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Hayekian Environmental Policy
Just as decentralized knowledge implies economic non-intervention, so too it implies environmental non-intervention. One of the contributions to economics made by the Austrian-school economist...
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The Concept of Profit
The basic concept of “profit” is simple: profit equals revenue minus costs. But “cost” is a complex concept, and “revenue” too is not all that simple, so the economic analysis of “profit” ends up being...
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Some more thoughts on what to do with conspiracy theorists and other...
Just a quick note on a perennial topic… Years ago I met my (now) ex-girlfriends crazy uncle. For whatever reason we ended up talking about how some policy or other was a bad idea. “Oh cool,” I thought,...
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From the Comments: Types of Federalisms, Good and Bad
Adrián‘s response to responses by me and Michelangelo on his initial response to a comment by Michelangelo that I highlighted in a post of mine (whew!) deserves a closer look: Guys, thanks for your...
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Garbage could be beautiful
And I don’t mean in the artistic sense, though that’s an option and one that sheds light on the larger question of what to do with garbage. I recently heard a podcast on garbage incineration; how it’s...
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A Tale of Two Cities (in Santa Cruz, California, USA)
There is a Veterans Hall right in downtown Santa Cruz. It’s called “Veterans Memorial,” says so on its facade. It’s next door to the US Post Office and across the street from a marble monument to...
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Here’s why you should default on your student loans. And here’s why you...
This article popped up on my newsfeed the other day and I (as always) read the headline (“Why I defaulted on my student loans”), looked to see if it was posted by one of my sane or insane Facebook...
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David Friedman on Judging Outside Your Expertise
David Friedman writes: Accepting the views of experts on a question you are not competent to answer for yourself, assuming that you can figure out who they are and what they believe, is often a...
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A question on adverse selection for the economists
I can’t think of an example of adverse selection occurring without asymmetric information. Does anyone else know of one? But as long as I’m here waiting for answers, let me think through an aspect of...
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From the Comments: Libertarians and Love
Rick responds to my question about heartless libertarians: You’re spot on. There’s a mental image I’ve read (and I’m going to butcher this because I don’t remember it clearly) of a moral gradient (I’m...
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A quick thought on justice
I thirst for justice. Sometimes it nearly gets me killed. Driving in Long Island traffic gives me many opportunities to exercise my justice muscle which just reduces my life expectancy by that much...
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What would I ask the president in an interview?
My favorite podcast really hit the Big Time this week. Marc Maron interviewed President Obama last week and released the episode today. Marc Maron does a great job interviewing his guests but this...
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A vision for environmentalists
The sun is setting and people start settling in for bed instead of staying up late and watching TV. As fast as battery technology advances, it’s imperfect so we deal with it by using less electricity...
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Growing Poverty in the US: A Repost (In Honor of Bernie Sanders)
This is an old post, reproduced today in honor of American Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders It’s vital to the liberal narrative that pretty much everything has to go generally downhill...
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Tricks of Unequal Poverty: A Repost (In Honor of Bernie Sanders)
Note: This is an old post, reproduced today in honor of American Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders In the previous installment: I explained how the general standard of living in...
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From the Comments: The Contribution of American Allies to Pax Americana
Dr Stocker answers my concerns about free-riding and rent seeking with this gem: Good points Brandon. On the rent seeking, I think you are broadly correct, but I would offer two qualifications....
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“Just Leave Me Alone Goddammit!”*
The basic argument I want to make is that we’ve been thinking about labor and human capital imprecisely,** and we would do better to think of labor as the selective application of attention, and habit...
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A response to a student
Each week I assign some reading or video. Recently I assigned a series of videos where Bryan Caplan discusses common biases, including the anti-foreign bias One student questioned the benefits of...
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Muddy thinking on child care
Five Thirty Eight had a disappointing discussion of an interesting issue: the cost of child care for working parents. The basic issue is that kids are expensive in time and money. Unfortunately, the...
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The minimum wage still bites
Politicians, pundits and activists jumped on a new literature that asserts that there no negative effects of substantial increases of the minimum wage on employment. Constantly, they cite this new...
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