EconLog Archive
Economic and Political Philosophy
Outsourcing My Critique of Left-Libertarianism
Despite many areas of agreement, I think that left-libertarianism is basically wrong. One day I’ll post an in-depth critique. Until then, I’m outsourcing the job to Daniel Shapiro and Steve Horwitz. Shapiro highlights: Being one’s own boss is quite a risky proposition, so I would be puzzled by a confident prediction that in a freed .. MORE
Fiscal Policy
Which hurts more in the short run, tax hikes or spending cuts?
Tax hikes, according to IMF research praised by Paul Krugman. The surprising thing is this is an IMF study that usually gets cited to show that spending cuts don’t grow the economy—that “expansionary austerity” is a mere theorist’s dream. But this same research also provides evidence that tax hikes cause more trouble than spending cuts in the short run. .. MORE
Politics and Economics
Center Libertarian?
For years, conservative commentators on the Fox News Channel and elsewhere have said that the United States is a “center right” country. They seem to say it more insistently when the voters elect a left-wing Democrat as President. But James Rainey, a commentator at the Los Angeles Times, has made a reasonable case, by looking .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Brennan’s Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know
As expected, Jason Brennan’s latest book, Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2012) is excellent. The format works well for the blog age: thoughtful libertarian answers to a hundred and five frequently asked questions. My admittedly somewhat random favorite passages: A study by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz found that Americans use .. MORE
Cost-benefit Analysis
Learning and Retention in Medical School
Peter Wei, a medical student at Duke, has some interesting thoughts on my post about learning and retention. Here’s Wei, reprinted with his permission: You’re right, there’s a substantial literature on learning loss, yet this doesn’t seem much lamented and educators don’t seem to tackle this specifically as a problem. You may be aware of .. MORE
Economics of Health Care
Coming ObamaCare Challenges
John Goodman had an excellent post yesterday discussing the coming challenges in implementing the Affordable Care Act. One of his major points is that the Affordable Care Act makes health insurance less affordable: Adding to the problem is that the law will require all of us to have access to a long list of preventive .. MORE
Public Choice Theory
Money Has Little Influence on U.S. Politics
Yesterday I tweeted: Will the reality-based community vocally embrace the repeated finding that money has little influence in U.S. politics? http://ow.ly/fbOXd The link is to Tyler’s discussion of a great lit review on money in politics. Levitt has another good lit review with more focus on money in elections per se. Here’s my idiosyncratic lit review: In .. MORE
Cost-benefit Analysis
Higher Education: Time to Cut the Cord
Should government withdraw from an active role in promoting and subsidizing higher education? I recently debated Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Pearlstein on this very question. Here’s the debate resource page, including full audio. I’ve also published a correction: total government spending on higher education is about a third of a trillion dollars a year, not .. MORE
Economic and Political Philosophy
Social Intelligence: The Wisdom of Muawiya
My favorite quotation in the entirety of Larry Gonick’s magisterial Cartoon History of the Universe series is from the Caliph Muawiya. Behold social intelligence: I never apply the sword when the lash suffices, nor the lash when my tongue is enough. If there is even one thread binding me to my fellow man, I do .. MORE
Cost-benefit Analysis
Intermediate Hypothetical Bleg
I asked Steve Sailer: Steve, would you please name a few examples of citizenist policies that you think go slightly beyond the limits of our moral obligations to outsiders? A few examples of such policies that you think are just barely within those limits? Inquiring minds want to know. To reduce Steve’s workload, I’m soliciting .. MORE
Economic and Political Philosophy
Sailer on Fundamental Moral Obligations
I’m pleased to see Steve Sailer engaging my 3 AM Dorm Room hypotheticals (here and here): “Biased in favor of” is hardly the same as “recognizes no moral obligations to non-citizens” and does not imply Poisoning Children. I also do not, for example, to use one of your 3 AM in the Dorm Room hypotheticals .. MORE
Economic and Political Philosophy
Immigration, Trespassing, and Socialism
To trespass is to enter a piece of land without the owner’s consent. What should we infer, then, when people argue that illegal immigrants are guilty of trespassing? At first glance, the trespassing shoe doesn’t fit. The typical illegal immigrant: 1. Occupies his place of residence with his landlord’s consent. 2. Occupies his place of .. MORE
Economic History
My Veterans Day Tribute
Every Veterans Day, I try to do something special to remember or honor a veteran. I don’t like the standard flag-waving event that this day has become for many people. In many Veterans Day speeches, the speakers talk about the hundreds of thousands of American veterans who gave their lives for our freedom. The problem .. MORE
Fiscal Policy
Brinksmanship and the Obama-Bush Tax Cuts
Matt Yglesias is claiming that POTUS and Congressional Democrats can safely ignore John Boehner: To take the bargaining process seriously at this point you have to believe that come 2013, House Republicans would actually refuse to cut taxes on the grounds that the president’s tax-cut proposal doesn’t cut taxes enough. Then they would blame the .. MORE
Family Economics
China’s Empty Cities: A Family Affair?
This week I returned from a trip to Shanghai and Nanchang; the latter is in Jiangxi province, and as a GMU aside, the food in Jiangxi was stunning. I was in Nanchang to give some lectures at Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, a very enjoyable experience. But I’m here to talk about China’s .. MORE
Public Choice Theory
Romney’s Get out the Vote Epic Fail
It’s easy to point fingers after a loss and I wouldn’t normally do it, but consider what happened. Project Orca was supposed to enable poll watchers to record voter names on their smartphones, by listening for names as voters checked in. This would give the campaign real-time turnout data, so they could redirect GOTV resources .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
We’re Going Too Far
Question for you: When was the last time you openly worried about “your side” treating “their side” unjustly? This could mean: 1. “Your side” intellectually misrepresenting “their side.” 2. “Your side” politically oppressing “their side.” 3. “Your side” embracing positions that, taken seriously, justify politically oppressing “their side.” To answer my own question, I never .. MORE
Politics and Economics
Barack Beane Obama
One of my favorite books of the last decade was Michael Lewis’s Moneyball. It’s about how Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane used statistical analysis to offset the advantage of more heavily funded teams and make his small-market team into a contender. I’ve written about it here and here. I was reminded of that book .. MORE
Economic and Political Philosophy
A Question for Steve Sailer’s B-School Professor
An interesting vignette from Steve Sailer: By “citizenism,” I mean that I believe Americans should be biased in favor of the welfare of our current fellow citizens over that of the six billion foreigners. Let me describe citizenism using a business analogy. When I was getting an MBA many years ago, I was the favorite .. MORE
Public Choice Theory
My Election Outcomes
One winning bet, three losing bets, and one election won. First, my winning bet. In July, I bet a local prominent Republican, Peter Newman, $50 that Obama would be re-elected. Second, my three losing bets. 1. Last week, I bet Scott Sumner what he called “reputation points,” where he gave me 70-30 odds. My bet .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
Reality Check
The lessons people want to draw from Romney’s defeat: 1. He would have have won if he were more/less socially conservative. 2. He would have won if he were more/less economically conservative. The lessons people should draw from Romney’s defeat: 1. He would have won if he were much more personally likeable. 2. He would .. MORE