Against the Simple Scenario of Rescue
Social causation cannot be simply drawn on a line, so public policy cannot be conceived in a one-dimensional fashion. See a goal? Find a means. Stick to it. No. It doesn’t work, because each cause has...
View ArticleTough Luck for (Un)elected Officials, The Beast Ya See Got Fifty Eyes
I used to follow foreign policy with a passion that bordered on obsession. I’ve always been a news junkie, but, like many Americans, my focus shifted to foreign affairs after 9/11. But after about five...
View ArticleGovernment Is a Broker in Pillage
H.L. Mencken summed up public choice theory in 1936: The state—or, to make the matter more concrete, the government—consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with...
View ArticleBurn This Post
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law! Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? William Roper: Yes, I’d cut down every...
View ArticleThe Language of Markets
Diane Ravitch of NYU talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in her new book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education....
View ArticleDo Markets Need Fairness?
I was surprised by this post on Common Sense Concept, a blog published by the American Enterprise Institute. Although the author has written in support of private charity, in this post he argues that...
View ArticleNot Even Close
Sometimes an article comes along that is so blindingly stupid and misinformed that the mind reels in a vain attempt to understand how such a thing could be published by any semi-reputable organization....
View ArticleWhat if there were deficit thinking, thinking deficit, on a desert island?
Let’s attempt the program of “economic stimulus” on a desert island. Five persons have survived the shipwreck. Joe is good at gathering berries and reeds, and dressing wounds; Al is good at fishing,...
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The Keynesian Celebration of Destruction
Here’s a great cartoon from Completely Serious Comics published earlier this year, currently being passed around on Facebook by critics of Keynesian stimulus: I doubt the cartoon’s creators were...
View ArticleMore Bailouts for the Rich
The rich on Wall Street are demanding more bailouts: The Demands Working Group of Occupy Wall Street unanimously endorsed and is circulating for discussion the following demand, which will be submitted...
View Article‘We Don’t Need a Special Master to Level the Playing Field’
Cafe Hayek‘s Russ Roberts tells the House Oversight Committee that he wants his country back. Highlights of his testimony: We are what we do — not what we wish to be, not what we say we are, but what...
View ArticleSteve Jobs: A Man of Good Works — Part I
First, allow me to clarify a few points about the video below before I start into the meat of the matter. The video is obviously edited — for what purpose, I do not know. It could have been to cut...
View ArticleCoke Buyers Are Sovereign
The good folks at Coca-Cola really want to innovate. They probably admire the late Steve Jobs. They’ve lots of neat ideas. Helping polar bears is one of them. So, to honor the polar bears (or at least...
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The Reign of Fonzie Economics
When I was a kid, I loved watching “Happy Days,” even at its shark jumpiest. A big part of the appeal was the adolescent power fantasy of Arthur Fonzarelli, a disco-era caricature of a 1950s motorcycle...
View ArticleThe Method of Sachs
There exist trenchant criticisms of the libertarian idea. Henry Sidgwick, in his The Methods of Ethics (seven editions, 1874-1907), provided a concise set of challenges to the doctrine as he understood...
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To Protect and Subvert
Public choice article of the day, from The Atlantic: Roughly 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are given to healthy farm animals to foster rapid growth and make up for unhygienic...
View ArticleIt Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means
In the It Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means category, I’m having to add the terribly abused No True Scotsman fallacy. I’m starting to see this unfortunate abuse with ever increasing frequency. Here...
View ArticleI Have a Very Simple Question
Conor Gaughan makes a very good and salient point about Chick-Fil-A and the current controversy surrounding the company. When gays get so angry about a chicken sandwich, it is because Chick-fil-A has...
View ArticleNobody Believes What They Say They Believe
According to a recent Gallup Poll, 46% of Americans believe in creationism over evolution. That is, they believe that the earth was formed roughly 10,000 years ago and was first inhabited by Adam and...
View ArticleFirst, Do No Harm
Just as the Kony 2012 phenomenon swept through the Internet earlier this year, so now does the current Chick-fil-A kerfuffle. Don’t worry, this post isn’t about Chick-fil-A specifically, but instead...
View ArticleDemand Is a Consequence of Production
A question to you of a chicken and egg sort. If you have a group of people in a flat empty world with nothing in their possession, how do you get them to have things? Would you: A) Give everyone pieces...
View ArticleKrugman Gets The Broken Window Wrong
Recently, Krugman wrote that if you think the iPhone 5 will boost the econonmy, then you believe in the Broken Window theory. The Broken Window Theory, more accurately described as the Broken Window...
View ArticlePonynomics: Economic Lessons from My Little Pony
There are a number of important economic concepts illuminated by the excellent My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic episode “The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000” (season 2, episode 15). I want to talk...
View ArticleRepurposing Capital: Human Action
In an economic downturn, when massive business failures appear simultaneously, owners of the means of production need to find new uses for their discarded capital-intensive production processes, and...
View ArticleThe Faith of Human Action
Sometime back in the beginning of September, several of us decided to form a somewhat losely affiliated book club in order to read and discuss Human Action by Ludwig von Mises. Though some of us have...
View ArticleReasoned Out, Reasoned In
This weekend, Justin Stoddard brought up Arthur Koestler’s views on faith, in the context of Mises on human action. The discussion at first struck me as tangential to the main thrust of the first...
View ArticleSPOT ALL THE FALLACIES!1!!11
I was sent this video this morning and asked to comment on it. It was described as, “One guy with a marker just made the global warming debate completely obsolete,” on upworthy.com. The person making...
View ArticleSpot all the Fallacies, Part II
Yesterday, I critiqued a video that used Pascal’s Wager to implore us to take drastic action in order to fight the threat of global warming. It occurred to me that my critique might be a bit more...
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53 Hours With Kafka in St. Louis
UPDATE: I discussed this incident as a podcast guest, starting at 1:04:00. I spent the two worst nights of my life in the St. Louis City Justice Center. I did not experience nor witness any physical...
View ArticleA Robust Food Truck Culture Breeds Innovation
Alexandria City Councillor Justin Wilson (no, unfortunately not that Justin Wilson) invited me to provide testimony for a food truck regulatory hearing, so here’s what I sent to him: Although I live...
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