Is there a Natural Resource Curse?
24 Mar 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, international economics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, resource economics Tags: resource curse
How Syria’s Kurds are trying to create a democracy
16 Mar 2018 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, defence economics, Public Choice, war and peace Tags: Kurds, Syrian Civil War
DESTROY, DO NOT WOUND | The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
12 Mar 2018 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, income redistribution, law and economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Machiavelli
William Easterly: Freedom as a Solution to Poverty
10 Mar 2018 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, development economics, growth disasters Tags: Bill Easterly
The Good Neighbor: Addressing Global Poverty in an Age of Xenophobia with William Easterly
03 Mar 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, international economics Tags: Bill Easterly, overseas aid, The Great Escape
BE BOTH THE MAN & THE BEAST | The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
26 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, Public Choice, war and peace Tags: Machiavelli
Machiavelli’s Advice For Nice Guys
25 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, Public Choice, war and peace Tags: Machiavelli
BE PRESENT | The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
24 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, Public Choice, war and peace Tags: Machiavelli
The Myth of Scandinavian Socialism
17 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, Marxist economics Tags: Sweden
Have you got all of these?
15 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Machiavelli
Deirdre McCloskey on Liberalism, Trump and Free Trade
14 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history Tags: Deirdre McCloskey
At least James Buchanan cast his Svengali spell from a slightly less crappy website than the Mont Pelerin Society. Koch Brothers must not be social media savvy in their quest for global domination. The secret portal for his cabal of elected supplicants cannot be seen anywhere
13 Feb 2018 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, Public Choice
Why did Milton Friedman bother? James Buchanan was supposedly far more influential despite rarely looking up from his desk
13 Feb 2018 2 Comments
in constitutional political economy, history of economic thought, Public Choice
Milton Friedman invested decades of his time in being a public intellectual. Writing Capitalism and Freedom in 1962, newspaper columns from the 1960s, countless television interviews and public speeches, travelled the world, and of course his famous 1970s TV series Free to Choose. Friedman wrote a bestselling autobiography Two Lucky People and many other books for popular audiences.
If Democracy in Chains is to be believed, James Buchanan was far more influential in a dastardly Machiavelli way despite no work as a public intellectual, hardly any online video clips, a difficult writing style, and a dry way of public speaking. His only known public policy position would be his advocacy of ruinous inheritance taxes.
Other than that, Buchanan devoted himself to the technical aspects of public choice economics. As a teacher, I am told that he crammed all his lectures into 2-weeks to get back to his desk as quickly as possible without further interruption from students.
If only Milton had known. You can be immensely influential despite making no effort to publicise your views or participate in public debate or even be all that articulate. As Nancy MacLean herself noticed
There are a few reasons Buchanan has been overlooked. One is that the Koch cause does not advertise his work, preferring to tout the sunnier primers of Hayek, Friedman and even Ayn Rand when recruiting. Buchanan is the advanced course, as it were, for the already committed. Another is that Buchanan did not seek the limelight like Friedman, so few on the left have even heard of him. I myself learned of him only by serendipity, in a footnote about the Virginia schools fight.
Jordan B Peterson on “But That Wasn’t Real Communism, Socialism, or Marxism!”
31 Jan 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, history of economic thought, law and economics, Marxist economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: fall of communism, The fatal conceit
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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