Category Archives: Uncategorized

Tonight is “la noche de San Juan”, one of the quirky traditions that I miss the most about the Island of Puerto Rico, where I lived from 1993 to 2009. On June 23, “sanjuaneros” (people who live in the San … Continue reading →

Updated and expanded (4:00pm): Instead of relying on public opinion polls, which were notoriously unreliable last time around and which–as you yourself ended up conceding–caused you to screw up big time, why not use a proxy–such as online sales of … Continue reading →

Chalk up another victory for markets and free enterprise! The polemical Nassim Nicholas Taleb (or NNT of “Black Swan” fame) recently wrote up and posted this excellent essay identifying six errors in reasoning about face masks. Among the usual suspects … Continue reading →

The beautiful jigsaw puzzles featured in the video below are inspired by the formation of agates, a colorful banded stone, and are available for purchase here. Each particular puzzle is unique, emerging from a computer simulation designed to create random … Continue reading →

Via SSRN, I have posted my review of Tyler Cowen’s beautiful love letter to big business here. The abstract of my review is below: “In 1848, two obscure German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, published a revolutionary pamphlet called … Continue reading →

Originally posted on prior probability:
To relieve some of the stress and anxiety of finals, I have just posted to the homepage of my “tiger law” survey course the following fun survey question: Now that the semester is almost over,…

In addition to green, various shades of grey, yellow, and blue are also quite popular! As a token of my appreciation, I am bringing this beautiful “visual guide to banknotes around the world” by Salman Haqqi to your attention. Among … Continue reading →

Via Arnold Kling: “From a liberty-coercion perspective, [the slogan ‘defund the police’ is] a misdirected effort. Excess coercion comes from unnecessary laws and unaccountable enforcement. For libertarians, reform would start with having fewer laws. Those who enforce the laws should … Continue reading →

What is “Juneteenth”? Via Kottke, here is a helpful introduction. According to Wikipedia, citing this excellent essay by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Juneteenth originally began as an unofficial commemoration of a military order (issued on 19 June 1865 by Union … Continue reading →