Han Solo and the Economics of Rebellion Against Repressive Regimes
Economist Daniel Hamermesh has an entertaining game theoretical analysis of Han Solo’s decision to fight for the rebels against the Empire back in the first Star Wars movie. The analysis is a bit of a...
View ArticleDoes the Supposedly Superior Expertise of Regulators Justify Libertarian...
Some of the commenters on my last two posts criticizing libertarian paternalism accuse me of ignoring the possibility that such paternalism is justified by the supposedly superior expertise of...
View ArticleExcellent Review of Todd Zywicki’s and Max Stearns New Book on Public Choice...
University of Florida lawprof D. Daniel Sokol has published a very good (and extremely favorable) review of co-conspirator Todd Zywicki’s important recent book Public Choice Concepts and Applications...
View ArticleLessons from an Unlicensed Barber
Center for American Progress house blogger Matthew Yglesias confesses that he has an unlicensed barber, and has no regrets. Regulation of this sort seems totally unnecessary. People don’t die of bad...
View ArticleWasteful Weatherization Projects
The stimulus bill included $5 billion for weatherization projects. The idea was not just to create jobs, but also invest in energy efficiency. The money didn’t get spent quite as quickly as some had...
View ArticleA Recession-Driven Speed Trap in Falls Church?
Economic studies show that local governments often step up enforcement of minor traffic offenses during recessions in order to increase revenue. I seem to have been the victim of this kind of...
View ArticleThe Political Economy of the Roman Republic
One of my longstanding interests is the political economy of ancient Greece and Rome. Former VC-er Eric Posner has an excellent new article on the political economy of the Roman Republic: The...
View Article“Guerrilla Polling” in Repressive Societies
I have several times criticized Western observers who naively assume that pro-government statements by people who live under repressive regimes necessarily reflect their true opinions (see here and...
View ArticleWho Won the Tax Deal?
I’ll leave it to the professional pundits to determine whether House Republicans, President Obama, or someone else got the better deal with last week’s announced compromise. One winner in the deal,...
View ArticleWhat Would Public Choice Theory Say About Rating Agencies and Sovereign Debt?
Particularly since the European sovereign debt crisis put the question of sovereign debt ratings squarely on the table, and even more in the last few days since the rating agencies have downgraded...
View ArticleBankruptcy for States
Bankruptcy law professor David Skeel, whose new book The New Financial Deal is one I admire a great deal, has a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today urging a bankruptcy regime for the states....
View ArticleE.J. McMahon Argues for Alternatives to State Bankruptcy, and Fred Siegel on...
The Manhattan Institute’s EJ McMahon argues for alternatives to state bankruptcy in the Wall Street Journal today. The article is not framed as an argument for the sustainability of the state debt...
View ArticleReflections on the Potential Revolution in Egypt
I don’t have any brilliant suggestions for how President Obama should handle the situation in Egypt. But history and economic theory do give us some insight on why the revolt against the government...
View ArticleShould We Celebrate or Mourn the Ides of March?
Today is the Ides of March, the anniversary of Julius Caesar’s assassination. Economist David Henderson asks a question that people have been debating for over 2000 years: Should Caesar have been...
View ArticleThe Debt Deal and Divided Government
The debt deal passed today does not go as far in cutting spending as I would like. But it does nonetheless enact substantial cuts without any tax increases, with a significant likelihood of more cuts...
View ArticleEgypt Sliding into Military Dictatorship
When the revolution that eventually overthrew Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak began, I warned that the end result could easily be a government as bad or worse than Mubarak’s was. In a revolutionary...
View ArticleMore Evidence of the Repressive Nature of the New Egyptian Government
In a recent post, I cited evidence suggesting that the new Egyptian government is degenerating into a military dictatorship at least as bad as the Mubarak regime that was overthrown earlier this year....
View ArticleA Too Big to Fail Parking Lot at Yankee Stadium?
Manhattan Institute scholar Nicole Gelinas has an interesting column about a massive financially dubious parking lot at Yankee Stadium, which Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. claims requires a...
View ArticleWhen Is an Earmark not an Earmark?
When it’s pushed by the Republican leadership, is located in a politically important state, and is carefully written to avoid the official definition of an “earmark.” (HT: Instapundit) [...] The post...
View ArticleDirector of Massachusetts Highway Safety Division Has Extensive Record of Car...
It sounds like something from a bad libertarian parody of government. But it turns out that the Director of the Massachusetts state highway safety agency has a long record of traffic accidents and...
View ArticleMassachusetts Highway Safety Director With Terrible Driving Record Resigns
Sheila Burgess, the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division Director with a horrible driving record and no qualifications for the job, has resigned. I blogged about Burgess here. The resignation was...
View ArticleThe Other Beneficiaries of ObamaCare
Whether or not you believe the PPACA has been or will be good for the American people, it has certainly been good for the lobbyists and legislative staffers who wrote it, as Tim Carney explains. Glenn...
View ArticleCorporate Tax Breaks in Fiscal Cliff Deal
“Congress, apparently, couldn’t end the year without showering billions on a handful of interest groups, some of which you probably didn’t even know existed,” the Washington Post editorializes. the...
View ArticleJames Buchanan, RIP
Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan passed away today. Buchanan was one of the founders of public choice economics, which seeks to apply economic analysis to politics. Closely related was his...
View ArticlePenalties for Underperforming Politicians
Law professor Glenn Reynolds (AKA Instapundit) has an interesting column in USA Today advocating that we increase penalties for politicians who do a poor job in office: As scandals explode across...
View ArticleSports Stadium Corporate Welfare Continues in Detroit
Despite the having filed for bankruptcy, Detroit is going ahead with plans to spend over $400 million in public funds on a new hockey arena for the Detroit Red Wings [HT: Josh Blackman]: Detroit’s...
View ArticleBaptists, Bootleggers, and Marijuana Prohibition
Public choice economist Bruce Yandle famously developed the concept of a “baptist-bootlegger coalition” to describe situations in which regulation is supported by a strange bedfellow alliance of groups...
View ArticleMy Response to Jeffrey Friedman’s Critique of Democracy and Political Ignorance
Cato Unbound has now posted my response to political theorist Jeffrey Friedman’s insightful criticism of my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter. Here is an...
View ArticleConcluding Thoughts on the Cato Unbound Symposium on Democracy and Political...
The Cato Unbound symposium on my book Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter is wrapping up up today. I am grateful to political theorist Jeffrey Friedman, Yale Law School...
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