Why are America’s poor better off than the average Dane, Swede, British or Canadian? @AOC @BernieSanders @SenWarren
30 Dec 2019 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: 2020 presidential election, child poverty, envy, family poverty, social insurance, The Great Enrichment
Did We Evolve the Capacity for Sustained Growth?
29 Dec 2019 Leave a comment
NOTE: The Growth Economics Blog has moved sites. Click here to find this post at the new site.
I posted a few pieces (here and here) recently on genetics and growth. The Economist even picked up on Justin Cook’s work on lactose tolerance and development. Justin’s work on both lactose and the HLA system are about very specific genes, while the other research I mentioned is about genetic heritability of certain behaviors associated with growth, without specifying any particular genes.
There is another line of research on evolution and growth pioneered by Oded Galor and Omer Moav. They propose that natural selection over different types of individuals could have led to the onset of sustained economic growth. In particular, they focus on selection over preferences for the quantity and quality of kids. This is very much the second kind of research I mentioned above; it does not identify…
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Taking stock: Top mythbusting posts of 2019
29 Dec 2019 Leave a comment
Media Myth Alert directed attention in 2019 to the appearance of well-known media-driven myths, those prominent tales about and/or by the news media that are widely believed and often retold but which, under scrutiny, dissolve as apocryphal or wildly exaggerated.
Here’s a look back at the year’s five top posts at Media Myth Alert which, in late October, marked its 10th anniversary. The Washington Post figured in three of the year’s top posts.
■Impeachment hearings prompt media references to heroic-journalist myth of Watergate (posted November 27): It doesn’t take much for journalists to conjure the heroic-journalist myth of Watergate. It’s a trope that’s readily invoked but often too good to check out.
An almost-predictable by-product of the impeachment hearings conducted late in the year by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee were media references to the myth that the Post’s reporting brought down
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Q&A Why So Many Climate Skeptics
29 Dec 2019 1 Comment
An extensive and documented reply is given at Quora from John Walker, former Laboratory Medical Director/Pathologist (1984-2011). Excerpts in italics with my bolds.(red text is link)
There are very few individuals who are skeptical that the climate changes. But there are millions and millions of individuals (and growing), who are quite skeptical that human emissions of CO2 are causing apocalyptic global warming, including many scientists, climate scientists, Nobel Laureates, and other highly educated individuals.
The reason for this is multi-factorial and very voluminous. The following presents condensed summaries of 12 of the reasons that so many individuals have become highly skeptical of the theory of CAGW. Even though it is rather long, it represents only a small portion of the information, studies and references engendering skepticism of this unproven assemblage of hypotheses. Most…
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So USA, Australia and New Zealand spend the same!
29 Dec 2019 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: social insurance
Why I Am No Longer A Leftist (Pt. 2) | David Horowitz | @RubinReport
29 Dec 2019 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: Leftover Left
Is @TheAusInstitute suggesting @Uber’s $5b in losses last quarter is misleading market about billions in untaxed profits? Push share price down with false reporting?!
28 Dec 2019 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, entrepreneurship, financial economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle Tags: tax fraud
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