TweetAmong the many bits of unearned good fortune that have come my way in life was to have been a student in two of Fritz Machlup‘s classes at NYU. (In Spring 1981 I was a student in the last graduate course he taught on one of his specialities, International Trade. That course was phenomenally good.…
Fritz Machlup (1902-1983)
Fritz Machlup (1902-1983)
19 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, history of economic thought, international economics
Nuclear Necessity: Europeans Driving Nuclear Power’s Inevitable Renaissance
19 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: atomic energy
When Vlad Putin put the squeeze on Europe’s gas supplies, Europeans embraced nuclear power out of urgent necessity. The grand wind and solar ‘transition’ were revealed as nothing but the greatest economic and environmental fraud, of all time. Incapable of delivering electricity as and when households and businesses need it, wind and solar run a […]
Nuclear Necessity: Europeans Driving Nuclear Power’s Inevitable Renaissance
Mission creep at the FFRF
19 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, sports economics Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
One of my favorite secular organizations is the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), of which I’m a member of the “honorary board”. But even honorary boards should play an advisory role, and so I’m doing that here by calling attention to the organization’s mission creep. In previous posts, I noted that the organization, which is […]
Mission creep at the FFRF
19 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: solar power, wind power
Monetary policy turning points
18 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: monetary policy
When the Reserve Bank MPC came out late last month with its last words on monetary policy before its extended summer break, my post then was headed “Really?“. It was a commentary on the disjunction between the Reserve Bank’s inflation forecasts on the one hand, that showed quarterly inflation collapsing (not really too strong a word […]
Monetary policy turning points
Brendan O’Neill: COP28 and the scourge of eco-imperialism
18 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles Tags: The Great Enrichment
…but for billions of people such stations are the difference between life and death, light and dark, food and no food.
Brendan O’Neill: COP28 and the scourge of eco-imperialism
Claudia Goldin: “What’s ‘Greedy Work’ and Why Is It a Problem?” | People…
18 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Yellow Brick Road to Green Dystopia
18 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming
J. Peder Zane warns us that green dreamers will destroy social wellbeing in his Real Clear Investigations article Let’s Count the Ways RCI Has Exposed the Green Pipe Dream. Excerpts in italics wtih my bolds and added images. While brandishing the moral cudgel with full force – President Biden describes climate change as “an existential […]
Yellow Brick Road to Green Dystopia
Number of oil spills decreased
18 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in economic history, energy economics, environmental economics Tags: oil spills
Conor Friedersdorf (and Alexander Barvinok) on ideological coercion in American colleges
18 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
The Atlantic‘s Conor Fridersdorf is a breath of fresh air among liberal woke media. He is in fact a liberal, but not a “progressive”, and in the new article below he reports one mathematician’s observations of how DEI has insinuated itself into academics, creating not only viewpoint homogeneity, but authoritarianism. Like my colleague Anna Krylov, […]
Conor Friedersdorf (and Alexander Barvinok) on ideological coercion in American colleges
Chicago mayor preparing to eliminate magnet schools. Is that a good thing to do?
18 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: political correctness, regressive left
We have a new “progressive” mayor, Brandon Johnson, and although one of his election promises was to keep our “magnet school” system in place, he’s preparing a resolution to end it. “Magnet schools” are a form of student secondary-school tracking in which students can apply to go to any school, but the best schools, often…
Chicago mayor preparing to eliminate magnet schools. Is that a good thing to do?
The strategy that saved the NY Times
17 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: political correctness, regressive left
Economist: The new New York Times was the product of two shocks – sudden collapse, and then sudden success. The paper almost went bankrupt during the financial crisis, and the ensuing panic provoked a crisis of confidence among its leaders. Digital competitors like the HuffPost were gaining readers and winning plaudits within the media industry as innovative. They were the…
The strategy that saved the NY Times
Climate bookshelf 2023
17 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming
by Judith Curry 2023 was a banner year for the publication of interesting climate-related books. Some excellent books for Xmas stockings, providing scientific insights, policy sanity and optimism for the 21st century.
Climate bookshelf 2023
Bill Maher on changing boundaries and the tenacity of Israel
17 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, television, TV shows, war and peace Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
In Bill Maher’s monologue this week, he gets serious about the war, going back in history and showing how the ethnic constitution of countries change drastically over time, how colonization is pervasive, and how ethnic cleansing has affected the Jews more than any other people (see his enlightening chart at 2:25). Those who are pro-Palestinian […]
Bill Maher on changing boundaries and the tenacity of Israel
The Piketty-Saez-Zucman response to Auten and Splinter
17 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, entrepreneurship, financial economics, income redistribution, labour economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: top 1%
A number of you have asked me what I think of their response. The first thing I noticed is that Auten and Splinter make several major criticisms of PSZ, and yet PSZ respond to only one of them. On the others they are mysteriously silent. The second thing I noticed is that PSZ have been […]
The Piketty-Saez-Zucman response to Auten and Splinter
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