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The signers also made a criticism that we often hear from critics of the free market: the idea of market failure. They wrote: The laissez-faire model assumes that markets work perfectly if the government does not intervene. But unregulated markets are not benign—they reinforce unequal power relations that worsen inequality and hinder the application of .. MORE
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Politics and Economics
This post might be misinterpreted in a couple ways, so read the following two points carefully: 1. I’m not defining liberalism in the American sense of left-of-center Democrat. I am using the term in the international sense of supporter of free speech, human rights, a market economy, democracy, civil rights, opposition to nationalism, etc. 2. .. MORE
Economic and Political Philosophy
The experience of the two last federal elections in America suggests that “the left” is more interested than “the right” in a peaceful transfer of power. (By “the left” and “the right,” I simply mean most individuals who identify with either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.) Kamela Harris gave a magistral lesson to .. MORE
International Trade
Regulations Keep Millions of Bedrooms Empty During a Housing Crisis by Howard Husock, Reason, January 17, 2025. Excerpts: The U.S. is facing a housing affordability crisis, and new data from Realtor.comhighlight an often missed contributing factor: millions of empty bedrooms. Census data reveal 31.8 million “excess” bedrooms in American homes—compared to just 4 million .. MORE
Macroeconomics
It turns out that “greedflation” is not just an American misconception, the same fallacy exists in many other countries. Kürşad Görgen has a blog discussing Turkish monetary policy issues, from a market monetarist perspective. Last year, he did a post discussing some rather unconventional views: After the 2023 elections, Turkey abandoned its infamous NeoFisherian interest .. MORE
Economic Education
Financial education is an essential component for the economic and social development of nations. In an increasingly interconnected world, understanding how personal finances and markets operate is an indispensable skill for individuals and economies alike. However, in countries like Colombia, the lack of financial education negatively impacts financial inclusion, investment, and economic growth. From a .. MORE
Political Economy
The FTC is rumored to be preparing legal action against Greystar, the largest landlord in the US, for “hidden fees”, also called “junk fees” (“FTC Prepares to Sue Largest U.S. Apartment Landlord Over Hidden Fees,” Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2025): The FTC finalized its hidden-fees rule last month and said it would seek civil .. MORE
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Browse our archive of posts by author last nameBooks: Reviews and Suggested Readings
I recently mentioned Diana Mutz’s book Winners and Losers: The Psychology of Foreign Trade and was struck by how people think of international trade as a competitive activity. Of course, I really shouldn’t be surprised by this. Over 30 years ago, Paul Krugman’s excellent essay “Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession” was published in Foreign Affairs. In .. MORE
International Trade
Regulations Keep Millions of Bedrooms Empty During a Housing Crisis by Howard Husock, Reason, January 17, 2025. Excerpts: The U.S. is facing a housing affordability crisis, and new data from Realtor.comhighlight an often missed contributing factor: millions of empty bedrooms. Census data reveal 31.8 million “excess” bedrooms in American homes—compared to just 4 million .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
I must begin this blog post with a confession. I have never been into game theory, and although I did take some undergraduate courses in it, I’ve always struggled to understand it all. But while I was somewhat uneasy about game theory (or at least parts of it), I couldn’t express the reasons for my .. MORE
A Book Review of Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law, by Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze.1 Liberties, Thomas Hobbes wrote, “depend on the silence of the law.” Nowadays the law is very chatty. Here are three examples from the new book by Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Janie Nitze, Over Ruled: .. MORE
Characteristically, Friedman had a contrarian take on the Washington consensus. Ironically, the turn toward markets gave new life to the classic institutions of the postwar managed economy, namely the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). No longer working to stabilize a gold-backed currency, the two international organizations offered loans to emerging economies—typically conditional .. MORE
Book Review of Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, by Michael Lewis1 and Elon Musk, by Walter Isaacson.2 Economists don’t find people all that interesting. Many of us have friends and family, but our models and analysis are devoid of personality and character. We talk about principles and agents, about the .. MORE
Along with the direct impacts of technology, individualism and a slower life trajectory are the key trends that define the generations of the 20th and 21st centuries. ——Jean M. Twenge, Generations,1 p. 8 Jean Twenge has assembled a wealth of information about how the attitudes, behaviors, health, and economic circumstances of Americans have changed over .. MORE
In countries with governments as functional and more expensive than America you would be suprised of how difficult is that the goverment vacate your house if it has been occupied by a third party. Never,..
Jose Pablo, January 14