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What sort of “Meritocracy” would a libertarian endorse, if he had to?
The first attempt to answer this question should say: “none.” Notwithstanding that this is the correct approach, we can’t help but feel uneasy about it. Libertarians have had to deal with this...
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Minorities and Economic Growth: Evidence from Jewish Communities in Premodern...
Urban theorist Richard Florida is celebrated for arguing that cities today succeed by attracting members of the “creative class.” In a similar spirit I have a recent paper with Noel D. Johnson where...
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The trade offs of Hillary vs Donald
An interesting thing to talk about is whether one ought to support the Donald or the Hillary. And it’s my impression that those who are marginally in favor of Donald and vice versa do that with a...
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A libertarian case for Hillary Clinton
I have abstained from commenting on the American presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton (sorry Rick) for so long because I just wasn’t very interested in it. I’m still not that...
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From the Comments: New Republics, Westphalia, and Russian Strategy
Thomas L. Knapp (check out his two contributions to the most recent Cato Unbound symposium on voting) has a great comment about Ukraine (Russia) that deserves further scrutiny: In order for Putin to...
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Trump Is Right!
It is easy to emphasize all that is bad about the new American President. For sure, I think he is a clown who will do a few bad things to the US and the world at large. His protectionist agenda is of...
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A non-argument against immigration
I often encounter the argument that immigrants, especially Muslims, are so different from the populations of their host countries that they threaten the institutional foundations of these societies. As...
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Dear Muslim Fellow Citizens:
President Trump’s executive order temporarily barring entry into the US to those coming from seven countries was a rude act.* To make things worse, it was badly implemented, causing inconvenience and...
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Illegal Immigration: Pres. Trump’s New Measures
I can’t wait for the raging assaults by the pseudo-cultural elite and by the media against Pres. Trump to stop to begin criticizing some of his decisions, as I would with any other president. I have...
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Famine and Finance: Credit and the Great Famine of Ireland
I have recently finished reading Famine and Finance by Tyler Beck Goodspeed. While short, it should have a prominent place on the shelves of economic historians interested (obviously) in Irish history...
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Is the United States a patriarchy?
When someone — whether laypeople, like Jill Soloway or the writers at Buzzfeed, or academics, like bell hooks — describes the United States as a “patriarchy,” it is unclear to me what they intend to...
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Inventions that didn’t change the world
Have you ever learned about an amazing invention–whether it was the Baghdad battery or the ancient Roman steam engine or Chinese firecrackers–and wondered why it didn’t do more to change the world? In...
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A short note on the Holy Roman Empire, “democracy,” and institutions
At the heart of Europe […] lay a hugely complex and fragmented political entity which resisted the ‘modernizing’ trend of national state formation, and preserved medieval arrangements conceived as...
View Article*The Islamic Enlightenment* | A critical review
De Bellaigue, Christopher. (2017) The Islamic Enlightenment: The Struggle Between Faith and Reason 1798 to Modern Times. Liveright Publishing Corporation (Norton & Company) New York, London. In...
View ArticleIn the Search for an Optimal Level of Inequality
Recently, the blog ThinkMarkets published a post by Gunther Schnabl about how Friedrich Hayek’s works helped to understand the link between Quantitative Easing and political unrest. The piece of...
View ArticleOn Monopsony and Legal Surroundings
A few days ago, in reply to this December NBER study, David Henderson at EconLog questioned the idea that labor market monopsonies matter to explain sluggish wage growth and rising wage inequality....
View ArticleWhat should universities do?
The new semester is here so it’s time for me to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to be doing in the weird world of modern American university life. Roughly speaking, the answer is going to be “do...
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How Capitalism Tamed Medieval Europe Ed West, CapX Guns and the British Empire Priya Satia, Aeon When Government Drew the Color Line Jason DeParle, NY Review of Books In Praise of American History...
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The Left’s Double Standard on the Power of Media Madeline Grant, CapX What Happens Next for British Left? Zoe Williams, Times Literary Supplement Americans are richer and happier than Europeans Scott...
View ArticleRevisiting Epstein’s Freedom and Growth
I was fortunate to be invited give the Epstein Lecture at LSE this March. The series is named after the great LSE economic historian Larry (Stephen) Epstein. Here I’ll summarize why it was such an...
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