Lars P. Syll

The ergodicity problem in economics (wonkish) A surprising reframing of economic theory follows directly from asking the core ergodicity question: is the time average of an observable equal to its expectation value? At a crucial place in the foundations of economics, it is assumed that the answer is always yes — a pernicious error. To make economic decisions, I often want to know how fast my personal fortune grows under different scenarios. This requires...

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Häften för Kritiska Studier har fyllt 50 År 1968 utkom det första numret av Häften för kritiska studier. Under de femtio år som gått sedan dess har mer än 200 nummer utkommit. För att fira detta tog några av tidskriftens redaktions-medlemmar ett initiativ till en jubileumsskrift som kommer ut nästa månad. Yours truly har ett bidrag med i skriften och tänkte därför ta tillfället i akt att säga något lite mer personligt om denna fantastiska tidskrift som...

John Hassler — etablissemangsekonom med dimljuset på Det finns dåliga idéer. Men så finns det osannolikt dåliga idéer, du kan knappt föreställa dig hur någon kan ha tänkt tanken. Som att Jimmie Åkesson vill etablera omskolningsläger – ”internatskolor” – där stökiga ungdomar ska marschera i takt och fostras till präktig svenskhet … Sedan kommer professor John Hassler med ett förslag som är helt uppåt väggarna knasigt … Sverige har en förmögenhet på mer än 1...

Axioms of ‘internal consistency’ of choice, such as the weak and the strong axioms of revealed preference … are often used in decision theory, micro-economics, game theory, social choice theory, and in related disciplines … Can a set of choices really be seen as consistent or inconsistent on purely internal grounds, without bringing in something external to choice, such as the underlying objectives or values that are pursued or acknowledged by choice? … The presumption of...

Sail on silver girl [embedded content] Still — after 50 years — I hold this for being the most beautiful pop song ever written.

 [embedded content]Invisible Heroes tells the heroic tale of young Finnish diplomats in Chile during the infamous military coup. The diplomats helped over 2000 Chileans escape Pinochet’s junta. The Finns acted without official authorization while Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam was the most visible defendant of human rights with the backing of Sweden’s Prime Minister, Olof Palme. Finns were the invisible heroes.

Poem of the atoms  [embedded content]  O day, arise! The atoms are dancing. Thanks to Him the universe is dancing. The souls are dancing, overcome with ecstasy. I’ll whisper in your ear where their dance is taking them. All the atoms in the air and in the desert know well, they seem insane. Every single atom, happy or miserable, Becomes enamoured of the sun, of which nothing can be said. Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273)

The other day, on the way home after having attended an economics conference, yours truly tried to beguile the way by listening to a podcast of EconTalk where Garett Jones of George Mason University talked with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas of Irving Fisher on debt and deflation. Jones’s thoughts on Fisher were thought-provoking and interesting, but in the middle of the discussion Roberts started to ask questions on the relation between Fisher’s ideas and those of...

 [embedded content] In loving memory of my brother Peter ‘Uncas’ Pålsson — truly ‘a red man deep inside.’