Stefan Karlsson Archives
The Reality Of The U.S. Recession
Today on LRC I explain why America really is in a recession and has been so since at least November last year despite the seemingly positive growth (Which as I explain really isn't positive). So if you haven't already read it, do it now.
The Real Problem With Non-Austrian Economics
Thorsten Polleit argues in case of Misesian apriorism (praxeology) within economics at the this web site. The article has many good points and should for that reason be read, but I have two problems with it.
First of all, it bases the case for praxeology on Kantian epistemology. A better case can be made using Aristotelian/Objectivist epistemology, like Murray Rothbard did, and like I did in my University essay in Theoretical philosophy(not online).
Secondly, in my experience, neoclassical micro economic theory or New Classical or New Keynesian macro economic theory is not particularly empirical. They are at least as aprioristic as praxeology, and in one sense they are in fact even more aprioristic.
While Kantian and Aristotelian/Objectivist Austrians will argue over whether the origin of the praxeological axioms can be viewed as empirical or not, they are certainly empirical in the sense that we do meet them in applied form in our daily experience. I for example act daily, face a scarcity of time and other resources, and face a uncertain future, and thus face opportunity costs in every action I take, but ultimately choose one action based on my assessment of what will be most beneficial for me, and so on.
By contrast, neoclassical micro economic theory is to a large extent completely disconnected from the empirical reality that real people face. Instead, it ludicrously asserts that economic action can be described as functions of differential equations and various other advanced mathematical functions such as Lagrange multipliers and matrix algebra.
Continue reading "The Real Problem With Non-Austrian Economics" »
Myths About The Monetary Base And Bank Reserves
One of the hottest (if not the hottest) intra-Austrian debates today is between what is sometimes referred to as deflationists and inflationists/stagflationists. This is not a policy debate of course, as all Austrians is anti-inflation, but rather a debate about whether the current recession will be associated with deflation or inflation. Examples of deflationists are Frank Shostak, Mike Shedlock and Gary North while examples of stagflationists include me, Antony Mueller and Peter Schiff. The dispute is largely originated in a dispute over the definition of the money supply. I have already dealt with that issue extensively (see for example here, here and here ) so I will not repeat this here. Instead, I will focus on the appeal made by the deflationists to the development of the monetary base, which have been largely stagnant for the latest year.
The implicit or explicit argument from the deflationists appear to be that 1)The Fed controls the monetary base, so it is a good reflection of how tight its policy is 2) The monetary base determines the money supply, so the stagnant monetary base implies a stagnant money supply. Yet both of these assertions are simply wrong, at least given the current financial structure.
Continue reading "Myths About The Monetary Base And Bank Reserves" »
On the Money Supply definition Issue
February 1, 2008 3:32 PM
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The Future of the Commodity Price Boom
November 21, 2007 6:53 AM
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Greenspan: The Liar, The Fraud
September 18, 2007 6:28 AM
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Myth & Fact About U.S. Health Care
July 19, 2007 3:52 PM
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Australia & The Inverted Yield Curve
June 7, 2007 10:46 AM
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Recession 2007
April 11, 2007 7:54 AM
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Robert Samuelsson Finally Gets It
February 21, 2007 12:56 PM
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"Bernanke Challenged On Inflation"
February 15, 2007 3:54 PM
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China Raises Reserve Requirements Again
January 6, 2007 7:07 AM
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Why Not Understanding ABCT Helps Socialism
November 1, 2006 2:14 AM
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On the Morality of Black Market Activities
October 23, 2006 5:01 AM
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Flow of Funds Report Show U.S. Imbalances Worse Than Ever
September 23, 2006 8:56 AM
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Alan Reynolds' Defense of the Fed
August 10, 2006 11:22 AM
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The Sweden Myth
August 7, 2006 5:56 AM
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China's Revaluation-One Year Later
July 23, 2006 2:53 PM
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The Futility of Inflation-Targeting
June 27, 2006 3:55 AM
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So Now It's Core Core Inflation?
June 14, 2006 11:37 AM
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Bernanke-Hawk or Black Hawk?
June 6, 2006 11:49 AM
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Germany's Destructive Tax Increase
May 21, 2006 4:26 PM
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How Norway Contributes to Global Imbalances
May 17, 2006 4:35 PM
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BIS Publishes Semi-Austrian Monetary Policy Analysis
May 4, 2006 3:29 PM
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Fed "Falling Behind The Curve"?
April 30, 2006 1:25 PM
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Norway's Biggest Party Quotes Mises, Rothbard, Hoppe in Ideology Course
April 4, 2006 11:07 AM
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Richard Salsman's Confused Review of Greenspan
March 22, 2006 10:03 AM
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Supply-Side Split Over Inflation
February 22, 2006 9:44 AM
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Greenspan Revisionism From Samuelsson and Boudreaux
February 5, 2006 4:01 PM
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Israel Kirzner Receives Award From Swedish Government Agency
January 25, 2006 4:05 PM
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The Real Reason Why M3 is Abolished
January 14, 2006 11:52 AM
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The Outlook for the Dollar
January 9, 2006 3:39 PM
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The Mess Greenspan Leaves
December 26, 2005 8:00 AM
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Observations About the Gold Price Rally
December 10, 2005 5:53 AM
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European Monetary Policy Analyzed
December 7, 2005 11:36 AM
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Currency Manipulation in China And Japan
December 5, 2005 12:29 PM
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European Inflation Idiocy
November 2, 2005 3:18 AM
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Inflation and Supply-Side Economics
October 14, 2005 10:50 AM
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A Message to Bush-Critics
October 1, 2005 2:46 PM
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Higher House Prices Really is a Price Increase
September 27, 2005 12:16 PM
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The Global Inflationary Trend
September 24, 2005 11:57 AM
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Murray Rothbard With a Texas Accent
September 13, 2005 10:54 AM
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Why Is Inflation So Popular?
September 12, 2005 2:23 PM
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Fact-checking at NRO
September 2, 2005 12:02 PM
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Stop quoting Bastiat!
August 31, 2005 2:43 PM
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Swedish FDI falls to zero "despite" the welfare state
August 26, 2005 2:09 AM
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About Bush's tax and spend policies
August 18, 2005 1:53 PM
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Is the housing boom slowing?
August 9, 2005 11:09 AM
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The Fallacy of the "Core" Rate of Inflation
August 5, 2005 9:39 AM
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Democracy-worship taken one step further
August 3, 2005 2:23 PM
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The Economist: Austrian school provides the best explanation
July 31, 2005 4:49 PM
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Paul Krugman on Toyota, Southerners and the welfare state
July 25, 2005 3:28 PM
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About the Chinese currency reform
July 22, 2005 9:08 AM
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Governments using markets to manipulate the economy
July 21, 2005 2:43 PM
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The Economist on the ECB-correct facts (at last!)-confused theories
July 15, 2005 3:15 PM
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Connecting the dots
July 14, 2005 11:18 AM
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Greenspan's Mysterious Conundrum
July 12, 2005 7:53 AM
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Fed official: our activities are incompatible with market economy
July 9, 2005 3:08 PM
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What? Low interest rates don't ensure economic prosperity?
June 7, 2005 3:29 PM
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Hong Kong shows how to reduce budget deficits
June 6, 2005 3:30 AM
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Paul Krugman now promotes "hangover theory" he "refuted"
May 27, 2005 10:35 AM
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US government: 36% price increase is really deflation
May 18, 2005 11:53 AM
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The Future of the World Economy
April 29, 2005 8:14 AM
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Federal Reserve: central bank policies have no effect
April 27, 2005 11:21 AM
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Older Paul Krugman attack on Austrian economics
April 20, 2005 10:41 AM
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A leftist view of the Economic Freedom Index
April 12, 2005 11:29 AM
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Investment dearth, not savings glut
April 10, 2005 3:12 PM
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Norwegian government to force companies to have more female board members
April 8, 2005 4:31 PM
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Shocking news: Greenspan says credit expansion is a good thing
April 8, 2005 3:22 PM
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Clinton minimum wage increase repealed
March 23, 2005 9:48 AM
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What are we to make of the trade deficit
March 21, 2005 5:05 AM
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Government spending increases growth?
March 20, 2005 3:47 PM
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Good joke about "core" inflation
March 18, 2005 3:31 AM
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Economic Freedom Indexes: Fraser vs. Heritage
March 12, 2005 11:35 AM
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Several landmark debt levels reached
March 11, 2005 11:13 AM
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Bush the budget-cutter?
February 7, 2005 2:47 PM
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Government entitlements create a entitlement culture-how suprising
February 3, 2005 11:44 AM
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Randians go from Mises to supply-side economics
February 3, 2005 10:45 AM
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Is capital gains income?
February 2, 2005 10:38 AM
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GDP report worse than it seems
January 28, 2005 1:58 PM
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Send it down the memory hole
January 27, 2005 9:27 AM
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The Failings of the Economic Freedom Index
January 21, 2005 7:45 AM
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EU strikes at tsunami-hit Thailand
January 20, 2005 10:12 AM
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China is not the problem
January 13, 2005 11:27 AM
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Flawed Economic Freedom Index
January 7, 2005 10:37 AM
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Alan Reynolds' housing bubble denial
January 6, 2005 8:16 AM
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The dollar standard allows the U.S. to default on its debt
November 23, 2004 3:04 PM
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Australia's inflationary boom
November 22, 2004 6:33 AM
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America's Unsustainable Boom
November 8, 2004 7:39 AM
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Edward Prescott on the substitution effect
October 12, 2004 11:23 AM
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US Current account deficit at new record
September 15, 2004 11:47 AM
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"Free market" magazine attacks free markets and thrift in "communist" China
September 10, 2004 9:52 AM
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Of Course Investors Can Beat the Market
September 8, 2004 9:42 AM
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Jonah Goldberg and the effects of interventionism
August 30, 2004 4:19 AM
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Larry Kudlow on forecasting, taxes and deficits
August 1, 2004 3:00 PM
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Does the Income Effect Argue for Taxes?
July 27, 2004 7:54 AM
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The only thing worse than liberal economists....
June 27, 2004 12:41 PM
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The Economist on inflation
June 17, 2004 3:32 PM
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Core hoax
June 15, 2004 9:54 AM
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The Blessings of Deflation in Japan
May 18, 2004 10:54 AM
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