May 08, 2017
Protectionism as Cronyism
Supporters of protectionism such as President Trump say that they are trying to save jobs in the United States. What’s wrong, they ask, with showing some solicitude and help to our…
All posts in: Economics
November 02, 2016
Buy Vlad Tarko’s New Intellectual Biography of Elinor Ostrom
Vlad Tarko’s Elinor Ostrom: An Intellectual Biography is now available for pre-order on Amazon. This is one of those books that’s guaranteed to make you smarter. Highly recommended. Here are the endorsements, including…
October 27, 2016
“We’re Not Privileged Enough!” Complain Selfish and Snobbish Adjuncts at Ithaca College
The Washington Post recently ran a photo essay “showing what it really means to be adjunct faculty”. The essay featured various adjunct faculty members at Ithaca College standing in front…
September 23, 2016
Boudreaux vs. Konczal on California’s $15 Minimum Wage
Earlier this year, Governor Jerry Brown signed into a law a bill that will raise California’s minimum wage to $15/hr by 2022. I wrote here at the time expressing my concerns about the…
August 24, 2016
How Can a Libertarian Say That? (On Incompetent Voters and Competent Market Agents)
Roughly 35% of my published work responds to problems of voter ignorance and irrationality. I sometimes get pushback from both libertarians and non-libertarians that goes roughly as follows: “Wait, so…
August 16, 2016
Politics Is Not a Poem: Against Semiotic Arguments for Democracy
Excerpted from the intro of chapter 5–perhaps my favorite chapter–of Against Democracy. “The instinct of worship is still so strong upon us that, having nearly worn out our capacity…