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Adam Smith, the founder of economics, was a great moral philosopher. Unfortunately, not every first-rate economist operates at Smith’s philosophical level. Ed Glaeser’s claim that “a fundamental belief in freedom” constitutes the “moral spine” of economics doesn’t actually make any sense.
Archive for January, 2011
January 31st, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
… principles. The House GOP comes up with something so stupid even Glenn Reynolds is annoyed.
January 31st, 2011
Someththe
January 31st, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
Nancy Folbre has written a blog piece on social responsibility and the logic of economics. Her piece is a response to Ed Glaeser’s post about the moral heart of economics. To quote his piece; “Economists are often wary of moral exhortation, as many see the harm so often wrought by arguments that are long on passion [...]
January 31st, 2011
The Supreme Court issued a new opinion today making Commerce Clause jurisprudence exceptionally clear. We now have a straightforward, simple test.
January 31st, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
When I saw Mark’s post about Ayn Rand, I commented that it was “priceless”, in the sense that as a story about hypocrisy it had inestimable humour value. I learn from the comments that Ayn Rand felt it was okay to take Medicare and Social Security because she was mandated to participate in the program. [...]
January 31st, 2011
Category: Watching Conservatives
Ayn Rand regarded taking government benefits as the moral equivalent of theft. Then she got sick.
January 31st, 2011
Category: Middle East Politics
It may or may not be advantageous for Israel to have Hosni Mubarak stay in power. But it’s advantageous for no one to have Israel openly lobbying to keep Mubarak in power.
January 31st, 2011
Category: Climate change, Economics
Some self promotion — here is my January 2011 talk at the World Bank that sketches my ongoing work on pollution problems in China’s cities. Optimists of the world should celebrate that ambient air pollution is starting to improve in China’s cities and this trend is more pronounced in their richer cities and those that attract [...]
January 31st, 2011
Category: Uncategorized
I think I should clarify a change I made a few months back about how I handle comments. When I started posting and someone would write a comment that included some genuine content mixed in with some insults, I was pretty indulgent, i.e., Use the editing function to sand off a little Jew-baiting here, airbrush [...]