Economics

Elizabeth Warren’s Plan — We’ve Seen This Before

Consider this description of an economic system: “The economy is collectively managed by employers, workers and state officials by formal mechanisms at the national level. This non-elected form of state officializing of every interest will reduce the marginalization of singular interests. The system will recognize every divergent interest into the state organically, not meaning a […]

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Keynes’s continuing destructiveness — Ebeling’s and my evaluations

Economist Richard Ebeling at FEE: “The Damage Still Done by a Defunct Economist”: “Keynes helped undermine what had been three of the essential institutional ingredients of a free-market economy: the gold standard, balanced gov­ernment budgets, and open competitive markets. In their place Keynes’s legacy has given us paper-money inflation, government deficit spending, and more politi­cal

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The Moral of Two Scandals — Enron and Ontario

Ontario’s financial debts, as of 2018: “Ontario’s debt has ballooned to $312 billion, the biggest debt held by a subnational government anywhere in the world. Ontario owes twice as much as California, which has a population bigger than all of Canada.”[1] Enron’s debts as determined by its bankruptcy proceedings: “The company paid its creditors more

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13 Thesen zum liberalen Kapitalismus in 13 Minuten

13 Thesen zum liberalen Kapitalismus in 13 Minuten Much thanks to Christoph Petzold, Ilona Rossa, and Alexander Fürstenberg for publishing this German translation of my “13 Arguments for Liberal Capitalism in 13 Minutes”. Here is a click-to-enlarge version of the flowchart of the arguments: The flowchart with German subtitles is here in PDF. Here also

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The population evils of capitalism

[In preparation for a conference, I’m reading a lot about population, ethics, and economics. Extrapolating from my readings, I offer the following arguments.] 1. Capitalism is about greed. It encourages women to be greedy too. So women will pursue careers and forego family. Hence capitalism causes population decreases. 2. Capitalism is about consumerism, so people

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Keynes: bad economics and bad politics

David Weinberger beats up on Keynes’s economics here: “despite numerous experiments since the 1930s, never has Keynesian policy precipitated a peacetime economic recovery.” And I beat up on Keynes’s politics here: “Keynes was not merely recommending a few surgical interventions to smooth out cycles or to jump-start moribund economies. Keynes’s economics are part of a

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