For those of you who haven’t heard, there’s a drive at thepoint.org to try and shame Paul Krugman into debating Robert P Murphy. If Krugman accepts the debate, the money will be donated to a food bank in NYC. If he doesn’t accept, no one’s accounts ever get charged.
This is a lose-lose for Krugman. If he accepts, the mass Krugman audience will AT LEAST be exposed to an economic theory of smaller government and sounder currency. There’s also a good chance Murphy will beat Krugman.
If he ignores the challenge, Krugman will have to explain on his blog why it isn’t worth an hour of his time to get $100,000 donated to feed poor people.
So donate. Even $5. It won’t be taken from your account unless Krugman accepts. (It’s tax deductable anyway). Tell your friends, make it your facebook status. Krugman is the intellectual rally point of the statist-left, and we have a good chance to bring him down.
Even if you think its a long shot, its a hell of a lot better than voting.
i think it is only a lose-lose if this gets picked up in the mainstream media. if i never read this website (or the coordination problem blog) i would probably never have heard of it.
i am considering donating, though. i mean i would certainly like see krugman answer a few questions on the subject.
the only problem is that if everyone else pays, i won’t have to. so i think i might take my chances and hope to benefit at the expense of others.
What if he accepts the debate, flies to Mises Institute, sits at the podium, and puts headphones on takes a nap instead of debating. Would we get our mone back?
You’re worried Murphy won’t smash Krugman? I admit most Austrians don’t do too well in debates, but from Murphy’s blog he’s taking this pretty seriously. You’re not the first to raise this issue though. His blog is also filled with people expressing doubts, telling him to bone up on certain areas of history, discussing strategy etc. I think he will give an extraordinary performance. He knows the weight of the world is on his shoulders.
I’m afraid that Krugman will make a simple mistake like conflating general price inflation with relative price inflation, and Murphy will spend the entire time trying to remedy this confusion rather than dealing with other significant points. Also, I’m not sure that Murphy is the best choice to debate Krugman; I would ask Roger Garrison, since his work seems to specialize in this sort of thing. Also, Krugman can just appeal to his own authority and win major points with the media/crowd.
Hmm… after searching for many websites to post this on, I’ve concluded that political forums are probably only engaged in by .5% of the US population. Tops.
NYTimes doesn’t appear to have one. Most of the major media outlets don’t. Their homepages try to sell you stuff but there’s no discussion forums or anything. Kind of sad.
I’m surprised this isn’t a bigger deal though. This is waaaaaaay better than voting. And we’re not even fighting anyone. Krugman’s crowd probably wants the debate to go through as much as anyone (which is why i was trying to reach them on a nyt forum…)
That is why I thought it couldn’t work. Too easy to cheat. Especially when it is his opponents putting the money in as opposed to his supporters. But why would his supporters do that? Better to close the lid on debate from their view.
Someone on Murphy’s blog already hinted at a Murphy-Garrison versus Krugman-Delong setup.
I think targetting conservative websites is a good idea. In general, conservatives dislike Krugman, and there are far more conservatives than libertarians.
I’m not an Austrian, so I don’t have a pony in this race, but I really want to see this debate happen.
I don’t know how much it would help, but I could write a column about it in the newspaper. Arizona State University is pretty big and I’ve have people from different states e-mail me about certain columns, so it could help. Do you think it’s worth a try?
I think this is a terrible idea. Krugman’s knowledge of AE is very rudimentry at best. Even Murphy is not well versed in Keynesian ways. As such this will turn into a intellectual bullying instead of debate.
what does Murphy want out of this debate anyway? Scoring one up on Krugman won’t amount to much.
We are far better of introspecting and debating ourselves.
The worse Krugman does, the better. Imagine when the youtube of the video gets put up, and Murphy opens with the Austrian critique, and then goes to Krugman who spends 20 minutes doing crossword puzzles. Not only will EVERYONE with a backbone think its incredibly rude to waste the time, energy, and money of so many people, but it will lend plausibility to the idea that Krugman is a hack.
What? This is the next best thing to debating Bernanke or Obama. He’s an idol for the intellectual left.
I’ve read about this from the recent article by Murphy on the Mises Daily, but has there been anything posted about what topics are to be discussed and is there a time limit for giving a position? If there isn’t a list of topics or if Murphy hasn’t posted one should the forum come up with a list of what’s to be discussed such as theory, business cycles, and the current crisis?
