Obamacare and the NSA
Obamacare and the NSA’s total surveillance dreams hit a bump for the same reasons. In both cases, the federal government chose to, or had to, work with private companies: private insurers in one case,...
View ArticleAnarchy and the Limited State
One can argue for total anarchy if it is the only stable equilibrium that is acceptable on the continuum from total anarchy to the total state. Note that both total state and total anarchy are stylized...
View ArticleThe Santa Barbara Killings
A few hours before Jews were slaughtered in Belgium, a young madman was shooting and knifing people of his age in California. Besides the fact that the two killings happened in a gun-free zone, there...
View ArticleSomething Troubling in James Buchanan’s Theory
Just when I first read Buchanan’s The Limits of Liberty (1975) 30 years ago, I find the following intriguing or troubling: In the model incorporated here … I allow quite explicitly for personal...
View ArticleThe Public Debt Is Not Paid by Future Generations
If you think that the public debt will be paid by “future generations,” you are wrong. It is a transfer of resources from current lenders, the purchasers of government bonds, to current borrowers, the...
View ArticleObama and the Seventh Century
I cannot get excited against air strikes on 7th-century violent barbarians persecuting civilian populations. However, I believe any supporter of liberty must get excited against Barack Obama when he...
View ArticleDuncan Black on Lewis Carroll
Ducan Black (1908-1991) was an economist who made important discoveries in the theory of elections: the median-voter theorem and, rediscovered after Condorcet, the paradox of voting. Charles Dodgson...
View ArticleChomsky and Competitive Team Sports
Chomsky apparently does not like competitive team sports. He must hate the Super Bowl. I am not myself a fan — except for the advertisements. Man is the most playful of all animals, thanks to his...
View ArticleÉtudiants: pour une grève générale illimitée
[Mon billet publié dans Le Devoir (Montréal) de ce matin, avec correction d’une faute de français de leur part.] On a tort de blâmer les étudiants qui prêchent la grève. Il faut plutôt les encourager....
View ArticleThe Modernity of Say’s Treatise on Political Economy
Does a foreign tourist who spends $2,000 in America bring $2,000 in benefits? Of course not. But this was not always obvious. In fact, it is still not obvious to many of our contemporaries. But it was...
View ArticleWhat Would Happen to Taxes if Cash Were Banned?
Here is a little exercise in Public Choice economics: If a government banned cash (as some are proposing), what would happen to its tax rates? Answer: they would increase as the cost of tax resistance...
View ArticleA Student Who Still Needs to Study and Think
From tonight’s Financial Times: “Colin Dudgeon, a student at University of New Hampshire Manchester, said he had been choosing between Mr Trump and Mr Sanders but ultimately went with Mr Trump because...
View ArticleAfter the Brussels Airport Outrage
After the Zaventem barbaric attack, the solution should appear obvious to our “protectors.” They need pre-checkpoint checkpoints, and pre-pre-checkpoint checkpoints, and so forth, until a checkpoint is...
View ArticleUnsourced Internet Quotes
The logical structure of the typical unsourced Internet quote: If my opinions are true, Mr. X could have said something like “Blah blah blah…” My opinions are true. Therefore, Mr. X said “Blah blah...
View ArticleThe Tobacco Manufacturer and the State
Here is the typical dialogue between a standard tobacco manufacturer and the state (it is stylized but only slightly): The State: “You intentionally sell a product that has no benefit for your idiotic...
View ArticleAn Interpretation of the American Political Mess
For several decades, the political establishment told Americans that the government is nice and can give them what they want. They did get much from government, but (not surprisingly) also paid much....
View ArticleDon’t Waste Your Vote
If someone tells you that he doesn’t want to “waste his vote” and will thus vote strategically for the least bad candidate with a chance of winning, tell him the following. He should also make sure...
View ArticleThe Progress of Statistical Justice
TweetIn Steven Spielberg’s movie “The Minority Report” (with Tom Cruise) and in the original 1956 science-fiction novel by Philip K. Dick, mutants called “precogs” can predict future crimes –...
View ArticleInnocuous or Dangerous Ignorants
TweetThere are two sorts of ignorants: the innocuous sort and the dangerous sort. Maine Governor Paul LePage appears to be in the first category. The press — and even The Economist — reported his...
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