders as “the best exposition I’ve seen yet of the Austrian view that’s sweeping the GOP,” naturally

At current rates of spending, the federal government may bump up against its debt limit as early as March . Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warns that it will be “catastrophic to the economy” if Congress doesn’t increase Uncle Sam’s credit limit. Writers in conservative outlets call for Republicans to use this opportunity to extract

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal , Alan Blinder listed numerous alleged benefits of a phased-in carbon tax. Out of his entire column, he devoted a single sentence to the possible downside of his plan when he wrote, “No one likes to pay higher taxes.” A more balanced assessment shows that a carbon tax presents very real dangers, even

One of the most important concepts in economic theory is the quantity of money. However, when going from theory to practical application, things get messy. In the real world, it’s not obvious how to count up the amount of “money” in the economy at any given time. Because of this ambiguity, economists have developed several different “monetary