Usually I hate “educational” versions of rap songs (where are the wide screen TVs and girls shakin’ they thang?). That said, this does have something going for it….

According to this article (don’t read it, it’s stupid) George Soros has launched “a $50 million effort to purge economics of its free-market zeal.” What free market zeal? I’ve never noticed any free market zeal: most economics taught to undergraduates seems decidedly statist in its leanings, so much so that I suggest to my [...]

Tim Worstall has a post on Dickensian poverty. Apparently a teacher’s union leader has commented that:
a “small, significant and growing minority” of children were being raised in families with low expectations and a level of poverty “mirroring the times of Dickens”.
…………………
“Children who cannot dress themselves, children who only know how to eat with a spoon [...]

Terence Kealey wrote this article for the New Scientist magazine. In it his makes some pretty big errors and perpetuates some myths that should not be perpetuated. Here is the letter I sent him with my criticisms:
Dear Prof. Kealey,
I read your article on economics in the New Scientist with interest, and greatly enjoyed [...]

“If you oppose stimulus spending and the stimulus doesn’t work then according to Prof. Frank it is your fault that it didn’t work.”
Bit of an ivory tower argument here from Prof. Robert Frank of Cornell University.  It shows a remarkable optimism about people’s willingness to listen to the ‘consensus’ opinions of economists.  On the contrary, [...]

There are lies, damn lies and statistics…….and there’s lying about statistics.

I copy underneath a letter I wrote to the Times a few days ago which they seem to have decided against publishing.
Dear Sirs,
Anatole Kaletsky reports in his article of June 18th that 47 million US citizens do not have health insurance. This figure was [...]

Anybody who knows me knows I hate identity politics.
I’m going to tell you why you should hate it too. I’m going to incite racial-identity-politics-hatred (geddit?), and other kinds of identity-politics-hatred as well.
…by promoting R as an identifier you may encourage people to use R as a signal for group formation.
Humans like to divide [...]

Ross Parker asks in the context of welfare benefits for single parents:
Applying rational models to these policy challenges produces very different solutions.
In what other areas would assuming rational behaviour make a huge policy difference?
My answer: Almost every area!
The traditional problem with discussing policy in such terms was that it was regarded as [...]

Superb post (and discussion – read the comments) comparing UK and US sports leagues over at Crooked Timber.
The basic argument given is that US sports leagues should be compared on an apples to apples basis with Europe-wide competitions such as the Champions League in football, and that comparing them to national leagues is misleading.
It turns [...]

This video shows the enormous power of signalling through prices. Beautiful! People assume that the $2 hugs must be better, else why would he be charging $2 when the other hugs are free? Maybe the cost of his hugs is higher – more passion, more squeeze – so he has to charge [...]