Brad DeLong is as mendacious as Paul Krugman
Mr. DeLong delights in telling lies on his blog. Whether it is about people he doesn't like being named after other people he doesn't like or economic policies he refuses to acknowledge DeLong uses his blog as a propaganda tool.
To demonstrate the lengths to which DeLong will go to deceive people you need only examine a recent exchange between him and Don Boudreaux.
Mr. Boudreaux offered to participate in a bet along the lines of the famous Ehrlick-Simon bet decades ago over commodity prices.
Typically DeLong ignored the offer and substituted (what he though was) a ridiculous counter-bet. He then lied about Boudreaux's actions.
Amusingly, and typically for DeLong, his offer of oil at 1973 prices isn't the sure thing he seems to think it is. Because DeLong only looked at the price of oil in terms of dollars he is (consciously or not) ignoring the effects of inflation. Every time we print more dollars we make each dollar worth less in exchange with other commodities like oil.
If I were Don I would happily accept DeLong's challenge and hoist him on his own petard by using the price of oil adjusted for inflation and measured against other commodities such as gold. (Gold is susceptible to many of the same influences that oil is.)
By that measure the current price of oil is near it's 1973 price levels. (1973 is the year the US formally abandoned the gold standard and allowed its currency to "float".) Not only that, but since 2008 oil has lagged gold in terms of price. If history is any guide then the run up in oil prices over the past few years will lead to an even longer period of cheap oil, just as we experienced in the 1980s and 1990s.
It is unlikely that DeLong would accept such a wager. Knowing his past history he'll just ingore it, issue yet another challenge and claim there are no takers.
To demonstrate the lengths to which DeLong will go to deceive people you need only examine a recent exchange between him and Don Boudreaux.
Mr. Boudreaux offered to participate in a bet along the lines of the famous Ehrlick-Simon bet decades ago over commodity prices.
Typically DeLong ignored the offer and substituted (what he though was) a ridiculous counter-bet. He then lied about Boudreaux's actions.
Amusingly, and typically for DeLong, his offer of oil at 1973 prices isn't the sure thing he seems to think it is. Because DeLong only looked at the price of oil in terms of dollars he is (consciously or not) ignoring the effects of inflation. Every time we print more dollars we make each dollar worth less in exchange with other commodities like oil.
If I were Don I would happily accept DeLong's challenge and hoist him on his own petard by using the price of oil adjusted for inflation and measured against other commodities such as gold. (Gold is susceptible to many of the same influences that oil is.)
By that measure the current price of oil is near it's 1973 price levels. (1973 is the year the US formally abandoned the gold standard and allowed its currency to "float".) Not only that, but since 2008 oil has lagged gold in terms of price. If history is any guide then the run up in oil prices over the past few years will lead to an even longer period of cheap oil, just as we experienced in the 1980s and 1990s.
It is unlikely that DeLong would accept such a wager. Knowing his past history he'll just ingore it, issue yet another challenge and claim there are no takers.