War is so terrible that the first moral impulse is often to demand that it stop immediately. That impulse is understandable. No decent person can look at destroyed cities, dead civilians, grieving families and exhausted soldiers without longing for silence, relief and peace. But the demand for a ceasefire can also become a flawed knee-jerk […]
Against Instant Ceasefires
Against Instant Ceasefires
29 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: unintended consequences
Bonus Quotation of the Day…
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, international economics
Tweet… is from this recent post at Marginal Revolution by my colleague Alex Tabarrok: The trade accounts are among the most pernicious statistics ever collected. The post Bonus Quotation of the Day… appeared first on Cafe Hayek.
Bonus Quotation of the Day…
Sky News issues on-air correction about Lebanon death toll
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of information, economics of media and culture, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Israel, Lebanon, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Two weeks ago, we complained to Sky News editors about an April 11 interview with Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon by presenter Yalda Hakim,… The post Sky News issues on-air correction about Lebanon death toll appeared first on CAMERA UK.
Sky News issues on-air correction about Lebanon death toll
Quotation of the Day…
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in labour economics, discrimination, Thomas Sowell
Tweet… is from page 125 of Thomas Sowell’s 1999 book, Barbarians Inside the Gates: Ironically, both affirmative action and the argument for genetic inferiority of blacks use the same logic. They assume that statistical results not explainable by obvious gross differences must be explainable by the underlying factor they prefer to believe in. DBx: Indeed.…
Quotation of the Day…
The Luddites Were the First to Attack AI
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: creative destruction
Everyone knows the Luddites smashed looms. What is less appreciated is that the loom was the first serious programmable device — the direct ancestor of the computer. Thus, the Luddites weren’t just the first to resist automation. They were the first to attack AI. The Jacquard loom, introduced in France circa 1805, used a chain…
The Luddites Were the First to Attack AI
Quotation of the Day…
27 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation Tags: industry policy
Tweet… is from page 815 of Richard Nelson’s and Richard Langlois’s February 1983 Science paper titled “Industrial Innovation Policy: Lessons from American History”: A quick reading of the case studies is enough to dash any supposition that technological change is somehow a cleanly plannable activity. In fact, it is an activity characterized as much by…
Quotation of the Day…
What Does Dani Rodrik Think of Consumers?
27 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, international economics
TweetOn page 13 of their 2017 brief in support of “green industrial policy,” Tilman Altenburg and Dani Rodrik write: However, it should be noted that consumers do not respond perfectly to price signals. Even when new products exist that are better in many ways and cheaper, many consumers stick to the bad old alternatives because…
What Does Dani Rodrik Think of Consumers?
Why do Americans No Longer Work So Much More Than Non-Americans?
27 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, labour economics, labour supply
In the 1990s, Americans used to work much more than non-Americans. Nowadays, about half of the gap in hours worked has reversed. To evaluate the convergence of working hours, we develop a tractable model of labor supply enriched with multiple sources of heterogeneity across individuals, an extensive margin of participation, multi-member households, and an elaborate…
Why do Americans No Longer Work So Much More Than Non-Americans?
Why Religious Beliefs Are Irrational, and Why Economists Should Care
27 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of religion
My opening statement for my 2005 debate versus Larry Iannaccone
Why Religious Beliefs Are Irrational, and Why Economists Should Care
Elbe Day: A Symbolic Meeting at the End of War
26 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
Elbe Day, observed on April 25, commemorates a pivotal moment near the close of World War II in Europe when American and Soviet forces met along the Elbe River in Germany in 1945. This encounter represented far more than a tactical milestone; it symbolized the collapse of Nazi Germany and the temporary unity of two […]
Elbe Day: A Symbolic Meeting at the End of War
Elbe Day: A Symbolic Meeting at the End of War
26 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War II
Elbe Day, observed on April 25, commemorates a pivotal moment near the close of World War II in Europe when American and Soviet forces met along the Elbe River in Germany in 1945. This encounter represented far more than a tactical milestone; it symbolized the collapse of Nazi Germany and the temporary unity of two […]
Elbe Day: A Symbolic Meeting at the End of War
The Australian government has ‘subscription traps’ in its sights
26 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, industrial organisation
As I noted in a post last week, firms are increasingly selling subscriptions rather than products because consumer inertia can make them substantially more profitable. Once a customer starts a subscription, they tend not to cancel the subscription as soon as they should, simply because it requires some thought and attention (as well as a…
The Australian government has ‘subscription traps’ in its sights
The History of Music Piracy: Did It Really Hurt the Music Industry?
26 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of media and culture, law and economics, Music, property rights Tags: copyrights and patents
For as long as there has been recorded music, there have been attempts to copy, share, and distribute it without paying for it. Music piracy is often painted as a villain in the story of the modern music industry—accused of draining billions in revenue, shuttering record stores, and crippling artist careers. But is that the […]
The History of Music Piracy: Did It Really Hurt the Music Industry?
Cargo Cult Climate Economics
26 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
Part 2 of 2 on a damning new paper that takes on the top-down climate-economics literature — “The empirically inscrutable climate-economy relationship”
Cargo Cult Climate Economics
The Pernicious Trade Account
26 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, financial economics, history of economic thought, international economics Tags: balance of trade
The trade accounts are among the most pernicious statistics ever collected. It’s long been remarked, for example, that merely by calling something a “deficit” it seems bad even though a current account deficit is matched by a financial account surplus. Put that issue aside, however, because the real problems are much deeper. The international accounts…
The Pernicious Trade Account
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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