Kenneth Arrow and the Odd Form of Dictatorship He Helped Create
It may be time to reconsider some of the foundations of economic theory. When we do, Arrow’s prominent role in the history of economics should be reconsidered too.
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Cuckoo for Marginalism
When I was a kid, I would ask my mother if she likes this cereal, that song, or this soft drink. She would often reply in her droll way: “I wouldn’t want a steady diet of it.” I came to conclude that this really meant that she didn’t like it. …
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The “Paradox of Thrift” Myth Is Back, Again
This is nothing but the classic case of the damage of a little learning: the overwhelming majority of people who study economics at all take a single economics class, espousing a single economic perspective, which leads to the pervasive spread of pernicious ideas.
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Neoliberalism and Intellectual Turing Tests
Is neoliberalism libertarianism? Is it a form of market-oriented technocracy? Is it a form of elitist ideology favorable to markets? Is it a justification for a rent-seeking elite? It’s unclear exactly what it is.
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How the Coase Theorem Solves the Problem of Wolves
Making it possible to imagine creative ways to compensate the losers in policy initiatives can make policies more effective, more fair, and more politically viable.
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Say’s Law versus Keynesian Economics
There’s no more important principle in political economy to get right – and avoid getting wrong – than Say’s Law.
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All Hail Statistics!
Yes, statistics can deceive — think Mark Twain’s apocryphal claim about lies and damned lies — but statistics can also give nuance to our worldviews.
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Creativity Is the Driving Force of the Market
Creativity cannot be planned. While this observation, so stated, sounds trite, it is a fact ignored by those who call for the government to superintend commerce.
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The Economics of Price and Quantity Signals
The first time I thought about the relationship between quantity and price, I was a teenager working at the same job that taught me about transaction costs in labor markets. Evidently, there was much for me to learn at this rather dull junior sales job …
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The Paranoid Fear of Intellectual Property Theft
Sad is that some of the most important centers of opinion in all of the U.S. now direct significant real estate to the alleged thievery of American know-how by the Chinese.
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Should We All Be Flying Less?
I have long been a fan of the writer, statistician, and “flaneur” of financial markets Nassim Nicholas Taleb. His eye for the unseen and his heavy emphasis on sample selections and randomness in the world always struck a chord with my basically Misesia …
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The Four Pillars of Economic Understanding
It is no exaggeration to say that learning economics changed my life. In fact, I would go as far as saying the two most pivotal moments of my young adulthood was meeting my future wife at 17 and being exposed to economics at 19. Not only pivotal, …
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