Category: Economics

/// October 9, 2012

The Political Economy of Low-Cost Extradimensional Energy

Reading through Taylor Martin’s excellent blog pointed me in the direction of a Dan Nexon post at the Duck of Minerva. Both Martin and Nexon have interesting takes on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of...

Erik Kain

/// July 31, 2012

A Romantic, a Monk, and a Neoliberal Walk Into a Bar…

On Romanticism in Politics Romanticism is wonderful in a work of fiction, art or video game. As a died-in-the-wool modern day romantic, I’ve spent most of my life doing my best to use fantasy...

Guest Authors

/// June 18, 2012

Inequality by Half Measures

By M.A. Note: This post is part of our League Symposium on inequality. You can read the introductory post for the Symposium here. To see a list of all posts in the Symposium so far,...

Guest Authors

/// June 14, 2012

How Inequality Harms

By M.A. Note: This post is part of our League Symposium on inequality. You can read the introductory post for the Symposium here. To see a list of all posts in the Symposium so far,...

Guest Authors

/// June 13, 2012

Government Enforced Inequality

By James Hanley Note: This post is part of our League Symposium on inequality. You can read the introductory post for the Symposium here. To see a list of all posts in the Symposium so...

Guest Authors

/// June 12, 2012

The Positive Sum Outlook

Note: This post is part of our League Symposium on inequality. You can read the introductory post for the Symposiumhere. To see a list of all posts in the Symposium so far, click here. By...

Guest Authors

/// June 8, 2012

AUCTIFICUS AEQUALITAS

Note: This post is part of our League Symposium on inequality. You can read the introductory post for the Symposium here. To see a list of all posts in the Symposium so far, click...

Guest Authors

/// June 5, 2012

Consensus Facit Legem

By Wardsmith Are HOA’s a good metaphor for government? In the much-commented OP by Dr. Hanley, interlocutor M.A. brought up Home Owner Associations (HOA’s), most specifically as a foil against the concept that Libertarians...

Guest Authors

/// June 5, 2012

Invitation: Ordinary Gentlemen’s Inequality Symposium

By James Hanley You (yes, you) are invited to submit a post for the Ordinary Gentlemen’s Inequality Symposium. The question to be addressed is: What, if anything, is wrong with inequality? Anyone may participate,...

Guest Authors

/// November 9, 2011

A Response to ‘Democracy, Coercion, and Liberty’

~by James Hanley Erik’s been trying to work out a question about the libertarian justification of the state, and so far it hasn’t gone well. His first attempts were not well understood, at least...

Erik Kain

/// November 4, 2011

Social Forces and Vulgar Libertarianism

Will Wilkinson makes an important observation about the affinity between libertarians and conservatives. At the heart of the fusionism between the two groups, he explains, is the notion of individual responsibility. Whereas libertarians and...

Ethan Gach

/// November 2, 2011

We’re On The Road To Somewhere

The incentive-oriented world view explored at length by works like Freakonomics really appeals to me. Making every social issue into a problem of inadequate or incorrect incentives can really help to clarify things and...

Guest Authors

/// October 9, 2011

Promises Were Broken

by E.C. Gach In a recent guest post, Aaron B. pointed out that the Occupy Wall Street movement is, perhaps more than anything else, about forging a shared political identity and civic community. And...

Erik Kain

/// September 12, 2011

Beyond Capitalism

Umair Haque has an interesting post up at the Harvard Business Review asking whether Marx was in fact correct about capitalism – not about communism mind you, but about capitalism. Marx, after all, did...

Christopher Carr

/// September 5, 2011

The Solutions to Poverty and Unemployment Will Look Something Like This: An Interview with Rachel Cook

Erik Kain

/// September 1, 2011

We Need Countercyclical Spending, Not Counterintuitive Spending Cuts

Matt Yglesias points out once again that since we can borrow money at basically negative real interest rates, we should do it. We should do it to stimulate the economy, put money into infrastructure...

Erik Kain

/// August 24, 2011

The Flaws and Shortcomings of Ron Paul

Matt Yglesias on Ron Paul: After looking at his positions and statements, the most remarkable thing is that if it weren’t for his loud fanbase of self-proclaimed libertarians you wouldn’t really think this is...

Tim Kowal

/// August 8, 2011

The Affluent (and Downgraded, Debt-Laden) Society

The late preeminent liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith once complained in The Affluent Society that where Democrats once stood for an issue of great importance in emphasizing production, they lost that issue by misunderstanding...

Erik Kain

/// August 5, 2011

We are all neoliberals now

Karl Smith on the conservative movement: The thing to remember is this outpouring of insanity is not the result of a conservative movement that is losing. It is the case that the long run...

Erik Kain

/// August 1, 2011

Deal with the devil

Here’s Kevin Drum: There are a few liberal pundits out there who believe that a cuts-only deal like this one isn’t all that bad. Jon Chait is one of the leading proponents of this...