prior probability

Bush and Blair are war criminals and deserve to spend the rest of their lives rotting in a jail cell. Yeah, I have not forgotten about the Iraq War, and if I ever meet either of these smug assholes in person, I will make a citizen’s arrest.

More details here, via National Review. Professor Williams was one of my intellectual heroes.

Update (12/4): Here is another homage to Walter Williams, via my colleague and friend Alex Tabarrok.

More details here. Hat tip: Brian Leiter.

FYI: I have posted a revised version of my full-length review of Professor Tyler Cowen’s “Love Letter to Big Business.” Below is a summary of my review, which is available here via SSRN:

“In 1848, two obscure German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, published a revolutionary pamphlet called ‘The Manifesto of the Communist Party.’ The Communist Manifesto, destined to become one of the most influential works of political philosophy of all time, began with these famous words: “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism….” Now, almost two centuries later, someone has finally chased down this seductive spectre and attempted to bottle her up for good. That someone is Tyler Cowen. In brief, Cowen has just published a kind of ‘Capitalist Manifesto,’ one that is even more intoxicating and liberating than Marx and Engel’s original screed. Far from the source of all things evil, Cowen explains why privately-owned business firms should be praised.”

Via Civicus: “On 9th November 2020, … rapper Denis Solís González [pictured below], was detained [by the Cuban State Police]. Days earlier, the musician had used his social networks to share a live video of a police officer who had entered his home without a warrant. On 11th November 2020, Solís González was tried and sentenced to eight months in prison on ‘contempt of authority’ charges. According to Amnesty International, he was then transferred to a maximum-security prison.” More details here (in Spanish) and here (in English).

I am in the process of getting my paper “Adam Smith in Love” ready for publication in an upcoming volume of Econ Journal Watch. In the meantime, below is a convenient compilation of my most recent “Adam Smith in Love” blog posts:

1. Madame Nicol
2. Adam Smith and Abbeville (redux)
3. Adam Smith in Love: 18th-Century Sex in the City of Lights
4. Adam Smith in Love: A Bayesian Rabbit Hole
5. Adam Smith in Love Update: A Fourth Conjecture
6. Adam Smith in Love: The Lost Letters

Artist Credit: Wil Freeborn

The late great George Stigler once observed something to the effect: “If you’ve never missed a flight, you’re spending way too much time at the airport.” (See also Natasha Geiling’s excellent essay here.) However you answer this question, Justin Wolfers has recently formalized Prof Stigler’s intuition thus (bravo!):

… on the Internet!

… my children!