Logical Fallacies

Neil Wilson sends me this handy chart, which I am passing along.

Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies.

Click on an icon for a description of the fallacy it represents.

Here's another good one.

Philosophical Referee Hand Signals
(h/t Anonymous in the comments)

Robert Skidelsky — Does Debt Matter?

Trashes the government is a big household analogy of debt. Bravo.

Read it a Project Syndicate
Does Debt Matter?
Robert Skidelsky
(h/t Ralph Musgrave via email)

Lord Skidelsky is Keynes biographer and Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University.

Seven principles for arguing with economists — Noah Smith

Good logical analysis by Noah Smith

Read it at Noahpinion
Seven principles for arguing with economists
by Noah Smith

Principle 4: Argument by accounting identity almost never works.

Example: "But your theory is wrong, because Y = C + I + G!"

Suggested Retort: "If my theory violates an accounting identity, wouldn't people have noticed that before? Wouldn't this fact be common knowledge?"

Reason You're Right: Accounting identities are mostly just definitions. Very rarely do definitions tell us anything useful about the behavior of variables in the real world. The only exception is when you have a very good understanding of the behavior of all but one of the variables in an accounting identity, in which case the accounting identity acts like a budget constraint. But that is a very rare situation indeed.

 Notice, however, the "almost." This is the theoretical aspect MMT, which uses stock-flow consistent modeling and the sectoral approach developed by Wynne Godley to estimate the size of the government balance necessary to counterbalance the non-government balance.

Ralph Musgrave — Lump of labor fallacy and shortening the world week

Read it at Ralphonomics
Think(?)tank advocates shorter working hours as cure for unemployment.

by Ralph Musgrave