Hmmm no idea who that is. I find it pretty hard to believe he "wussed out" though. I went back and searched his twitter from December through February and he doesn't mention that guy once. However, he does mention every other event he's planning to attend. I'm assuming he never accepted the debate because he had something more important to do with something more relevant to his campaign.

Also, about a week later (January 17) he debated Jeff Miron (director of Harvard economics department) about HBI. If he's not afraid of Miron I HIGHLY doubt he's afraid of your guy.

Regarding his "butchering every piece of economic scholarship" the dude has a BA in economics from Brown, and a law degree from Columbia. I kinda doubt that's true.