Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Government Thuggery, trade on Jan 6th, 2017
Should the likes of Donald Trump and his economic ilk ever choose to be intellectually consistent, particularly with their view that trading with human beings who happen to reside in other countries is bad for human beings who happen to reside within the borders of the United States, then surely they should ban the following: […]
Posted in Central Planning, Disingenuous, Employment, Fun Facts, Government Gone Wild, Special Privilege, Taxation on Dec 4th, 2016
Via Coyote without comment.
Posted in Socialism, Why Hillaryism and Trumpism Exists, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 13th, 2016
Here is Peter Boettke, on the “outsider” status of Bernie Sanders: Unpopular opinion — after watching Bernie Sanders on Meet the Press earlier today I am pretty sure he is as insincere and cynical as the worst of the DC political establishment. He is in fact a master agnotologist (sower of confusion on purpose to […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Economic Illiteracy, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., Special Privilege, trade on Nov 4th, 2016
Via David Henderson this morning: “If our antidumping laws applied to U.S. companies, every after-Christmas sale in the country would be banned.” That is from trade economist Jagdish Bhagwati And here is another, this time from someone less famous whom you know a bit better: “Recycling enthusiasts should be the world’s most ardent free-traders.” […]
Via the World Bank: The share of US economic activity coming from trade is about half of what it is for the rest of the world. Note that I think prior to World War 1 this was not at all the case. Do we see a rise in anti-trade Trumpism/Hillaryism around the world too? Note that I […]
Posted in Standards of Living on Jun 29th, 2016
I suppose I can be accused of cherry-picking here, but I got to thinking today about how most problems in the past half-century have been dealt with to the extent that they have been dealt with successfully. Have they been the result of great policies and social solutions? Or have they been a result of […]
Posted in Socialism on May 26th, 2016
Not a shocker that Jeff Sachs has come out to endorse Bernie Sanders. However, I am trying to make sense of the following: On health care, Sanders’s proposal for a single-payer system has been roundly attacked as too expensive. His campaign (for which I briefly served as a foreign policy adviser) is told that his […]
Posted in labor markets, Standards of Living on May 12th, 2016
Had to pick up a birthday present and card for one of the kids’ birthday parties this weekend. Used a self-service kiosk to checkout. On the way home, I fancied a quite cup of coffee. Ordered it via a kiosk. Then, headed to my gas station where I filled up my own gas. Finished up […]
Posted in Central Planning, Standards of Living, Taxation, Welfare State on Apr 28th, 2016
As you probably all know, social security is a transfer program, not a retirement program. Aside from eliminating the program entirely, which advocating for would have you removed from polite company, here are some things to consider about it. The system is in far better shape than Medicare. Medicare is the big elephant in the […]
Posted in Methodology, Socialism on Apr 23rd, 2016
I just managed to pick up the short pamphlet/book from philosopher Jason Brennan called Why Not Capitalism? I think to get the most out of this book you would have wanted to have already been familiar with some basic economics, some elementary philosophy as well as some of the debates that have happened since Rawls wrote […]
