Addiction, Faith, and the Limits of Willpower (with Meghan O’Gieblyn)

Reading Dean Ball’s recent essay “On the Loose” has me thinking about an old idea in a new light. Ball asks us to imagine a world containing “self-sovereign” AI agents. These are not simply chatbots we rent by the month. They are agents capable of operating independently, acquiring the computer they need to keep running,… MORE

Before you give the government new powers, try the Munger Test: cross out “government” and insert the name of the politician you trust least. Then see if you still like the idea. In his 52nd EconTalk appearance, Mike Munger talks with host Russ Roberts about public choice, politics without romance, and why treating government like… MORE

We are living through a great social transformation comparable to the industrial revolution. What sets it apart is not only its magnitude, but its multidimensional convergence: technological, economic, political, and epistemic shifts unfolding simultaneously and reinforcing one another. This shift places growing strain on inherited political cleavages and ideological frameworks, many forged under very different… MORE

“Smith is a friend of competitive markets and the division of labor and the institutions that secure these. But within the division of labor and the governance of these institutions, the population needs to be not just prudent, but also to become educated in skill, dexterity, and good judgment, as Smith shows in Book V.”… MORE

The lesson is thus clear: Welcome multiple banks of issue and make sure there is always full convertibility, and bankers will be prudent and the economy will be stable and prosperous. Today we do not have banks of issue and notes cannot be converted into gold and silver, yet Smith’s lesson still applies: competition is… MORE

Anthony de Jasay, a regular columnist for Econlib, was one of the most original and independent thinkers on the relationship between the individual and the state. Through his published works, he challenged the reigning paradigms justifying modern democratic growth. His deeply challenging theoretical works include The State, an analysis that views the state as acting… MORE

Recognized as one of the most influential voices in the areas of market structure, the theory of the firm, law and economics, resource unemployment, and monetary theory and policy, in this 2001 interview, Armen Alchian (1914-2013) outlines the “UCLA tradition” of economics which he founded and explores the many unanticipated consequences of self-seeking individual behavior.… MORE

Gary Becker (1930-2014) was one of the most original and pathbreaking economists of modern times. His 1992 Nobel laureate in Economic Sciences was described as his “having extended the domain of microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behaviour and interaction, including nonmarket behavior.” Becker’s early work on discrimination led to his further work… MORE

  Finn Kydland, along with edward prescott, received the 2004 Nobel Prize in economic science “for their contributions to dynamic macroeconomics: the time consistency of economic policy and the driving forces behind business cycles.” Because Kyland and Prescott worked so closely, this biography deals with their work on time consistency and Prescott’s biography deals with… MORE

Harold Demsetz made major contributions to the economics of property rights and to the economics of industrial organization. He also coined the term “the Nirvana approach.” Economists have altered it slightly but use it widely. Demsetz was one of the few top economists of his era to communicate almost entirely in words and not math.… MORE

James Meade, an Englishman, was corecipient of the Nobel Prize in 1977, along with Bertil Ohlin, for their “pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements.” Much of Meade’s work on international trade is in the two volumes of his Theory of International Economic Policy, which, writes Mark Blaug, “have become… MORE