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Monthly Archives: October 2013
Epicurean Philosophy as Progenitor to Marginalism
As is often pointed out marginalist economics tends to be characterised primarily by a couple of distinct axioms that operate ‘under the surface’ to produce its key results. Varoufakis and Ansperger neatly characterise these as: the axiom of methodological individualism; … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy
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Did Irish Austerity Really Lead to an Increase in Competitiveness?
Ever since the austerity programs began in Europe after the crisis of 2008 Ireland has been a poster boy. Even though the economy has crumbled enthusiasts still point to the improved current account balance which they claim is due to … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy, Politics
3 Comments
The Economics of the Royal Mail Privatisation
The privatisation of Royal Mail will begin tomorrow when the final launch price of the shares and their allocation will be announced. How are these shares likely to perform? Well, if history is any guide, they will perform fabulously well. … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Policy
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Paul Krugman Misses Key Component of His Own Model
John McHale over at Irish Economy has written a post on the possibility of a default by a sovereign currency issuer. In the post he discusses Paul Krugman’s stripped-down Mundell-Fleming model in which Krugman shows that a country issuing a … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory
3 Comments
Matter and Models
What if all the world’s inside of your head Just creations of your own? You can live in this illusion You can choose to believe You keep looking but you can’t find the woods While you’re hiding in the trees … Continue reading
Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy
7 Comments
The Theory of Relativity: Anticipated at the Turn of the Seventeenth Century by George Berkeley
Bishop George Berkeley is, in my opinion, the most profound philosopher ever to have written. He came up with many ideas in the early modern period — that is, around the beginning of the 18th century — that were only … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
2 Comments
Faith-Based Arguments in Empirical, Causal and Probabilistic Reasoning
David Hume is today the philosopher most often associated with what might be termed ‘radical empiricism’. The problem, of course, as I have pointed out on this blog before, is that he was not the originator of what should properly … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Statistics and Probability
2 Comments
The Economist Magazine, Marxism and the Conventional Wisdom
This morning I came across a rather awful piece on The Economist‘s website entitled A Marxist Theory is (Sort Of) Right. The piece is indicative of what I think to be a far more general trend in contemporary intellectual life: … Continue reading
Posted in Media/Journalism, Politics
15 Comments
The Holy Grail: Distractions in Econometrics and Economic Modelling
Lars Syll ran an interesting piece today on the “confounder” problem in econometrics. This is basically the problem of how do we tell that if there is a relationship between, say, A and B that it is not, in actual … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Statistics and Probability
3 Comments
The (Brief) Rise and (Inevitable) Fall of Gold
Gold fell rather precipitously yesterday and it appears that many in the markets are scratching their heads. “Why,” they think, “is gold falling in price in the face of a looming government shutdown and a recent indication by the Fed … Continue reading
Posted in Market Analysis
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Fixing the Economists 