In The Papers: Interest Over Time

Smita Roy has an outstanding article detailing the history of how philosophers and economists have thought of the concept of interest, entitled Historical Evolution of Interest and Its Analysis in Economic Literature.  This is easily the best paper I have read in the past year (or possibly more), so expect a long post. Abstract: This…

End The Federal Reserve

Thomas Sowell comes out in favor of killing the Federal Reserve.  Having read a bit more on free banking, and knowing the history of the United States between the BUS and Federal Reserve, it's not as though a world without a central bank is impossible or so terrible that we shouldn't even try to imagine…

In The Papers: Economist Swapping

Hendrik P. van Dalen and Arjo Klamer have an article entitled Trading Economics across the Atlantic:  Jan Tinbergen and Milton Friedman.  Readers here may know of my love of Tinbergen's Law, even though I am not that fond of Tinbergen's work as a whole. Abstract: Jan Tinbergen and Milton Friedman were both very much inspired…

Not A Good Economic Sign

Temporary, freelance, and contract work is on the rise.  The mean duration of unemployment has been on the rise in the US over the past several decades.  It is my consideration that these two are definitely linked. Up through 2007, the United States' unemployment rate has historically been several points lower than that of countries…

Austrian Empirical Work

Mario Rizzo has a call to arms for empirical Austrian work. One are where Austrians could be very successful is in computer simulations. Don Lavoie was onto something with agorics, and modern neural networks and graph-heavy methods fit right in with Austrian ideas like capital heterogeneity and complementarity, as well as the dynamics of individual…

In The Papers: Knowledge Flat-Talk

Dan Klein has an interesting paper on the difference between knowledge and information (what economists prefer to deal with), as well as a process which he calls "knowledge flat-talk"---namely, trying to re-define knowledge as information, as it is much easier to model information than knowledge.  His paper is entitled Knowledge Flat-Talk:  A Conceit of Supposed…

In The Papers: “Reasonable Regulation”

Following up on last year's Nobel Prize in Economics win for Elinor Ostrom, Pete Boettke looks at some of her work in his paper, Is the Only Form of "Reasonable Regulation" Self Regulation? Abstract: Elinor Ostrom has made significant contributions throughout her career to the disciplines of political economy and public choice. Her most widely…

Interviews With Hayek

From beyond the grave!  Or at least before the grave. Organizations and Markets point out what appears to be a great series of interviews with FA Hayek.  My desires include a discussion between Buchanan and Hayek on constitutions, and just to hear Leijonhufvud talk with Hayek about anything at all---that would have to be interesting. …

Yeah, But How Likely?

ESR talks about the eventual breakthrough and realization that yes, Virginia, there are genetic differences between groups.  I think he's right that different groups will try to do nasty things with this information, and I also agree with his first-best answer:  stop treating people like classifications and start treating them like individuals. There are three…

Thought Of The Day

Currently listening to Steve Horwitz talk about Kirznerian entrepreneurs.  This led me to my thought of the day (can't have too many---that'd just be troublesome):  MacGyver is the ultimate Kirznerian entrepreneur.