Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Behavior, ethical foundations, Institutions on Aug 23rd, 2014
My family and I attended a swanky golf tournament yesterday (the Barclays, played at the austere Ridgewood Country Club). Needless to say, the place is populated with a slice of folks from the very top of the income distribution with a sprinkling of “regular Joes” tossed in. Two small obsvervations: I have rarely encountered more […]
Posted in Institutions on Aug 15th, 2014
This is not a travel blog, but sometimes when traveling something comes up which is TUW-worthy. I’ve been out a bit this summer away from Rochester, and as expected I ran into quite a few “Buy Local” signs on stores, cars and road signs as I moved about. How am I supposed to take these? […]
Posted in ethical foundations, Institutions on Oct 13th, 2013
We’ve suggested here several times that regardless of one’s views of the President’s economic and foreign policy positions or even your own political disposition, it would be hard to argue that he has been great for the black community. The latest illustration (or lack thereof) has been the President’s awkward silence on the Adrian Peterson […]
Posted in Education, Institutions, Socialism, Welfare State on Jun 25th, 2013
Here are the required summer readings for the local government middle school this summer: In case you can’t see them: No stories of Henry Ford or Josiah Wedgewood or even Isaac Newton. Nope. The government schools turning kids into little activists and accepting unquestioned the “science” of a pop book on food. And I’m paying […]
Posted in Competition, incentives, Institutions on Jun 4th, 2013
On Sunday we asserted here that there has not been much innovation in “roads” over the past four decades or so. The post provoked some interesting responses so I thought it made sense to revisit the topic. The focus was on innovation on not generally on the history of road provision, the “publicness” of roads, […]
Posted in Extended Order, incentives, Institutions, Property Rights on Apr 20th, 2013
I assume some will find this in bad taste in light of last week’s tragedies in Boston. But just in case anyone was paying attention, we’re closing in on a dozen years since the WTC was destroyed and it’s rebuild is still not complete yet, so I find it hard to read notes that New […]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Institutions on Mar 23rd, 2013
I suppose one downside to having a family is that it gives you more to worry about when it comes to these matters. Of course, it gives you a bigger reason to give a damn too. Here, via Coyote via Popehat, is a lesson my kids (not children) will learn from me and their mother: […]
Posted in Behavior, Extended Order, Institutions on Mar 5th, 2013
Did you ever spend gargantuan amounts of time obsessing about a particular decision or purchase? Which graduate school should you attend? What kind of car should you buy? Or spending weeks and weeks and weeks waiting for the perfect deal, or for a good-used version of some product that you want to come up for […]
Posted in Institutions, Market Failures, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Feb 27th, 2013
Perhaps the most sophisticated argument that markets “fail” is that two parties to a transaction are rarely privy to the same information (you can write down a problem where total ignorance is better than partial ignorance for market outcomes). In the presence of information asymmetries you would expect certain parties to be driven from the […]
Posted in incentives, Institutions, Market Failures on Dec 27th, 2012
How often do you encounter organizations that seem to have “no agenda” or claim to be “non-partisan.” If ever there was a time to do some mental substitution, this would be it. I worked for a “non-partisan economic research foundation” once. They were gold bugs and some strange blend of Marxist sympathising libertarians. I had […]
