Agree -- the whole argument starts off with a false premise. I'm not surprised. The author, John Cochrane, a 'freshwater economist' (look it up), always sound

Agree -- the whole argument starts off with a false premise. I'm not surprised. The author, John Cochrane, a 'freshwater economist' (look it up), always sounds to my ears like a broken record: I can usually guess, a priori, what position he will take, and often even what his arguments will be, in response to any economic issue -- occasionally by torturing the facts, as in this case. To his credit, sometimes he can change his mind -- here's an example: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/anti-keynesian-revisionism/ http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/anti-keynesian-r...