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BMS ep 124: How to Defund the Police, and Eyewitness Account of CHAZ

This is one of the rare times when my areas of expertise are actually in popular demand. (The other time was when capital theory briefly became cool when Piketty’s book came out.) I first spend an hour or so laying out the theory of how to think about “defund the police.” Then I interview Whitney […]

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Potpourri

==> Robert Bryce has a nice obit on Freeman Dyson. ==> Linked from Bryce, here is Dyson’s 2007 essay on his heretical thoughts. ==> Piketty drops the mask… ==> Tyler Cowen gives us another hint that he’s a closet Austrian. ==> Everybody hates market prices in a pandemic, even conservatives. ==> The Fed has eliminated […]

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Potpourri

==> Lots of people are talking about this Mexican town that overthrew its government. Seemed like the moral was: Once they secured their border, everything got better. (Oh I kid folks I kid.) ==> On that Scott Alexander post on Piketty, I was glad to see David Friedman has material posted about the History of […]

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Potpourri

==> At IER, I discuss Doug Ford’s election (in Ontario). He ran on a platform promising to roll back cap-and-trade. ==> Sorry if I already pushed this: In the latest Contra Krugman I go solo and talk about the economics of climate change policy. ==> FEE’s Blinking Lights award, given this year to Nelson Nash. […]

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Potpourri

==> Episode 108 of Contra Krugman, where Krugman worries about replacing the whiz kids who’ve been running the Fed. ==> Alex Tabarrok talks about a vindication (?) of some of the points Phil Magness made in our critique of Piketty. (NOTE: I know Alex and he wasn’t insulting us.) I haven’t had time to read […]

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The Year of Jubilee and Human Capital

My study partner and I are going over Leviticus 25 and we are reading Matthew Henry’s (full) commentary. In the year of Jubilee (which happens every 7 cycles of 7 years, so scholars say it is either every 49 or 50 years), all property returns to the family. In other words, no matter how foolishly […]

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More Griping About Gary Johnson

Both in recognition of my (perhaps disproportionate) annoyance, and to avoid alienating potential future Murphy book buyers, I am really trying to contain my social media criticism of Gary Johnson. But let me gripe about him here. This recent Reason interview is astonishing. First of all look at this: NICK GILLESPIE: Earlier this week, you […]

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Potpourri

==> I really don’t have time to jump into this, but FWIW, the WSJ ran a story criticizing Piketty. (You will not be surprised to hear that Daniel Kuehn on Facebook thought this was a ridiculous critique because of course Piketty never said what all of Piketty’s fans thought he said…) ==> I haven’t read […]

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