Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Inequality on Aug 31st, 2009
“Excessive” inequality seems not to have been brought by Columbus, nor by colonial powers for several centuries, but largely after independence in the 19th century: Compared with the rest of the world, inequality was not high in pre-conquest 1491, nor was it high in the post-conquest decades following 1492. Indeed, it was not even high […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy on Aug 31st, 2009
Perhaps that is a dog-bites-man headline. But Rochester alumnus Lee Ohanian demonstrates that it wasn’t exactly his dedication to radical, anarchic, laissez-faire capitalism that did it: I develop a theory of labor market failure for the Great Depression based on Hoover’s industrial labor program that provided industry with protection from unions in return for keeping […]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam, Post, Standards of Living on Aug 31st, 2009
Here are a few more tidbits from the life of Newton to illustrate just how good things were back in the good old days: When Newton went to Trinity College, he had “enough” for his immediate needs: a chamber pot, a notebook of 140 blank pages (three and a hlaf by five and a half […]
