Over the last 80 years, the world rankings of Hong Kong and Argentina: Resource-poor Hong Kong’s relatively laissez-faire free market has taken it from poverty to riches. Resource-rich Argentina’s experiments in statism have taken it from prosperity to decline and semi-functionality. In this Wall Street Journal/Heritage ranking, Hong Kong is currently first in the world […]
Argentina, Hong Kong, and the psychology of belief Read More »
My essay, Defending Shylock: Productive Work in Financial Markets, is now available in Kindle format. In this essay, I discuss the great value that financial markets add to an economy and the nature of the intellectual work that underlays them. In addition, I argue against the critics of financial markets who argue that those who
Defending Shylock — Kindle version Read More »
As someone who read and loved the book, this movie totally worked for me. Schilling’s Dagny is intelligent, emotionally expressive, and beautiful. Bowler’s Hank Rearden is equally intelligent and competent, with occasionally bemused, understated humor and equally occasionally understated anger. And the sexual chemistry between the two — yes, indeed. Wisocky is tone-perfect as that
Atlas Shrugged movie — first reaction Read More »
Why did the modern economic revolution in production and trade first happen in north-western Europe? At the APEE conference, Deirdre McCloskey delivered a plenary address based on her new book, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can’t Explain the Modern World. Her argument is that neither material resources nor technology nor capital accumulation nor geographical factors drove
APEE update — Deirdre McCloskey Read More »
A stunning glimpse of the future of the new media:
Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir 2.0 — Sleep Read More »
I’m looking forward to learning new things at my APEE session tomorrow on “Hayek and Rand on Values.” The panelists are Emily Chamlee-Wright, Steve Horwitz, Edward Hudgins, and William Kline, each of whom knows a lot about both Hayek and Rand. At the opening banquet tonight, we heard an address from Lin Ostrom, 2009 Nobel
APEE update — Elinor Ostrom Read More »
“Babies Are Born to Dance, New Research Shows” is the headline of a recent report in Science Daily: “Researchers have discovered that infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech.” Data like this connect with key issues about mind-body integration. Music seems to be central to every
Are babies born to dance? Read More »
In the Atlas Shrugged chapter entitled “Wyatt’s Torch” (1.10), Rand has the increasingly desperate central planners pass the “Public Stability Law,” one provision of which states that “All the manufacturing establishments of the country, of any size and nature, were forbidden to move from their present locations.” In the novel’s collapsing economy, many companies are
Atlas Shrugged is really a documentary, datum #217 Read More »