Economics in Two Lessons
I’ve been promising for a long time to write a new book, framed as a reply to a free-market tract Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt, published in 1946, but still in print and popular among free...
View ArticleThe political is personal
Working on my Economics in Two Lessons book, I’ve had to address the concept of Pareto optimality, which naturally raises the question of how it fits into Pareto’s larger body of anti-democratic and...
View ArticleThe most misleading definition in economics (draft excerpt from Economics in...
After a couple of preliminary posts, here goes with my first draft excerpt from my planned book on Economics in Two Lessons. They won’t be in any particular order, just tossed up for comment when I...
View ArticleEconomics in Two Lessons: Draft Preface
Over the page, the draft preface for my book-in-progress, Economics in Two Lessons I got some great comments first time round, but I can see it would be easier if I presented my drafts in a more...
View ArticleOpportunity cost: A Fabian idea?
As part of the research for Economics in Two Lessons, I’m looking in to the history of some of the ideas I’m talking about, including Pareto optimality, externalities and of course opportunity cost....
View ArticleEconomics in Two Lessons
I’m still redrafting the opening section of my book, on the concept of opportunity cost. Some applications to specific problems coming soon, I promise. In the meantime, comments and criticism,...
View ArticleTo help poor people, give them money (Draft excerpt from Economics in Two...
Here’s another draft excerpt from my book in progress, Economics in Two Lessons. To recap, the idea of the book is to begin with the idea that market prices represent opportunity costs for the...
View ArticleTISATAAFL
Another excerpt from my book-in-progress, Economics in Two Lessons. To recap, the Two Lessons are Lesson 1: Market prices reflect and determine opportunity costs faced by consumers and producers....
View ArticleCompetitive equilibrium (excerpt from Economics in Two Lessons)
I’m now coming up to (what I hope will be) the most challenging part of my book-in-progress, Economics in Two Lessons. The core theoretical point the first part of the book (Lesson 1) is that, under a...
View ArticleAre natural disasters economic disasters ?
Yes. This has been the latest in our series “Short Answers to Misconceived Questions”. Actually, there’s a longer answer over the fold, another extract from my book-in-progress Economics in Two...
View ArticleThe opportunity cost of war
What is true of natural disasters is even more true of the disasters we inflict on ourselves and others. Of these human-made calamities, the greatest is war. The wars engaged in by the US, Australian...
View ArticleWar and technological progress
One of the big benefits of blogging for me is the chance to try out my ideas on an audience I couldn’t easily reach (or at least hear back from) in any other way. That’s particularly true when I’m...
View ArticleEconomics in Two Lessons: Income Distribution
Here’s another excerpt from my book-in-progress, Economics in Two Lessons. Rather than work sequentially, I’m jumping between: Lesson 1: Market prices reflect and determine opportunity costs faced by...
View ArticleIncome distribution: where should we start ?
Here’s another draft extract from my book-in-progress, Economics in Two Lessons, looking at income distribution. The entire draft section on this topic is available here. And the introduction,...
View ArticleTANSTAAFL: What about “free” TV, radio and Internet content?
Another excerpt from my book in progress, Economics in Two Lessons. There’s a partial draft here if you want to read it in context. I could spend a lot more time on the topic of advertising, but much...
View ArticleAre recessions abnormal (crosspost from Crooked Timber)
I’m on to the macroeconomics section of my book in progress, Economics in Two Lessons. The key point of this section is that, whereas the academic economics profession has wasted most of the last...
View ArticleA data point on minimum wages
I’m currently working on a section of my Economics in Two Lessons book dealing with minimum wages in the context of predistribution policies, so I thought I would compare Australia with the US, where...
View ArticleWhy is global finance so profitable (crosspost from CT)
In a recent post, I asserted that activities like tax avoidance/evasion and regulatory arbitrage aren’t peripheral flaws in a financial system primarily concerned with the efficient global allocation...
View ArticlePredistribution and profits: extract from Economics in Two Lessons
Over the fold, another extract from my book-in-progress, Economics in Two Lessons. Encouraging comments appreciated, constructive criticism even more so. Predistribution and profits As we’ve seen in...
View ArticleMinimum wages and predistribution: Extract from Economics in Two Lessons
A bit out of order, this is another draft extract from my book-in-progress, Economics in Two Lessons. It’s part of the chapter on income distribution, meant to follow the section on unions, and precede...
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