Creative Commons
Blogs I Follow
Tag Archives: Politics
Das Problem des Reichtums: What does Adam Smith mean by *wealth* in The Wealth of Nations?
Below is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of my forthcoming survey of Adam Smith problems with Salim Rashid: “’Wealth’, in the words of Robert L. Heilbroner, ‘is a fundamental concept in economics—indeed, perhaps the conceptual starting point for the discipline.’ … Continue reading
Update re: domestic constitutional violence in Los Angeles
As a follow-up to one of my previous posts on “Domestic Constitutional Violence: Los Angeles” (see here), I want to mention that a federal appellate court in California recently affirmed President Trump’s decision to deploy the California National Guard, ostensibly … Continue reading
A Coasian critique of Kurt Gray’s harm thesis: part 1 of 3
Yesterday, I read Elizabeth Kolbert’s review (see here) of Kurt Gray’s new book Outraged: Why We Fight about Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground on pp. 63-65 of the January 20th issue of The New Yorker. Among … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Economics, Ethics, kurt-gray, Politics, reciprocal-harms, Ronald Coase
1 Comment
A provocative Parisian pamphlet
(Author’s note: below is Part 3 of 3 of my series of blog posts on Adam Smith’s first visit to Paris.) The pamphlet, Richesses de l’etat, took Paris by storm and stirred up an enormous debate about royal finances. (Darnton … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged adam-smith, Economics, finance, History, Paris, Politics, roussel-de-la-tour, taxation
Leave a comment
World Truth League White Paper
Is it possible to test the truth-values of popular or entrenched conspiracy theories without resorting to censorship? To this end, Steve Kuhn and yours truly have just posted our new “World Truth League White Paper” to SSRN. In brief, we … Continue reading
Who betrayed the men of Brigade 2506?
“As time went by …, the exile community realized that the one true chance they had to overthrow the dictator and ensure democracy in Cuba had been on the beaches of the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. The image … Continue reading
How much of The Wealth of Nations was plagiarized?
It seems unlikely that the question [i.e. the charge of plagiarism against Adam Smith] can ever be answered for certain. (Keynes 1938, p. 43) I will be presenting one of my works-in-progress, Die Adam Smith Probleme, at the next meeting … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged adam-smith, Economics, History, pin-factory, plagiarism, Politics
4 Comments
Repeal the CFR?
I mentioned in my previous post that “I would repeal the entire Code of Federal Regulations root and branch …” In summary, my argument for repealing the CFR is based not on policy but rather on constitutional first principles. Does … Continue reading
King for a day …
My previous post contained links to my critique of Cass Sunstein’s essay “Why I am a liberal” as well as links to my review of Philip K. Howard’s new book on Everyday Freedom. But both my critique of Sunstein and … Continue reading
Judicial performance art
I am reblogging my initial reaction to “the Colorado case” (you know what I am talking about!) because I just realized that the court’s decision is a purely symbolic one — more a case of “judicial performance art” than a … Continue reading
prior probability 