Arnold Kling is much puzzled by the inequality of nations. I don’t know why. The answer is pretty obvious. Firstly, you require capitalism, which requires not mere formal laws recognizing private property, but a culture of respect for entrepreneurship, for property rights in productive capital and freedom to do business. With that respect, the laws are unnecessary, as in today’s China. Without that respect, the laws are useless, as in Argentina and Russia. Secondly, given capitalism, you require people able …
Measuring global warming
The simple and obvious way to measure global warming is to look at results from weather stations. Unfortunately results from weather stations are subject to large systematic errors: Weather stations are generally located in or near cities, and near human habitation. Cities are typically several degrees warmer than the surrounding countryside, and have been expanding. Steve McIntyre has been examining how weather stations have been used to construct an estimate of global climate change. The examination suggests that estimates based …
commodity money
The subprime crisis represents massive unpunished malfeasance by financial intermediaries managing US dollars. This discourages people from using US dollars as money. In 2008 January, the fed drove real dollar interest rates negative – only slightly negative, but negative interest rates suggest an intent to inflate away the dollar denominated liabilities of financial intermediaries until the real assets cover the dollar denominated liabilities. In the ensuing two months, all commodities that are readily storable and have large liquid markets, all …
Stop the @#$%^&* whining!
Yair Lapid self pityingly whines “why do they hate us?â€, “us†being in this case the Jews, though it could equally well be any group that is economically successful and reluctant to murder innocents. What a maroon! It is same reason as they hate everyone, only more so. Just look at everyone else who gets hated then murdered. The most recent event was in Kenya, where a party won the election on a platform that sounds like a euphemism for …