Author: James Hanley

I love the variety of niches found in free markets, except when I don’t. A professorial friend recently had the not terribly uncommon experience of having a student submit a paper electronically, only to...

The issue of the new airport security requirements is still rolling around in my mind. I left Michael Heath with the final word on my prior post, as we were, to a large degree,...

Presumably because I’m beginning to unconsciously prep for my annual empirical research methods course, methodological questions have been capturing my attention with great frequency lately. So here’s a survey research methods question that caught...

National markets that only thirty years ago seemed comfortable oligopolies–such as America’s television and car markets–are now squabbled over by companies from the world over. And in general, the more futuristic the industry, the...

This is a long game, not a short game.

There are all kinds of good arguments against living vicariously through the success or failure of one’s favorite sports teams, and I agree with most of them. Nevertheless, I like sports more than I...

I quite commonly read blog commenters who argue that academics know less about the really important issues of politics than the average Joe. Let’s just specify what these folks are claiming. They’re claiming that...

Today I clicked the unsubscribe link on an email from an academic products company and got the following incongruous message: Thank you for your interest. You are now unsubscribed.

Is this still true? Was it ever true? There really is such a thing as freedom here [in America]. The republic is not a vapid illusion, and the fact that there is no national...

Michael Kinsley has a brilliant

In my vigorous debate with Michael Heath (both here and elsewhere) about the value and legitimacy of the Transportation Security Agency’s new backscatter scanners and the enhanced pat downs for those who opt-out of...

Here’s the best news to come out of the 2010 elections: Fewer than one in five self-funded candidates won their elections. The data comes from Bradley S. O’Leary of The PM Group, and is...

I’m not a big fan of those videos with the really obnoxious computer-generated voices. But of course that didn’t stop me from making one of my own. So here’s my take on the TSA’s...

Not everyone like my claim that U.S. policy is creating an adverse investment climate. So here’s this from Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution. Headlines read “UK maintains growth momentum” and “German business confidence soars.”...

A thought that every post-election pundit should ponder. Economist Charles Plot talking to law professor Michael Levine. Most people think that voting tells you the ‘preferences of the group.’ But you know, Mike, groups...

In a recent post, E.D. Kain ponders the issue of labels, particularly self-labeling. I would just note that the self-labeling acrobatics in question are not merely to find an appropriate label for myself, but...

Newly elected U.S. Representative Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) thinks; To be effective in Congress, it is not knowing the ways of Washington. It’s knowing the ways of people who are struggling right now, knowing what...

And I am the final member of The One Best Way to join in this merger with the League.  I should fit in well, being of ordinary height, ordinary weight, and ordinary looks.  I...

One of the concerns expressed in the intense negotiations over our merger (I jest) was whether the addition of we three would tip the balance of this blog too far toward libertarianism. Given that...