Gary North on “how Robert Murphy is painting Paul Krugman into an ever-smaller corner”:
This is the cleverest polemical strategy I have seen in years.
Austrian School economist Robert Murphy has challenged Nobel Prize-winning Keynesian Paul “the stimulus was too small” Krugman to a public debate over Keynesianism and economic recovery.
Normally, Krugman could easily brush this off. “Who are you, maggot? I’m a New York Times pundit.”
So, Murphy came up with a great idea. There is a charitable outfit that creates what I call triggered giving. You register to donate money to a cause, but your credit card does not get dinged unless a specified event takes place. You know in advance what this event is. The outfit gets 5%. That’s a good deal for everyone.
Murphy set up a pot of money for poor people in New York City. Debate-lovers register to donate. They set their personal limits. If Krugman shows up and debates, the pot fills up with money in one shot. The poor people are helped.
If Krugman refuses to show up, the empty pot gets larger. I call it the Bleeding Heart Guilt-O-Meter. It forces Krugman to say, 24×7:
“I am so scared of meeting a little-known Austrian School economist in a structured debate that I would rather see lots of poor people go hungry. When it comes to reducing poverty, count me out.”
6:14 pm on October 29, 2010
