all posts in the 'Politics and economics' category


The Myth of the Rational Voter - part II

A while back I posted in response to Bryan Caplan’s essay (and now book) on voter irrationality. He views human misconceptions, about economics in particular, (he quotes how people are wrong in orders of magnitude about the extent of foreign aid given by the US, the effects of immigration etc.) as irrational. That is, people […]

Segolene for Prez!

No, I haven’t gone crazy, though if I have, there is method in my madness.
France is a great country. Wonderful cities, some of the biggest European companies fighting it out with the worlds best; a fairly successful auto industry, and a health system and public transport network that the British could die for (in the […]

Inflation leaps

Mervyn writes.
The Chancellor writes back.
How nice. what have we learnt? Zilcho, but perhaps any sense of impending panic has been managed by knowing that there is a process in place.
It seems rather quaint that the economy is treated like an errant child who behaves beyong the bounds of acceptability and must be reported to its […]

Morality and markets

A DJ gets fired for making unsavoury remarks about a women’s basketball team. Tim Worstall takes issue with Jane Galt’s view that Don Imus can’t be expected to keep his job if he makes offensive comments and contributes to falling rating and advertising income. Don Imus has essentially been fired then because he has suddenly become […]

Guido Fawkes is wrong

Last night, Newsnight featured a story by Guido Fawkes on bloggers vs Establishment News and included an exchange with Paxo, Michael White of the Guardian, and Guido himself (in an rather hilarious attempt at ‘anonymity’) - update here is the interview.
Guido’s believes that major broadcasters pussy-foot around politicians, in order to retain access and exclusive […]