Author Archives: pilkingtonphil

About pilkingtonphil

Philip Pilkington is a macroeconomist and investment professional. Writing about all things macro and investment. Views my own.You can follow him on Twitter at @philippilk.

Libertarian Paternalism is Clearly an Oxymoron

Posted on January 16, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Blackwhite…this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Theory | 7 Comments

Shadow-boxing with DSGE Models

Posted on January 15, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Lars Syll has recently linked to a post by Noah Smith criticising DSGE models. Criticising DSGE models is the latest fad in mainstream macroeconomics — hey, it’s easy to use the model that was in fashion just before the crisis … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory | 6 Comments

Berkeley’s ‘Master Argument’ Doesn’t Exist

Posted on January 3, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

In 1974 the philosopher Andre Gallois published an article in The Philosophical Review entitled Berkeley’s Master Argument. In the article Gallois picks one quote from Berkeley’s Three Dialogues that he then goes on to say constitutes Berkeley’s supposed ‘Master Argument’. … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | 6 Comments

A Short Note on a Connection Between Marginalist Economics and Folk Medicine

Posted on January 2, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

One peculiar aspect of modern marginalist economics is its obsession with equilibrium. I was recently re-listening to an excellent lecture given by Joan Robinson in Stanford in 1974 entitled ‘What is Wrong With Neoclassical Economics?‘. The entire lecture is about … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory, Psychology | 8 Comments

2013 in review

Posted on January 1, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 60,000 times in 2013. If it were a … Continue reading →

Posted in Media/Journalism | Leave a comment

Comments on Feyerabend’s ‘Against Method’ III: Intellectual Support for Mainstream Economics

Posted on December 30, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

If you read Feyerabend’s Against Method closely and you take the argument seriously a rather unnerving fact comes to light: namely, that the argument contained therein lends full intellectual support to mainstream marginalist economics. While the theories of philosophers like, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory, Philosophy | 1 Comment

A Quick Note on Michael Emmett Brady’s Paper on Keynes and Probability

Posted on December 29, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” — Matthew 7:7 Michael Emmett Brady’s paper Keynes, Mathematics and Probability: A Reappraisal is a bizarre piece of … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory, Statistics and Probability | 1 Comment

Interest Rates and Animal Spirits: A Response to JW Mason

Posted on December 28, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

JW Mason has an interesting post on the interest rate over at his Slackwire blog. In it he basically tries to resuscitate Keynes’ theory of liquidity preference as that which determines the interest rate on various assets. I think that … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory | 4 Comments

Understanding Why the US Stimulus Package Worked While the Spanish Package Did Not

Posted on December 28, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

A couple of days ago I wrote a quick post comparing Spain and the US after their recessions in 2007/2008 and the government responses. The post was based on the premise that the US government had engaged in active stimulus … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Policy | 18 Comments

How the US Fiscal Stimulus Worked and Why Spain is Still Stuck in a Rut

Posted on December 24, 2013 by pilkingtonphil

So, I’ve been debating an economist called Mark A. Sadowski over at Scott Sumner’s TheMoneyIllusion blog. The debate started on my blog when we were debating the effects of the QE programs on my post a few days back but … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Policy | 15 Comments