The Unbroken Window

Caveat Emptor: I believe the Precautionary Principle is bunk. What is the Precautionary Principle? It’s a doctrine that turns the tables on where the burden of proof in a policy ought to fall (it’s not just an argument, it’s a policy response). I’d suggest that in “typical” discourse and policy, the burden of proof falls [...]

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Another idea that seems to engender bipartisan approval is the passing of legislation to stop addictive behaviors from destroying our lives. The idea here being that even rational decision-makers are incapable now, at the time of choosing to consume something like heroin, of understanding what its current consumption will do to our future selves. Now [...]

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Henry Rollins is a good way to end Happiness week. I’d remind readers that almost every person on Earth has something to teach us, even those you disagree with, at least those who still have the precious gift of reason. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the entire thing below, but let’s let the video have [...]

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Here are policy positions that I have seen the same person maintain: The housing market is depressed. The plummeting house prices led to a market crash and then the continued low prices keep the economy stagnating. “We” ought to stimulate the market and cause house prices to rise. Houses are positional goods. What is a [...]

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Behavioral economists really ought to be thanked for making price theory more interesting. They do so by pointing out the many cases where people do not seem to behave in a way that homo-economicus would suggest they should behave. That’s great – because it focuses our minds on what exactly the rational choice paradigm can [...]

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It has been asserted that the happiness of a population, particularly once a base level of income is reached, depends not on some absolute measure of well-being but rather how one’s income compares to others around them. Of course you know what the chess-masters are thinking about the best way to improve outcomes: tax the [...]

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In all intellectual spheres comes a time when people debate how rigorously one must adhere to the “party line” in order to be considered a true “party member.” On the libertarian side of things, Murray Rothbard was perhaps the most stringent and forceful proponent of pushing ideological purity. Rothbard understood that the world was miles [...]

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Whether you believe in Anthropogenic Global Warming. Do you know what the best predictor of whether you believe gun control laws should be relaxed? It’s whether you believe the Fed is being too aggressive at the monetary spigot right now. Now ignore the reason you need to affiliate with a particular political party for the [...]

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In a working paper two students and I write: Stevans argues that, “most academic economists are concerned with studying such obscure topics as backward induction among chess players and the existence of monotone pure-strategy equilibrium in Bayesian games.” Does “most” mean more than half? Eighty-percent? Is there a right amount? He is onto something, of [...]

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Sort of an ironic title for the plan of Professor Frank, no? I call it the 6-6-6 plan — an across-the-board 6 percent national sales tax (on top of any existing state and local sales taxes) in effect from 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving to 6 a.m. on Black Friday. This plan would leave both stores [...]

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