Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

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About F. E. Guerra-Pujol

When I’m not blogging, I am a business law professor at the University of Central Florida.

“The market as a creative process”

That is the title of this excellent essay by Viktor Vanberg and the late James Buchanan, which was recently reprinted in Daniel Hausman, editor, The Philosophy of Economics, Cambridge U Press (2008), pp. 378-398. Here is a picture of the book in … Continue reading

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Reverse legal lotteries

The increasing problem of overcriminalization (of private citizens and businesses, that is — policemen and regulators almost always get a free pass) has been noted before. In summary, overcriminalization threatens our economic liberties and undermines the rule of law. Matt Kaiser, moreover, describes … Continue reading

Posted in Law, Lotteries, Probability | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The decline and fall of Roman Britain

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Here come the lawyers!

You can read the well-drafted, five-page complaint filed by Judy Huth against Bill Cosby for yourself. Ms Huth’s complaint alleges three causes of actions or legal claims: (1) sexual battery, (2) intentional infliction of emotional distress, and (3) negligent infliction of emotional … Continue reading

Posted in Current Affairs, Law | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Borgesian infinite regress

“On some shelf in some hexagon [within the Library of Babel], it was argued, there must exist a book that is the cipher and perfect compendium of all other books *** How was one to locate the idolized secret hexagon … Continue reading

Posted in Literature, Logical Fallacies, Paradoxes | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Map of the Earth’s oceans

Via Wikimedia Commons.

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“The location of academic knowledge”

That is the title of this data visualization courtesy of the Oxford Internet Institute. (By the way, you may click on the diagram for a larger version.) Question: If we were to map the number of retractions or fake peer reviews (see … Continue reading

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Gaming the peer review system

Check out this exposé of peer review scams. Among other things, Cat Ferguson, Adam Marcus, and Ivan Oransky write: In the past 2 years, journals have been forced to retract more than 110 papers in at least 6 instances of peer-review rigging. What all these … Continue reading

Posted in Deception, Ethics, Science | Tagged | 2 Comments

Historical contingency (Louisiana edition)

What if Napoleon had sold Louisiana to Britain or Spain instead of the USA?

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Vampire Freakonomics Redux

Originally posted on prior probability:
https://twitter.com/freakonomics/status/528547453524803585 Check out this fun Freakonomics podcast featuring economists Steve Horwitz and Glen Whitman as well as yours truly, and while you’re at it, why not check out the Economics of the Undead blog too?

Posted in Economics, Zombies | Tagged , , | 124 Comments