Monday, July 30, 2012

Is Paul Krugman's Life About to Become More Difficult?

Wow, breaking news from Tom Woods.

Woods, Bob Murphy and Gary North have apparently hatched a plan to put make things very uncomfortable for Krugman.

Tom explains:
Some of you know about Bob Murphy’s debate challenge. If you don’t — and heck, even if you do — visit KrugmanDebate.com. Make sure you understand the specifics before saying, “Krugman will never do it.” Murphy has made it hard for Krugman to say no, given the money that would go to charity if it occurred.

I talked to Gary North, a marketing genius, about this over the weekend. He already knew about the debate challenge, but as we were talking he came up with a great idea. I am not sure Bob will do it. I hope he does. It would inflict pain on Krugman, week after week. It would do so humorously. It may inflict so much pain as to force Krugman to debate. As a pleasant side effect, it would put Bob on the map in a way far beyond what he has already achieved, which is itself considerable.

Here’s an excerpt from North’s members-only article today:

The trick for Murphy is to smoke Krugman out. He must inflict so much humiliation on Krugman for not debating him that Krugman will be forced to take him on.

I have a plan. It is risk-free for Murphy and could be permanently disastrous for Krugman. It involves the use of YouTube. It involves the strategic use of ridicule. But the form of ridicule will leave Murphy untouchable. That’s because it will involve humor
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Read the rest here.

8 comments:

  1. Dear Mr Wenzel
    I really do not think Krugman is worthy to be mentioned on your website at all and Libertarians and Austrians give him far too much attention. He is an academic with little common sense and should be ignored like one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many other people take him seriously who aren't going to stop doing so by us ignoring him.

      Delete
  2. Also, I would make fun of Krugman when he smirks at a good question, or when his opponents are speaking. (watch the Paul debates)

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  3. You would think Bob's choice of charity and the quantity - $100,000 to The Food Bank of NYC, the charity equivalent of Spanish Fly to your typical NYT reader - would have been enough.

    This is going to be fun.

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  4. Wow, quite disgusting that a serious economics blog would try to humiliate Krugman into debating. Way to make yourselves get taken seriously.

    Meanwhile, George Mason U and NYU austrians continue to gain relevance. Wonder why. It's sad Murphy still associates with all of you.

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    Replies
    1. Meanwhile, George Mason U and NYU "austrians" continue to gain relevance. /fixed

      You mean like the free market chicago school?

      Delete
    2. Any relevance the GMU and NYU "economists" gained has been due to a spill over effect from Ron Paul and the Mises Institute.

      Their work, including academic articles, blog posts, etc... has been mediocre at best. The sum of all their work wouldn't match the work produced by one contemporary LvMI associated scholar, whether it's Hoppe, Block, Woods, or de Soto.

      Delete
  5. Krugman has said before that he doesn't want that debate because he doesn't want it to be about "gotcha" type lines. Basically he was implying that there would be a lot of pressure and he possibly wouldn't have his best debate that day and so it would seem like he lost. To me, the response would be "we'll arrange the debate in a way that allows you time to come up w/ your answer". Maybe a written debate?

    ReplyDelete