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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Where Angels Fear To Tread

The ever so genteel Ramesh Ponnuru makes the mistake of replying to the Walking Rothbardian Dead.  

P.S. Here is my take on the Ponnuru piece that started all of this commotion.

12 comments:

  1. It's funny how Wenzel somehow comes to the conclusion that Ponnuru is endorsing a price level target. His whole critique is a non sequitur.

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  2. Bizarre...who is this man? Obviously somebody with out any degree in economics. Too bad the US right have been completely taken over by the crackpot segment.

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  3. Hey now, don't go slandering us do-not-have-an-economics-degree folks. I'm sure Wenzel's issues go far beyond any lack of qualifications.

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  4. Lee, sorry man;-) Being a economist is really a mental state...so you are qualified.

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  5. Austrians regularly respond to disagree with, 'you mustn't have read , or you would definitely agree with me about everything.' Then they say, 'don't worry, I'll summarise that 500 page book for you in a few paragraphs to get you up to speed, and I'll do it while insulting your intelligence and integrity.' When this tactic does not get immediate results, the typical reaction is something like 'how can you deny the apodictic certainty of my arguments!? You no longer even have an excuse and, therefore, must be evil.'

    Why must they be so much like Krugman? The irony is so tragic that it hurts my prefrontal cortex. I just despair for rationality sometimes.

    Totally off-topic. Gay marriage should, like, totally be legal, because, like, I have an old dictionary that defines 'gay' as being happy, and nobody is against happy marriages, am I right? QED.

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  6. Erm ... that first sentence is supposed to read:

    'Austrians regularly respond to disagreements with, 'you mustn't have read *insert Austrian text here*, or you would definitely agree with me about everything.'

    Blogger decided to remove some of the original text because I used the tag symbols. Didn't know it would do that.

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  7. Lars, he has to be taken seriously since his site is not a blog but a journal, the esteemed Economic Policy Journal ;)

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  8. I made the same mistake once and learned my lesson: http://macromarketmusings.blogspot.com/2011/01/austrians-attempt-beckworth-smackdown.html

    The one Rothbardian Austrian I like and follow is Bob Murphy. We disagree often, but I do enjoy his sense of humor and willingness to engage the rest of us.

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  9. I am surprise this one: http://marketmonetarist.com/2012/02/11/i-am-blaming-murray-rothbard-for-my-writers-block/

    ...did not spark any hate mails. Instead it was only the friend non-Rothbardian Austrians who responded. And of course Bob M.

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  10. Bob Murphy is very good. I met him once, but felt like I made a fool of myself :(

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  11. I'd add Paul Kasriel, Chief Economist at Northern Trust, to Bob Murphy, as Austrians worth following.

    The rest of them, like the MMT folks, seem like dogmatic religious crackpots.

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  12. The only thing I'd add is that the fools rushing in are the Paulista regulars, flooding the EPJ comments with variations of "lol" and "git 'im Wenzel!"

    Lee Kelly's point hits too close to home. I had Steve Horwitz and co. use that tack against me the very first time I posted on his blog when in defending a daring alternate explanation for something or other, I inadvertently insulted the reputation of that most relevant conservative economist, Thomas Sowell, by calling him a columnist. Thankfully Daniel Kuhen had a witty thing to say in my defense :)

    I like Bob Murphy too, though he's going to get himself in trouble with his religious discussions sometime. (I'll probably be there, as my philosophical understanding develops.)

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