Paul Samuelson (1989) on the bright future of the Soviet Union
28 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, Marxist economics Tags: fall of communism, forecasting, Paul Samuelson
Many people readily concede many of our regulations are insane, badly designed, and harmful.
25 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
Market Failure, Considered as an Argument both for and Against Government| David Friedman
24 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, David Friedman, liberalism, libertarianism Tags: David Friedman, externality, government failure, market failure
Does socialism deserve another chance?
22 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis Tags: Deidre McCloskey, The Great Enrichment, The Great Fact
…very many normal people of leftish views, even after communism, even after numerous disastrous experiments in central planning, even after trying to get a train ride from Amtrak or service from the Postal Service (not to mention service from the Internal Revenue Service or from the Immigration and Naturalization Service; you see I wax indignant: I am, after all, a free-market economist), think Socialism Deserves a Chance.
They think it obvious that socialism is after all fairer than unfettered capitalism. They think it obvious that regulation is after all necessary to restrain monopoly.
They don’t realize that free markets have partially broken down inequality (for example, between men and women; “partially,” I said) and partially undermined monopolies (for example, local monopolies in retailing) and have increased the income of the poor over two centuries by a factor of 18.
The Hockey Stick of Human Prosperity
22 Jul 2014 Leave a comment
On a timeline of human history, the standard of living resembles a hockey stick – flatlining and then skyrocketing in just the last few centuries.
Specialization and trade explains the astonishing growth of productivity and output in such a short amount of time—after millennia of famine, low life expectancy, and incurable disease
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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