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Political Economy
A Category Archive (237 entries)
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November 14, 2008
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
I have been invited to speak for ten minutes on the financial crisis. As you will see below, I do not agree so much with President Bush (via Mankiw). Unlike the President, I see no benefit in putting credit default... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Wilkinson, that is: We're going to get lectured a lot-probably by many of the same twenty-five year olds who have invested heavily in home decor featuring presidential power porn-on how the failure of this or that is due to a... MORE
November 13, 2008
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Consider two propositions: 1. Market failure is inevitable. 2. Government failure is inevitable. In talking about the financial crisis, I believe that to speak the truth one has to accept both propositions. Most people prefer narrative, which either explicitly or... MORE
November 12, 2008
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
The Associated Press reports, Under the law, companies facing shortfalls must bring their plans up to full funding over the next seven years. Those that fall short will be forced to take steps such as freezing the accrual of new... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
The new issue of Cato Unbound promises to be interesting. It starts with an essay by Roderick Long. because corporate power and the free market are actually antithetical; genuine competition is big business's worst nightmare. But also, in all too... MORE
November 11, 2008
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Megan McArdle writes Money is weird. Finance is weird. There is no other industry that is, first, so tightly coupled, and second, severely affects every other industry in the country. She Is trying to ward off cognitive dissonance over the... MORE
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Below are various links, including some that pertain to AIG. The government is eventually planning to sell the normal insurance lines of AIG. The proceeds from those sales then can be used to fund losses on the credit default swaps... MORE
November 10, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
P. J. O.Rourke writes, The free market is just a measurement, a device to tell us what people are willing to pay for any given thing at any given moment. The free market is a bathroom scale. You may hate... MORE
November 3, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
From Patri Friedman. Only without political freedom can economic freedom thrive (see Hong Kong, Singapore). With political freedom (democracy) comes a welfare state and loss of economic freedom.... MORE
October 31, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Some random thoughts. 1. In my county, and in many locations in the U.S., we have had one-party government for longer than the Communists had control of Eastern Europe. 2. In spite of the fact that Congressional approval ratings are... MORE
October 30, 2008
Political Economy
David Henderson
I hadn't read Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom cover to cover for over 20 years. Today I did. I knew it was a good book but I concluded today that it's a great book. Here are two of the... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
From The Tax Foundation The Treasury action invalidating SILO depreciation deductions encouraged the banks to look for any opportunity to get out of the contracts. The situation is exacerbated by an IRS settlement offer to banks that lets them keep... MORE
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Arnold Kling
I recommend this lecture from Bill Bishop. By the way, I am finding an incredible amount of interesting videos these days. I think that somebody who is motivated to learn and has some good sources of recommendations could get do... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, I wonder what it is like for a country to be truly, permanently bankrupt. And a further difficulty lies on the horizon. Circa 2000, fish accounted for 70 percent of the country's export earnings. Here are many... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
From Don Boudreaux. The fact that each of us depends upon the efforts of millions of others does not mean that some "society" transcending individuals produces our prosperity. Rather, it means that the vast system of voluntary market exchange coordinates... MORE
October 29, 2008
Fiscal Policy
Arnold Kling
John Baden writes, there is diminishing support for institutions that generate wealth rather than redistribute it...both positive and negative values increasingly converge and agglutinate. This promotes substantial class differences. If one is blessed with responsible parents, intelligence, favorable genetics, health,... MORE
October 24, 2008
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Megan McArdle has written about the evil man theory (also here). The key to a narrative of evil is that someone knew. Early in the crisis, we were hearing that banks knew that the loans they were making were headed... MORE
October 19, 2008
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen invokes Fischer Black. in his 1991 book, "Business Cycles and Equilibrium," and his 1995 work, "Exploring General Equilibrium," he argued that major business downturns could be caused by a combination of excess risk-taking and simple bad luck. If... MORE
October 15, 2008
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Tyler keeps wondering whether the bailout (or "bank recapitalization") is going to work. He is asking the wrong questions. Whether the economy needs a "plan," or whether the plan will help the markets, is beside the point. The plan serves... MORE
October 6, 2008
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen puts a lot of the blame for the financial crisis on leverage. He links to Robert Frank, who writes, In financial markets, asset bubbles cause real trouble when investors can borrow freely to expand their holdings. To... MORE
September 28, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
From ABCNews:The main opposition in Congress has come from GOP conservatives, especially in the House. Democrats also hope that, after the compromises, enough House Republicans will vote for the package to give Democrats political cover.From FOXNews:Lawmakers had to navigate between... MORE
September 25, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Here's one of Heinlein's modest proposals for improving democracy:A state that required a bare minimum of intelligence and education - e.g., step into the polling booth and find that the computer has generated a new quadratic equation just for you.... MORE
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
The median voter isn't to blame for everything wrong with the world. Check this out: In Maryland, it's illegal to massage a horse!Mercedes took an eight-month equine massage course and hung up her shingle. She said she so enjoyed massaging... MORE
September 23, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
I am cited by, of all people, David Brooks, for coining the term "progressive corporatism." I guess it goes down easier than "liberal fascism." My original post is here. Should I be happy or unhappy with the way I appear... MORE
September 19, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Roderick Long writes, The vast regulatory apparatus that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was thus specifically campaigned for by the business community. ..The supposedly pro-labour legislation that emerged from this area was also mostly bogus, a... MORE
September 18, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
The Wall Street Journal reports, "No one in a democracy, unelected, should have $800 billion to spend as he sees fit," said Mr. Frank. Andrew Jackson felt similarly, which is why he refused to renew the charter of the second... MORE
September 16, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
From David Brooks. Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared. I still prefer the quote of the day. When I read Bobos in Paradise several years ago,... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Robert Higgs writes, Call it democracy in action or utterly corrupt governance; they are the same thing. He wrote this in regard to the Fannie-Freddie implosion, also known as "last week's news." Next Monday, in Hartford, I will be arguing... MORE
September 12, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Steve Horvitz highlights a quote from Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain: It is through exchange that difference becomes a blessing, not a curse. Alex Tabarrok nominates that for sentence of the year. Next, Jonathan Haidt writes, politics... MORE
September 8, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
I will be a participant in a seminar in a couple of weeks called making democracy smarter. My essay is called competitive government vs. democratic government. I make the case against democracy. Democratic government in the United States today offers... MORE
September 7, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
A newspaper in Anne Arundel County, Maryland reports, the number of school employees earning more than $100,000 doubled from 213 in 2007 to 450 in fiscal 2009, which started in July. ...62 school employees received pay hikes of more than... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Rick Shenkman writes, by most measures, voters today possess the same level of political knowledge as their parents and grandparents, and in some categories, they score lower. In the 1950s, only 10 percent of voters were incapable of citing any... MORE
September 4, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
When I was at the APSA meetings, the famed Arthur Lupia gave yet another speech in defense of voter competence. He offered a long list of arguments. But his most important mistake, in my view, was his claim that voters... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen types, I also think, though, cynically, that the GOP knows that "delivering" on the abortion issue would spell their doom and thus they won't ever do it. I have thought that this holds for the Democrats and universal... MORE
September 2, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Public choice scholars often say that democracy underperforms the market because of: 1. Infrequent choice. In the market, consumers can continuously change their minds. In politics, however, voters are stuck with their choice until the next election. 2. Bundled choice.... MORE
August 29, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Readers have noticed that my tone has been relatively bitter the last several months. One possible reason is that the election campaign is heating up. To me, political campaigns are not sacred events, to be eagerly anticipated and avidly followed.... MORE
August 27, 2008
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Arnold Kling
Bruno S. Frey and Reiner Eichenberger write, externalities are not technologically but rather socially determined. There are no inherent properties of a good or service producing external effects, therefore, citizens have to use the political process to determine what is... MORE
August 26, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Eric Posner writes, People should be more worried than they are by the fragmentation of states. . .in recent years, the main cause has been, essentially, ethnic separatism. . .the resulting nation states can be too small to govern themselves... MORE
August 20, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
How does the liberal elite view the American military? It seems to me that they view the military as a group of basically evil men, inclined to torture and commit war crimes. It would be better if we could do... MORE
August 15, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
I just heard about this story. When Landmarks Association of St. Louis embarked on an ambitious plan to create a tourism-oriented architectural center downtown, Larry Cohn said he wanted to help and eagerly pledged $500,000. After two years of planning,... MORE
August 13, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
James K. Galbraith writes, The job of discipline belongs to governments. And they must act not only on behalf of today's citizens but of all those yet to come - of those who need clean food and water, of those... MORE
August 5, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Nicholas Lemann discusses a book by Arthur Fisher Bentley on political theory that came out one hundred years ago. Under Bentley’s rules, you can’t talk about public opinion, because there is no such thing as “the public” (there are only... MORE
August 4, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
He writes, But what is a confiscatory government? It is just a government run by profit-maximizers. ...There have to be rules, ethical norms and institutional constraints governing profit-maximizing behavior, to ensure that the maximization operates for the social good. Of... MORE
July 31, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
1. A Ship of Nomads. My goal is to build a large ship and put around 100 decent sized condominiums on it for co-owners. The ship would have a few megabits of satellite connectivity for internet and telephone, plus equipment... MORE
July 29, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Marc Pesce delivers a few facts and a lot of breathless prose. Somewhere in the last few months, half the population of the planet became mobile telephone subscribers. In a decade's time we've gone from half the world having never... MORE
July 27, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
John Stewart writes, Global governance is essential if nations are to cooperate to overcome the deficiencies of global markets...It can ensure that nations capture the benefits of their contribution to global social, economic and environmental projects that have collective benefits... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Glenn Reynolds asks, If somebody offered us our current income tax system for the first time, would we buy it? On another topic, but effectively asking the same question, Washington Post editorializes, the policies and institutions that worked in the... MORE
July 25, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
My latest essay: Financial markets will always be subject to miscalculations and mistakes. However, the more we ask politicians to provide perfect insulation from financial risk, the more fragile the system will become. That is the real lesson we should... MORE
July 24, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Think of the following as a diagram: High Collective BenefitsLow Collective BenefitsMostly Market MechanismsMostly Government Mechanisms Along the horizontal axis, as you move to the right, resources are allocated by government mechanisms more than by market mechanisms. Along the vertical... MORE
July 22, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
First, Jesse Larner on Hayek. So to Hayek, the common law is a spontaneous phenomenon, without obvious human direction. In a sense law is related to custom in this manner, but there is no guarantee that honoring this concept of... MORE
July 21, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
John Stossel interviewed me today. (Here's his review of my book). If everything goes as planned, I'll play the foil to some get-out-the-vote activists on a forthcoming 20/20 segment. I'll keep you posted on the airdate. But whatever happens, meeting... MORE
July 18, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
He writes, Someone this week asked me what I thought of policy-makers who ex ante profess a free-market ideology and acute sensitivity to the dangers of moral hazard from financial bailouts, but who toss that ideology overboard when faced with... MORE
July 16, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Robin Hanson writes, It seems we hope a stronger and more benevolent God or State will protect us when feel less able to protect ourselves. He is reporting on a paper in a psychology journal by Aaron C. Kay with... MORE
July 13, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Greg Mankiw runs on support for free trade, opposition to farm subsidies, an energy tax, raising the retirement age, and other proposals. I think he is correct that this platform would win a lot of votes with Ph.D economists. It... MORE
July 9, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Stephen R. Shalom has a proposal to re-scale government institutions. I propose that legislative functions be carried out by a system of nested councils. Here is one way that such a system might function. There would be primary-level councils that... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
In general, the writers are better at diagnosis than prescription.... MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Arnold Kling
Clay Shirky writes, If I had to pick one method of rebooting civic life, it would be by finding new ways to grant groups the legitimacy essential to pursuing long-term and constructive goals on their own. This is in the... MORE
July 7, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Mike Munger and Russ Roberts deliver one of the best podcasts ever. Munger describes the way in which moving from a private bus system to a public system in Santiago Chile made essentially everyone in the city worse off. The... MORE
July 4, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
In a somewhat melancholy 4th of July essay, Canadian libertarian Pierre Lemieux writes, How could a country founded on the ideal of individual liberty, with a state devoted to the mission of protecting it, slide down the road to tyranny... MORE
July 3, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Mencius Moldbug proposes a thought experiment. Imagine that there had been no scientific or technical progress at all during the 20th century. That the government of 2008 had to function with the technical base of 1908... [Conversely, imagine] what would... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
The more I read (or Kindle) Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought, the more antecedents I see to modern liberal reformers. For example, he describes Dorothea Dix, who is summed up well in her Wikipedia entry. Dorothea Lynde Dix... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Bradford Plumer writes, Finamore points out, for instance, that if China enforced all the building codes it has on the books, it could cut its energy use dramatically. NRDC is training Chinese building inspectors, who often don't understand the codes,... MORE
July 2, 2008
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Arnold Kling
Peter Orszag recommends a talk by David Brooks at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The web site for the conference says that full video will be available, but for now there are only short clips. Go here and look for the... MORE
Business Economics
Arnold Kling
Mihir A. Desai, Dhammika Dharmapala, and Monica Singhal write, The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program provides for the majority of new affordable housing units built in the U.S. and has resulted in the production of 1.5 million low-income... MORE
Growth: Causal Factors
Arnold Kling
Maarten Bosker, Eltjo Buringh, and Jan Luiten van Zanden write, The sociologist Max Weber introduced a distinction between ‘consumer cities’ and ‘producer cities’... The classical consumer city is a centre of government and military protection or occupation, which supplies services... MORE
July 1, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
I am not repeating the famous sentence of the Massachusetts Bill of Rights, "to the end that this may be a government of laws and not of men." There never was such a government. Constitute them how you will,... MORE
June 27, 2008
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Arnold Kling
Reviewing Bruno Frey's latest book, Alan Wolfe writes, Frey proposes what he calls "positive Constitutional economics." ...Federalism would be strengthened by decentralizing power, not to the states but to an entirely new political element that would have limited and defined... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
This week, he writes, According to this article, for example, there are "over 7500 nonprofits" in the Bay Area, "3800 of which deal with sustainability issues." These appear to employ approximately half of our fair city's jeunesse doree, occupying the... MORE
June 25, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Felix Salmon writes, What’s needed here is not ad-hoc coalitions along single-issue lines, which is what we’ve had until now: a group of mayors against guns here, a livable-streets group there, a green group, a gay-rights group, and so on.... MORE
June 24, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
In 2005, Richard CB Johnsson wrote, the territorially sovereign states of today claim absolute political authority within their respective fixed territories. Wherever you are in the world today, you basically have to yield to the laws of that particular territory,... MORE
June 20, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Benjamin Barber laments the erosion of national autonomy—and, with it, the state’s monopoly over violence, the power to enact binding laws, and other essential aspects of sovereignty. Sovereignty, in turn, is an obvious precondition for democracy (which you cannot have... MORE
June 19, 2008
Economics of Education
Arnold Kling
Stephen Dubner looks at a reader's question of who is the greatest modern thinker. I love this question. It first requires you to define what a “thinker” is, and also raises the question of what incentives exist in the modern... MORE
June 16, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Mary Anastasia O'Grady writes, neither environmentalists nor Brazilian politicians have raised concerns about exploiting oil in the waters off the Brazilian coast. it is also worth noting that the Brazilian government has a 58% controlling stake in Petrobras's voting shares... MORE
June 15, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
A comment on this post raises a valid issue. I was suggesting that I wanted a sort of anarcho-capitalism in which I can choose the government or governments I wish to operate under. The comment reads, in part Multiple states... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, Some deluded soul in the EU read a copy of John Calhoun instead of Buchanan and Tullock's Calculus of Consent. Hadn't they remembered the history of 17th and 18th century Poland and decided that a unanimity rule... MORE
June 6, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, Insofar as I am conservative (debatable) I would rewrite the definition: A realization that we will do best by building on the strengths of the particular habits, mores and institutions of the United States (and other successful... MORE
June 4, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
This Symposium offered many choices (all the papers are available at the link). Several years ago, I went to a Pop!Tech conference where each speaker was saying, in effect, "My research opportunity needs more attention." Today's symposium was more like... MORE
June 3, 2008
Institutional Economics
Arnold Kling
John Fonte writes, For some (clearly not all) libertarians opposition to the “state,” even the constitutional democratic nation-state leads to an affinity to transnational (as opposed to international) politics. Indeed, on Cato’s website, adjunct scholar Arnold Kling...“proposes” an “alternative ideology”... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
My earlier post elicited some responses denying that free-market liberalism is an oxymoron. My view is that modern liberalism is an ideology of government expansion. Let me re-iterate that the ideology of government expansionism invokes the following: 1. X is... MORE
June 2, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Will Wilkinson makes the case. Freed to be full-on social liberals, many libertarians are left sensing a much deeper cultural affinity for the left than the right. And this leads naturally to seeing more clearly their ideological affinities with welfare... MORE
May 28, 2008
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Arnold Kling
David Boaz writes, Messrs. Obama and McCain are telling us Americans that our normal lives are not good enough, that pursuing our own happiness is "self-indulgence," that building a business is "chasing after our money culture," that working to provide... MORE
May 23, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Robert Nelson, a public policy professor at the University of Maryland, gave me a copy of an argument he submitted on behalf of a Montgomery County neighborhood (his) that was attempting to incorporate in order to have jurisdiction over some... MORE
May 22, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Stephen Bainbridge writes, it is the Libertarians and the progressives who are Big Idea people. Despite their obvious differences in philosophy, they share the absurd belief that if only their big idea(s) came to pass, society would inexorably progress towards... MORE
May 21, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Thomas Frank writes, Almost by definition, our young libertarian's job is to celebrate the profit motive from the offices of a not-for-profit organization. He is subsidized, in other words, to hymn the unsubsidized way of life. Rugged individualism may be... MORE
May 18, 2008
Energy, Environment, Resources
Arnold Kling
Concerning polling results on the issue of global warmaing, Andrew Gelman writes, Among college grads, there is a big partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans. Among non-graduates, the differences are smaller. This is completely consistent with research that shows that... MORE
May 6, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Ibsen Martinez writes about the perception that Chile's economic success is tainted by its origins in the Pinochet regime. Sadly enough, many people in Latin America who believe in the virtues of free-market economies still argue that it takes a... MORE
May 5, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Greg Mankiw writes, If you think it is the job of government to take from Peter to pay Paul, and if Peter can move around the globe, then you need international tax cooperation. Otherwise, some countries will become nations of... MORE
May 4, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Hillary's having trouble finding an economist to back her suspension of the gas tax. But she need look no further - I'll rise to the challenge. Here's my economic case for the tax cut: 1. The American people want to... MORE
May 3, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Imagine in 1958 an innocent Associate Professor of Political Science spending a summer in Mexico and getting mixed up with these guys: A considerable number of the folletos, almost half, originally were prepared by foreign, non-Mexican authors...Fred Clark, of the... MORE
April 30, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Charles Kessler writes, continued growth of government is not inevitable. But a word of caution: Neither is big government’s demise inevitable. Sometimes conservatives and even libertarians predict that big government is doomed. Some point to modern technology as the savior:... MORE
April 26, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, real world political debate is not fundamentally a macro-cosm of the thought processes of a smart person, or of one smart person debating another. The politics of confrontation usually turn ugly. Since my father's death, I have... MORE
April 22, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Reviewing a book by Bill Bishop, Alan Ehrenhalt writes, there is one simple statistic, rightly seized on by Mr. Bishop, that is difficult to explain away. It is this: In 1976, less than a quarter of the American people lived... MORE
April 10, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
His obituary is in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Merle Kling, retired provost, dean and professor of political science at Washington University, died Tuesday (April 8, 2008) at Barnes Extended Care in Clayton... Mr. Kling's tenure as dean covered the Vietnam... MORE
April 7, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
For an encyclopedia, he writes, In the eyes of the libertarian, everything the government does that would be deemed coercive and criminal if done by any other party in society is still coercive. For example, imagine that a neighbor decided... MORE
Income Distribution
Arnold Kling
From a longer essay on Inequality and Excess: I feel awkward and defensive when the subject of economic inequality comes up. The fact is that I cannot say that I feel comfortable with the levels of inequality and excess that... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Dean Baker writes, Remarkably, the Post editorial writers seem to be the only ones who have noticed that the Senate "Foreclosure Prevention" bill will give banks an incentive to carry through foreclosures. The bill would give a $7,000 tax credit... MORE
March 27, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Suppose someone said: "People drive 5-15 miles over the speed limit. It's obvious, then, that speed limits have no effect on how people drive." It's a pretty silly argument, isn't it? People drive 5-15 miles over the speed limit in... MORE
March 24, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
I have not had much time to pursue the folk song idea, but I have written a few snippets. [now slightly revised] First, I am trying to do something to the tune of "Union Maid" that speaks to the moral... MORE
March 18, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Not the topic du jour, by any means, but one that has interested me for a long time. Megan McArdle writes, I'm an enormous fan of John McWhorter's book on the decline of formal language, Doing Our Own Thing. I... MORE
March 14, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Amidst the tawdriness, I attempt to draw a real lesson. Suppose that we define "Spitzer" as someone who believes in the aggressive use of political power. A Spitzer believes it is his mission to tell us what to do for... MORE
March 10, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Today's news (usually not my best blog topic) is Eliot Spitzer. When I heard about his, er, affair, I started wondering: Is every successful politician that arrogant? Does our process work that well at selecting for arrogance, or am I... MORE
March 6, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
The LA Times reports, Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is sending waves of fear through California's home schooling families. ..."Parents do not have a constitutional right... MORE
March 5, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
He writes, the one thing libertarians grasp better than conservatives or liberals is the danger of the category error when it comes to the role of government...The fundamental insight of libertarianism is that the government is the government. It cannot... MORE
March 4, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Thursday through Sunday, I'll be at the 2008 Public Choice meetings for the first time since I became a dad. Reviewing the schedule, here's what stands out to me:Mitchell, Matt — Justices, Presidents and Nominations: A Public Choice Model of... MORE
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Selwyn Duke says it short and sweet in "Why Most Voters Shouldn't Vote":Most of us agree that having an educated populace is a prerequisite for a sound democratic republic. We also know that not everyone is well-educated. Thus, it cannot... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
In a history of Swarthmore's economics department, Joshua Hausman wrote, Nearing is also the only Swarthmore professor to have taught eugenics in an economics class. He omits his past interest in eugenics from his 1972 autobiography... In a 1912 book,... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Megan McArdle writes, Perhaps I am too jaded by excess air travel, but most of our homeland security seems designed to A) Increase the power of congressmen and agency heads or B) Put on a show for the yokels rather... MORE
March 3, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Ibsen Martinez writes about life in Venezuela. Consider breakfast. My breakfast, to be exact. It's been months since I have had an oatmeal breakfast or a nice cup of espresso with a drop of milk because coffee and milk has... MORE
February 29, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Brian Doherty at Reason Hit and Run set up a thread on the civil disobedience idea. A commenter named Picaro listed videos of some folks who could accuse me of plagiarism. For example, this manicurist. If nothing else, the video... MORE
February 27, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Ken Silber writes, The idea that people should be, say, lying down in front of police cars to protest hair salon regulations and the like is disproportionate, counterproductive and inane. It amounts to saying libertarian ideas aren't compelling enough to... MORE
February 26, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
My latest essay talks about the possibility of letting groups of people splinter off to form new states within the United States. It gets pretty weird. Ken Kesey wrote a novel in which a ward of mental patients has their... MORE
February 23, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Most academic departments are democracies, at least on paper. Do they work the same way as other democracies, where the median voter basically gets his way? (Well, at least that's my take on democracy). From my experience, the answer is... MORE
February 19, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
More material has been added to Cato Unbound since I first posted. Michael Munger writes, The danger to limited government, the threat to the Montesquieuan system of checks and balances, comes from an unexpected source. “Good government” types, people who... MORE
February 15, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Thomas Sowell writes, What is called "planning" in political rhetoric is the government's suppression of other people's plans by superimposing on them a collective plan, created by third parties, armed with the power of government and exempted from paying the... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
David Brooks writes, National service should be a rite of passage for 20-somethings, and these volunteers could mentor students through high school and college years. ...That’s the conservatism of the fresh start. I think that everyone who is in favor... MORE
February 14, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Anthony de Jasay writes, To the extent that the collective choice rule can define or by a rule-change amend the frontier, its zone may encroach on the zone of individual choices, while the reverse is of course not the case;... MORE
February 11, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
He said, The probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping master in... MORE
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
A good question from Trent McBride at Distributed Republic:When Republicans use free market rhetoric while campaigning, only to reverse when in office, we (most libertarians) decry their hypocrisy and warn not to believe future statements. And likely correctly so. However,... MORE
February 4, 2008
International Trade
Arnold Kling
My latest essay says, In the absence of hegemony, trade is impaired. If Marco Polo wants to buy goods in Afghanistan and sell them in China, he has to be able to avoid having his goods stolen, either by bandits... MORE
January 28, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
A web site called The Victory Project proposes billion-dollar prizes for To the first person(s) that solves any of these Problems: 1. Develop a cure for breast cancer. 2. Develop a cure for diabetes. 3. Reduce greenhouse emissions from petroleum... MORE
January 23, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
One of the revelations of Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism was the beliefs espoused by Richard T. Ely, the founder of the American Economic Association. In this essay, Ely wrote The law of society is service. This is the supreme law... MORE
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen writes, a good notion of individual responsibility might start with: "We're not going to label every "little guy" a victim, even when it supports our political narrative to do so." Of course, we will abolish political demagoguery just... MORE
January 21, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Tyler Cowen responds to a typical straw-man argument against libertarianism. I am more likely to think -- or should I say admit -- that human beings are irrational, even when the stakes are high (see the self-deception chapter in Discover... MORE
January 16, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
He writes, given your rather vehement views on the Ron Paul controversy, I am curious as to how you might answer the following questions. I would not describe my views on Ron Paul as vehement. His supporters are vehement. I... MORE
January 13, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
The Boston Globe reports Mayor Thomas M. Menino embarked on a highly public campaign yesterday to block CVS Corp. and other retailers from opening medical clinics inside their stores, an effort that exposed a rift between Menino and the state's... MORE
January 9, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
I started to write this as a blog post this morning, but I turned it into an essay, and TCS quickly ran it. So, I still have not defined "cult." For now, let's say that you are in a cult... MORE
January 8, 2008
Behavioral Economics and Rationality
Arnold Kling
Edward Castronova talks about World of Warcraft, Second Life, and such with Russ Roberts on the latest econtalk. I used to play bridge quite a bit, but I stopped when I went to grad school. At that point, the last... MORE
January 7, 2008
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
I just got back from LA, and Ron Paul's signature was everywhere. A random "Who is Ron Paul?" billboard. A mini-rally at the Palm Springs public market. A button on the collar of my flight attendant. I have to admit... MORE
January 4, 2008
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Mark Thoma peers into the future to find this column by Bryan Caplan. In 1996, Gallup ran a survey about the minimum wage. Some respondents were asked if they favored an increase. More than 80 percent said yes. The rest... MORE
December 31, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Out of the blue, Newsweek's Andrew Romano quoted me, citing something I wrote over two years ago. It was an essay about the conflict between mainstream politicians and what I called the "Long Tail" of politics. If we had a... MORE
December 27, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
A few weeks ago, Bryan wrote, Premise #1: Wealth makes men cowards. Premise #2: When all men are cowards, there will be no war. Conclusion: When all men are wealthy, there will be no war. Here is my non-pacifist syllogism:... MORE
December 24, 2007
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
This passage from Anna Karenina reminds me of Tyler Cowen's "Rent-Seeking Can Promote the Provision of Public Goods" (1994. Economics and Politics 6(2), co-authored with Ami Glazer and Henry McMillan):...Oblonsky began telling them of a delightful shooting party at Malthus's... MORE
December 19, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Caleb Crain writes, It can be amusing to read a magazine whose principles you despise, but it is almost unbearable to watch such a television show. And so, in a culture of secondary orality, we may be less likely to... MORE
December 15, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Mencius Moldbug writes, the purpose of property is to prevent violence. The formalist is completely unconcerned with the moral legitimacy of property rights. She is entirely concerned with their stability. To a formalist, a system in which no involuntary property... MORE
December 12, 2007
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Premise #1: Wealth makes men cowards. Premise #2: When all men are cowards, there will be no war. Conclusion: When all men are wealthy, there will be no war. Reasons to Believe Premise #1: Richer countries are much less violent... MORE
December 8, 2007
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
Western media and the Russians I know agree: Putin is popular. An op-ed in the Washington Post says "He Delivers. That's Why They Like Him."Russians support their president because he did something rare for a politician: He delivered. Russia today... MORE
December 3, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Russ Roberts gives a lesson. Bruce Yandle uses bootleggers and Baptists to explain what happens when a good cause collides with special interests. When the city council bans liquor sales on Sundays, the Baptists rejoice—it's wrong to drink on the... MORE
November 28, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Terence Jeffrey writes, "The growing political importance of unmarried women is undergirded by a demographic shift that is fundamentally changing America," Greenberg Quinlan Rosner reported. "Between 1960 and 2006, the percentile of the voting age population (as opposed to households)... MORE
November 18, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Today's Washington Post has three prominent op-ed pieces. Mark Winne writes, During my tenure in Hartford, I often wondered what would happen if the collective energy that went into soliciting and distributing food were put into ending hunger and poverty... MORE
November 11, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Diego Gambetta and Stefan Herzog write, Friedrich von Hayek, in 1952, made a strong case for the peculiarity of the engineering mentality, which in his view is the result of an education which does not train them to understand individuals... MORE
November 9, 2007
Political Economy
Bryan Caplan
I still remember when I was an undergraduate and Bill Dickens taught me how to pronounce "Mankiw." (That's MAN-KYOO to you.) I never would have believed that one day he'd be turning my name into an adjective:The public tends to... MORE
October 30, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Reuters reports, Karl Marx, who complained of excruciating boils, actually suffered from a chronic skin disease with known psychological effects that may well have influenced his writings, a British expert said on Tuesday. ...hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem," said Shuster,... MORE
October 23, 2007
Political Economy
Arnold Kling
Dan Klein writes, If it happened |
