I understand, I really do, that people who advocate for drastic policies to arrest climate change might still drive around in a large car or travel by air. They might even buy an allegedly green car with a carbon footprint a … Continue reading
Never, ever, listen to or hire someone who speaks like this: It turns out we know more about economic policy than we think we do. Much (certainly not all) of contemporary economics has a pretty good idea of how the … Continue reading
I’ve enjoyed reading the Cultural Cognition Project for some time, and this isn’t the first time Dan Kahan has made this point, but I want to highligh a really striking chart in his latest: This graph compares answers on a basic subject literacy quiz, … Continue reading
#broneologisms Tweets
The public debate about inequality and income growth sometimes seems entirely focused on intra-country differences, and ignores the global trend of decreasing inequality. In my reading on the subject I came across this graph, used in more than one article … Continue reading
In prior posts I’ve noted that some of the measured inequality trend is actually an artifact of where income is reported. Particularly after the 1986 tax reform, income has moved steadily from corporate returns to individual returns, exaggerating the growth … Continue reading
I suppose most political/philosophical criticism is glib, but it is the libertarian’s unique fate to receive glib criticism from both major political tribes. Libertarians, as few and un-influential as they are, are apparently threatening to the majority tribes, progressive liberals, … Continue reading
At the bottom of any argument you will find axioms (norms, inviolable rights, natural or divine laws), assumed or simply asserted as “first principles”. Geometric proofs cannot exist without accepted axioms, likewise reasoned discussion also requires some shared norms. We … Continue reading
Funny, I haven’t seen this covered much by the usual suspects: November’s second estimate of 3rd quarter GDP included very tempered growth in health spending. The third estimate blows that out of the water. Much of the upward revision to … Continue reading
Suggests what you might call the textbook result: The hike in the minimum wage thus appears to have raised the wage for low-skilled workers but made it harder for them to find jobs. Full paper here. From the summary: …because we … Continue reading