Incentives and Marriage – Econlib
Economics emphasizes the power of incentives in influencing how people behave. When I began to read economics, I found this focus on incentives very plausible, because I had seen firsthand a very strong example of how the incentives created by a system of rules was clearly influencing the way people made a major life decision […]
The bigger bailout – Econlib
A great deal of attention has focused on the bailout of SVB depositors, but the bigger story is the bailout of other banks. (At least bigger as of today, there are rumors the government may extend the over $250,000 deposit bailout to all banks. You can imagine what I think of that idea.) David Beckworth […]
Strange rebels – Econlib
I recently read an interesting book on reality, entitled The Fabric of Reality. In the book, David Deutsch constructs a unified theory of reality by combining four fundamental theories: 1. Quantum mechanics (multiverse interpretation). 2. Turing principle of computers and artificial intelligence. 3. Popperian epistemology. 4. Darwinian evolution. Deutsch says: In all cases the […]
Antifragile children – Econlib
The Schweizer Monat is probably the oldest conservative-libertarian publications in Europe. Perhaps not surprisingly, it is a Swiss-German magazine: Germans seem to be more inclined to keep reading traditional newspapers (and books) than us Latins. The latest issue is now online, and the website includes the English version of a couple of articles. I was […]
The Latest on Ivermectin – Econlib
Last week, Tyler Cowen published a link to a recent study of the use of ivermectin in patients who had had Covid-19 for a median of 6 days. As is his wont, he doesn’t say much about the study (other than a quizzical comment about Scott Alexander) but simply links to it. Many of the […]
Uncomfortable truths – Econlib
The Economist has a graph that doesn’t seem to fit into the worldview of either of America’s political parties: On the left, pundits often bemoan the fact that America’s government doesn’t provide a generous health care program like those European countries. On the right, the prevailing view seems to be something like, “Thank God we […]
Getting Property Right(s) – Econlib
A commonly understood concept in economics is the idea of the tragedy of the commons. Without sufficient property rights, people will be encouraged to overuse the resources around them, for fear that others will do the same. Less commonly understood is the tragedy of the anticommons, a situation where resources have multiple owners, and no […]
Poverty is crowded – Econlib
Chiloé is a charming island, but the traveler must be prepared to face a few frustrations. Towns like Ancud and Castro are very crowded. The traffic is congested and it’s hard to find a place to park. Even the sidewalks are crowded with people. The roads are narrow and the houses are packed into a […]
Leoni, legislation and representation – Econlib
We’re coming to our third online reading group discussing Bruno Leoni’s Freedom and the Law. So far the discussion was lively and insightful, a good reminder to me that the only way to really *know* a book is re-reading it periodically, as it may speak differently to you and you may notice things that you […]
Hayek’s Volunteers in Ukraine – Econlib
Even more impressive than Ukraine’s will to fight is the vast network of volunteers that underpins the armed forces and the defense of the country. At the Kyiv School of Economics, Tymofiy Mylovanov, its president, told me how in the first weeks of the war the school had formed a group of some eighty friends […]