There's something rotten about Paul Krugman's recent column, "Something Not Rotten in Denmark". Actually, quite a few rotten things about it. Tom Woods and Robert P. Murphy tackle it in their latest episode of their new weekly podcast, Contra Krugman, in which I'm honored to receive a mention.
Long story short, while Krugman holds Denmark up as an example of how socialism works, when in fact, despite its large welfare state and high taxes, it ranks higher than even the US in the Economic Freedom Index.
Murphy points out how Krugman mocks the idea that unemployment benefits could be a disincentive to work even while tacitly acknowledging that Denmark's welfare state has resulted in people working less: GDP per capita is lower there, he argues, "mainly because the Danes take a lot more vacation".
In that context, Murphy cites a previous post of mine on Krugman's intellectual dishonesty about unemployment benefits, in which I point out that Krugman, in his own 2009 economic textbook, Macroeconomics (Second Edition), states that "The drawback" to unemployment benefits "is that it reduces a worker’s incentive to quickly find a new job." Then I go even further into Krugman's intellectual dishonesty in my post.
Click here to read my post "Paul Krugman’s Intellectual Dishonesty: Unemployment Benefits".
And click here to listen to Woods and Murphy set the record straight on the example of Denmark.
