Economics

Robert Lawson on the Economic Freedom of the World Index

2 Comments / Business, Economics, Politics /

Robert Lawson (Southern Methodist University), along with James Gwartney (Florida State University) and Joshua Hall (West Virginia University), is editor of the celebrated Economic Freedom of the World Index. The Index is one of the major achievements in social science research this generation, made possible by much better data and awesome computing power. Professor Lawson […]

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Davidson on rent control as “perverse”

Leave a Comment / Business, Business Ethics, Economics, Politics /

A good journalistic piece in The New York Times: “The Perverse Effects of Rent Regulation.” (Thanks to R.M. for the link.) Rent control is a classic case of bad economics and bad ethics. The bad economics is ignorance of unintended consequences — in this case a price control that makes the initial problem worse. The

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Spanish translation of “What Business Ethics Can Learn from Entrepreneurship”

Leave a Comment / Architecture, Art, Culture, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Film, Literature, Poetry, Sculpture /

“Lo que la Ética Empresarial Puede Aprender del Emprendimiento.” The Spanish translation of my essay is by Walter Jerusalinsky and published online at Idóneos e-magazine. The essay was first published in English as “What Business Ethics Can Learn from Entrepreneurship” [pdf] in the Journal of Private Enterprise. It’s also available at the Social Science Research

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Postmodern Strategy [Explaining Postmodernism audiobook]

2 Comments / Economics, Film, History of Philosophy, Literature, Philosophy, Philosophy of History /

This is the sixth and final chapter of the audiobook version of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. Chapter Six: Postmodern Strategy [mp3] [YouTube] [54 minutes total] Connecting epistemology to politics [mp3] [YouTube] Masks and rhetoric in language [mp3] [YouTube] When theory clashes with fact [mp3] [YouTube] Kierkegaardian postmodernism [mp3] [YouTube] Reversing

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The Crisis of Socialism [EP audiobook]

1 Comment / Economics, Film, History of Philosophy, Literature, Philosophy, Politics /

This is the fifth chapter of the audiobook version of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. Chapter Five: The Crisis of Socialism [mp3] [YouTube] [74 minutes total] Marx and waiting for Godot [mp3] [YouTube] Three failed predictions [mp3] [YouTube] Socialism needs an aristocracy: Lenin, Mao, and the lesson of the German Social

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Interview with Robert Salvino

Leave a Comment / Economics, Entrepreneurship, Politics /

Robert Salvino (Economics, Coastal Carolina University) spoke at Rockford College on “Entrepreneurship and Public Policy.” In this follow-up interview, Salvino and I discuss entrepreneurial success traits, the institutional framework within which entrepreneurship best flourishes, the relative success of market-friendly versus government-chosen entrepreneurship policies (including examples such as Google, Apple, Solyndra, etc.), the effect of employer-provided

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The Counter-Enlightenment Attack on Reason [EP audiobook]

12 Comments / Architecture, Economics, Epistemology, Film, History of Philosophy, Literature, Philosophy, Philosophy of History /

This is the second chapter of the audiobook version of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. Chapter Two: The Counter-Enlightenment Attack on Reason [mp3] [YouTube] [72 minutes] Enlightenment reason, liberalism, and science [mp3] [YouTube] The beginnings of the Counter-Enlightenment [mp3] [YouTube] Kant’s skeptical conclusion [mp3] [YouTube] Kant’s problematic from empiricism and rationalism

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Audiobook version of Explaining Postmodernism

3 Comments / Economics, Literature, Philosophy /

I’m happy to announce the audiobook version of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. We’re releasing one chapter a week here and at YouTube. Thanks to Christopher Vaughan for his editing and production work. To begin, here is the first chapter. Chapter One: What Postmodernism Is [mp3] [YouTube] [38 minutes] The

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