I first met my friend Gunter at a scientific meeting on the Greek Island of Crete in 1986. He was from East Germany. I knew his published work at the time, and when I shared my unpublished data, he agreed to send me some Drosophila stocks that would advance my research.At the meeting, he and the other scientists from behind the “iron curtain” had no western currency, so as to discourage defections. Collections were taken up for them among the western...

Are we all behavioural economists now? Postwar neoclassical economics was a reaction against a set of approaches based on the principles of hedonic psychology … Various developments in positive and normative economics had reassured them that references to unobservable entities were not only illegitimate but also dispensable. Thus, the concept of preference came to be the primitive notion of economic theory, and references to psychological theory were to be...

I learn from Brad DeLong (nickname delong run) that Paul Schmelzing has gone to a truly heroic effort and estimated safe real interest rates since 1310! The main point is the long slow decline (it is ironic that one of the stylized growth “facts” is that there is no clear trend in real interest rates. Brad discusses this at length at his SubStack. Oddly, although he is one of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis’s worst enemies not named Robert...

As you read this Slate article, this is something I was also thinking about. How did SCOTUS arrive at its decision and what was the basis or history supporting its decision? SCOTUS was interpreting what they thought it should be. Thomas was telling judges to study the history of gun control before they arrive at a decision. The discussion centers around militia and right of individuals to bear arms. Read on . . . A State Supreme Court Just Issued...

Michigan has always had its ups and downs. Pretty much this was the resuly of automotive being a core business within the state. Michigan economy would go which ever was automotive and the economy would go. Another core industry would help in Michigan. Michigan now find itself as the only state from which more Gen Z people departed than arrived during 2022, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data analysis by the Seattle-based real estate...

from Ping Chen and RWER issue 107 Economic Complexity vs. Neoclassical Simplicity Complexity science originated from astrophysics when Henri Poincaré discovered the three-body problem had no analytical solution in 1899. The discovery and development of deterministic chaos in the 1960s to 1990s found wide evidence that nonlinear deterministic systems only have limited predictability. Ilya Prigogine further recognized the important role of irreversibility in biological evolution since...

I listened to former Federal Judge Luttig’s last night. Luttig covers what SCOTUS may be intending to do with trump. Covers the DC Court of Appeals opinion. And the good judge has a few words of reprimand for prosecutor Hur and his random off-roading opinion of President Joe Biden which was not a part of his assignment. I dislike talking to prosecutors as their role is to break you down. In this case, Hur took advantage of his role. Hope you...

My latest piece in The Guardian. The long-running debate over “price gouging” should have been settled yesterday by the release of a report by Allan Fels, the former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The report, commissioned by the ACTU, found that a wide range of Australian industries are characterised by limited competition, giving powerful firms ample scope to extract large profit margins. Consistent with international evidence, most of the...

A new sandpit for long side discussions, conspiracy theories, idees fixes and so on. To be clear, the sandpit is for regular commenters to pursue points that distract from regular discussion, including conspiracy-theoretic takes on the issues at hand. It’s not meant as a forum for visiting conspiracy theorists, or trolls posing as such. Like Loading...

Another Monday Message Board. Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please. I’m now using Substack as a blogging platform, and for my monthly email newsletter. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack. You can also follow me on Mastodon here. Share this:Like Loading...