All Posts Tagged With: "knowledge problem"
Two Kinds of Government Failure
One emphasizes incentive problems, the other knowledge problems.
24Jan2012 | Sandy Ikeda | 2 comments | ContinuedMarkets Are Messy, Part 2: The Errors of the Economists
The perfect-competition model assumes away the key function of actual competition, which is to discover the very things the model takes as given.
17Nov2011 | Steven Horwitz | 6 comments | ContinuedThe Importance of Failure
In today’s society failure has become something to fear, avoid, and therefore prevent at all costs. Whether it is unemployment compensation, farm subsidies, or bailouts for failing companies, the world seems to view failure as having no redeeming social value. If success is all good and failure is all bad, then it seems as though [...]
26Oct2011 | and Steven Horwitz | 11 comments | ContinuedThe Market: This Time It’s Personal
Freedom of movement, in physical and social space, is the essence of the free society.
12Jul2011 | Sandy Ikeda | 3 comments | ContinuedGetting it Right or Knowing You Got it Wrong?
It’s not just that government gets it wrong at various points but that political processes do not have the same error detection and correction abilities that markets do.
31Mar2011 | Steven Horwitz | 18 comments | ContinuedAn Impossible Job
Conventional wisdom has it that the more complex a nation’s economy, the more government oversight and regulation are needed to keep it from spinning out of control. It follows that government must grow in size and complexity along with the economy. Apparently, however, our government has become so vast and complex that it may have [...]
24Feb2011 | Richard W. Fulmer | 2 comments | ContinuedSocial Construction, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction
Once one sees social institutions as “constructed,” it’s easy to take the next two steps: thinking one can deconstruct and then reconstruct them.
17Feb2011 | Steven Horwitz | 10 comments | ContinuedWhy Not Socialism?
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Berlin Wall came down, millions were lifted out of oppression, and the Mises/Hayek critique of socialism was (supposedly) vindicated. As the world slogs through the continuing recession, however, dissenting voices grow louder. The late G. A. Cohen, an iconic political philosopher of the [...]
22Dec2010 | Art Carden | 6 comments | ContinuedWhat “Undercover Boss” Could Be
A really interesting version of the television show, at least to an economist, would be one that recognized the ignorance of those at the top.
16Dec2010 | Steven Horwitz | 8 comments | ContinuedThe Pretense of Regulatory Knowledge
“The financial system’s size, complexity and global nature defy attempts to chart its future.” –Robert Samuelson, Washington Post
26Apr2010 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Insanity of Government “Reform”
The belief that government continually “reforms” itself, correcting earlier “mistakes” and moving toward “perfection,” has dominated our body politic since the Progressive Era.
7Apr2010 | William L. Anderson | 7 comments | ContinuedCompetition
Give Me a Break! Competition by John Stossel John Stossel is the hosts of Stossel on Fox Business and the author of Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity: Get Out the Shovel—Why Everything You Know is Wrong. Copyright 2009 by JFS Productions, Inc. Distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc. “Choice, competition, reducing costs—those are the things that [...]
23Oct2009 | John Stossel | 1 comment | ContinuedArrogance
It’s crazy for a group of mere mortals to try to design 15 percent of the U.S. economy. It’s even crazier to do it in a few months. Yet that is what some members of Congress presumed to do. They intended, as the New York Times put it, “to reinvent the nation’s health care system.” [...]
23Sep2009 | John Stossel | 17 comments | ContinuedMust-Read on Health Care
I exaggerate only slightly — and I mean slightly — when I say that all you really need to read on the healthcare debate is Steve Horwitz’s Freeman article “Profit: Not Just a Motive.”No one who is ignorant of these arguments can be counted as a serious participant in the debate.
17Aug2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedBad Regulation Drives Out Good
In 1969 economist Harold Demsetz identified a flaw in much public policy analysis, the “Nirvana Fallacy”: “The view that now pervades much public policy economics implicitly presents the relevant choice as between an ideal norm and an existing ‘imperfect’ institutional arrangement. This nirvana approach differs considerably from a comparative institution approach in which the relevant choice [...]
17Jun2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedFortune Tellers and Planners, Public and Private
Above all we should remember that government is no wiser and in many ways less well informed than private actors.
21May2009 | Stephen Davies | 1 comment | ContinuedTGIF: Bad Regulation Drives Out Good
In 1969 economist Harold Demsetz identified an important flaw in much public policy analysis, the “Nirvana Fallacy.” We would do well to keep it in mind as we think about solutions to the current economic problems. The rest of TGIF is here.
10Apr2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
