From Karl Smith by way of Noah Smith

While you don’t want to get trapped into people thinking that cyclical concerns are liberal concerns … I don’t think it actually helps to offer middle ground.

The problem is that [...]

What do conservatives, liberals, and libertarians believe is the hidden agenda of the other two political philosophies? From Quora.

Conservatives
Conservatives believe in a meritocratic hierarchical society where a) there are as few ‘cheaters’ living off the efforts [...]

Interesting posts on Modeled Behavior in response to this post by Bryan Caplan on Econlog

Suppose there are ten people on a desert island. One, named Able Abel, is extremely able. With a hard day’s work, Able can [...]

From Econlib

RE: “they insist that social justice ought to be part of libertarianism but are unwilling to tell us what it means.”

Thats right. They have no program, no argument, no artifice. Only a sentiment. This is [...]

1) Yes, FB is trying to pump its share price via advertising in anticipation of the IPO. We should expect advertising higher costs as the public awareness of FB’s income limitations increases.

2) Even if FB produces only 1B a [...]

I loosely follow Mitchell Powel on FontWords.com. In a recent posting he commented on John Fensel’s ten Questions For Conservatives. He was having a bit of fun with it, and I”m trying to avoid finishing my chapter on [...]

I keep running into questions over the meaning of ‘utility’. It means only that all actions are in the pursuit of ends. The end might be just the emotional reward that comes from an experience like learning, or a flavor, [...]

While we use it as such, Government is not a synonym for a bureaucracy that wields law with which it coerces others by the threat of violence. It is not government itself that people disagree with. It is government whose [...]

(From Pew Research.)

If Republicans skew male, and Democrats skew female, and men accumulate more economic and political knowledge than women, and women have fewer and less diverse friends than men, then isn’t the fact that Republicans are better [...]

Why does wall street resist QE for example?

Wall Street staff are in the business of planning and policy interferes with their plans, both by uncertainty and by impact.

Like any specialization with a defined methodology and therefore a [...]