There is a presumption in the planning vs. markets discussion that has gone back at least to the debates with Abba Lerner and Oscar Lange that it was simply a matter of computing power before we would be able to plan an economy. Well, that is a gross simplification, but if you think about the […]
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Posted in Extended Order, Knowledge on Apr 8th, 2019
Here is the policy-making equivalent: The 1994 discovery of arsenic in groundwater in Bangladesh prompted a massive public health campaign that led 20% of the population to switch from backyard wells to less convenient drinking water sources that had a higher risk of fecal contamination. We find evidence of unintended health consequences by comparing mortality […]
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Gifts are the original sin of commerce. My theory is that this is why “the gift economy” is so cherished by critics of anonymous, ephemeral, market exchange. Market exchanges allow us to free ourselves from the power that our families and others exercise over us. The wider the extent of market competition, the less we […]
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I frame the analytic discussions about markets versus socialism as a knowledge problem. The key to the success in any “economic system” is to figure out a way to have valuable knowledge and information produced, transmitted and acted upon – even by actors who do not know that they are part of the solution. The standard discussion […]
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Today I reprint a slightly edited piece I put together several years ago. I’d change a lot of it, from the content to the tone, if I were to do it over – but one must live with one’s younger self. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Four centuries after the celebration of the first Thanksgiving, there […]
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In fact I’m not at all clear how my family got to America. I think three generations above me had people illegally sneaking into the US from both Canada and I think parts south. But my family doesn’t quite know. But as sure as the ocean is salty, my kind was not much liked – […]
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Posted in Extended Order on Dec 14th, 2016
As seasonal as the first snowfall of the year, or the smell of the crackling wood fires coming from a neighbor’s chimney, the myriad articles telling us how wasteful the Christmas season and holiday season is are an essential and memorable part of each and every December. Here is the (seemingly innocuous) latest from our […]
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Today I reprint a slightly edited piece I put together several years ago. I’d change a lot of it, from the content to the tone, if I were to do it over – but one must live with one’s younger self. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Four centuries after the celebration of the first Thanksgiving, there […]
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Posted in Environment, Extended Order on Oct 5th, 2016
Many of us are very optimistic about the myriad ways that we may be able to store energy in the future. Why is this crucial? With sufficient energy storage capacity, not only can be be at much less risk when the whims of weather and natural disasters disrupt our production capabilities, but we will much […]
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I tend to think this is a major problem on college campuses, but suspect it is a more general problem. Briefly, if you think about how progressively liberal a college campus is, and the human tendency to want to be accepted, it should not be a shock that you do not often see lots of […]
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