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See the Cat: The Heart of Economics in One Story
A man was walking down a shopping street and came to a store window where there was a big drawing full of lines and squiggles. A sign by the drawing asked, “Can you see the picture?” All the man could...
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Cognitive Blocks and Libertarianism
Last year Brian Gothberg, who was lecturing at a summer seminar I attended in 2009, left the following comment in response to a post about media coverage and Austrian economics: I think there’s a...
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I’m Done
Whew. Finals are over. Expect a lot more from me over the next little while. Nothing tonight, of course (I’m gonna sleeeep), but more is coming. Thanks for all of your thoughtful comments and...
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Standard Oil, Like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes (Bust the Trusts! The...
What is it with me and bashing evil corporations of late (not necessarily on this blog, though I’m sure if you look through the archives…)? I hope it’s not habit-forming. Well, could be that some of...
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From the Comments: Populism, Big Banks and the Tyranny of Ambiguity
Andrew takes time to elaborate upon his support for Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Native American law professor from Harvard who often pines for the “little guy” in public forums. I loathe...
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Elephant Poaching: National Tragedy or Tragedy of the Commons?
Elephant Poaching: National Tragedy or Tragedy of the Commons? Tanzania recently ended a policy of summary execution of elephant poachers predictably due to “a litany of arbitrary murder, rape, torture...
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The Theory of the Non-Working Class
In the USA, people of age 16 and above are considered of working age. Of those of that age range, those who are working, seeking work, or hired but not yet working, are designated to be in the labor...
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Increased/Deadly Potency in Heroin Markets due to Fentanyl
The Boston Globe put out a piece yesterday entitled “DEA details path of deadly heroin blend to N.E.: Potent painkiller fentanyl believed added in Mexico.” This headline could not be more...
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California Times Six
I live in California. It’s a great state. Too great. A proposition to split California into six states may be on the ballot in 2016. “Six Californias” has announced that it has collected sufficient...
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The Dalai Lama on Inequality
There are many people who blame “capitalism” for the world’s economic problems, such as poverty, unemployment, inequality, and environmental destruction. This common belief is based on a confusion of...
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Gun control: Centralized vs. Dispersed
Hayek made the point that the debate of whether to have central planning was not over whether or not there would be planning, but over who would plan for whom. This point has an analog in the debate...
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Garbage could be beautiful
And I don’t mean in the artistic sense, though that’s an option and one that sheds light on the larger question of what to do with garbage. I recently heard a podcast on garbage incineration; how it’s...
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Don’t Let Me Design Your Retaining Wall!
The State of California says I’m qualified to practice civil engineering. That means you can trust me to design structures that achieve a high degree of safety, economy, reliability, and...
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California’s Environmental Mal-Litigation
The worst intervention by governments, aside from aggressive war, is excessive litigation. Taxes are burdensome, but they are predictable. The reason that enterprises are not entirely crushed by...
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Growing Weed in Humboldt County (and the Economics of Prohibition)
And yet California, long the marijuana movement’s pacesetter, and a haven for high-capacity growers, finds itself in the perhaps-unwelcome position of losing outlaws like Ethan. Should the state follow...
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Hayek’s Choice In Currency: A Way To Stop Inflation
I have just finished reading Friedrich Hayek’s short essay entitled ‘Choice in Currency’ (1976). I believe that this essay is highly relevant in our current time as we have become witnesses of the...
View ArticlePublic choice and market failure: Jeffrey Friedman on Nancy MacLean
Jeffrey Friedman has a well-argued piece on interpreting public choice in the wake of Nancy MacLean’s conspiratorial critique of one of its founding theorists, James Buchanan. While agreeing that...
View ArticleThe Political is about to disrupt the crypto-currency scene -or at least they...
According to this Financial Times report, Bitcoin is at the verge of a critical decision. The implications of the chosen terms (“existential crisis,” “decisive leadership,” “political flaw”) are not...
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TV’s third “Golden Age” BK Marcus, FEE The life and death of North Africa’s first superstar Chris Silver, History Today The Pope that came from the South Avedis Hadjian, FOX News Globalization and...
View ArticleBe Our Guest: “How to make Brexit Really Worthwhile – Example: Regulation...
Here is the latest installment of NOL‘s new “Be Our Guest” series, this one by the pseudonymous Freeconomist. An excerpt: Third-party certification provides assurance to consumers that a product or a...
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