I have Bowles’ Moral Economy on my desk awaiting my attention. I’ll inevitably get to it when I have something important and urgent I can put off in order to say, “Hey, I should really read that.” A lot of the themes Bowles discusses are at least touched on in Douglass C. North’s Understanding the Process […]

I suspect you’re not reading this on your Zune. Why not? Because the Zune failed. That the Zune failed in spite of backing by one of the world’s most powerful  companies should give us pause when we think about “corporate power.” Products succeed and fail, ultimately, because consumers vote for them or against them with […]

“Capitalism lacks romantic appeal. It does not set the pulse racing in the way that opposing ideologies like socialism, fascism, or environmentalism can. It does not stir the blood, for it identifies no dragons to slay. It offers no grand vision for the future, for in an open market system, the future is shaped not […]

Since 2010 I’ve been a contributor to Forbes.com. I agreed a few months ago to publish more, and ideally I’ll be producing 1-2 articles per week (at least). One of my major goals in this will be to summarize and apply research (recent and classic) in articles suitable for classroom use. Here’s what I’ve written […]

Safety demonstrations on planes. Is anyone really paying attention? Delta’s security demonstration videos are pretty funny. They make it easier for the uninitiated to pay attention, and they add a bit of levity to what can be a stressful process. Good job, Delta. Thanks for making flying more enjoyable.

“God, grant me the courage to change what I can, the serenity to accept the things I can’t, and the wisdom to know the difference.” The serenity prayer. It’s a useful mantra of sorts because there really is no point to lamenting that which we can’t change. And yet serenity is distributed unequally, perhaps as […]

I really came to question the forecasting enterprise after reading Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise and Philip E. Tetlock’s Expert Political Judgment. My skepticism about a lot of forecasts was reinforced by Tetlock’s recent Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, which detailed how we get forecasts wrong and how we get forecasts right. Tetlock’s latest […]

Dante, The Divine Comedy (Audible). I love Audible because it lets me listen to the classics on my (short!) commute. You can get a Kindle version for $0 (click the image). My current listen is Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained. Thomas Sowell, Discrimination and Disparities. This reminds me a lot of Wealth, Poverty, and Politics, which came out a few […]

I took the family to Magic City Con at the Hyatt Regency in Hoover, Alabama, June 10-12. I’m already planning to go back next year. I’m a giant nerd: I love Star Wars. I enjoy professional wrestling non-ironically. I watch The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead.  I was a big fan of the Battlestar […]

Behold, one of the greatest things on the internet: the “This Charming Charlie” Tumblr, where artist Lauren LoPrete has put lyrics from Smiths and Morrissey songs into the conversation bubbles in “Peanuts” strips. I’m a little late to the party here as this is a few years old, but one of the neatest things about […]

I often get requests for help with personal finances. I have a $0 course on personal finance available at Udemy that you can access here. It walks you through the basics of managing your money well by avoiding bad debt, saving aggressively, and investing wisely. The most important thing about managing your money is actually […]

We use Amazon Subscribe and Save for a bunch of different things. It’s nice to know that there’s going to be a shipment of paper towels, coffee, almonds, and other stuff pretty regularly. This reduces the amount of stuff we have to worry about. Here’s what we subscribe to: Read More

Behold, one of the greatest things on the internet: the “This Charming Charlie” Tumblr, where artist Lauren LoPrete has put lyrics from Smiths and Morrissey songs into the conversation bubbles in “Peanuts” strips. I’m a little late to the party here as this is a few years old, but one of the neatest things about […]

I’m late to this party: I just recently started watching “House of Cards” on Netflix. As an economist who studies and teaches the economics of political decision making, I find it absolutely captivating. It’s a spectacular example of the public choice tradition, which the Nobel laureate James Buchanan defined as “politics without romance.” After watching […]