*The Economist* on Tatu City, Kenya
Take the pig’s ear first. Unveiled in 2008 as a $15bn smart city project, Konza Technopolis was supposed to be the heart of Kenya’s “silicon savannah” that, by 2020, would create 100,000 jobs and add...
View ArticleSettembrini and the continuing relevance of classical liberalism
Adrian Wooldridge has an excellent Bloomberg column on this topic, promoting the relevance of Thomas Mann, and here is one excerpt: In the book [Magic Mountain], Castorp falls in with two intellectuals...
View ArticleSocial improvements that don’t create countervailing negative forces
Let us say you favor policy X, and take steps to see that policy X comes about. Under many conditions, people who favor non-X will take additional countervailing steps to oppose X. And in that case...
View ArticleHow and why do legal codes differ across red and blue states?
Polarization in the traditional sense is not very important: …this study examined the criminal codes of the six largest deep red states and the six largest deep blue states – states in which a single...
View ArticleWhat are the actual dangers of advanced AI?
That is the focus of my latest Bloomberg column, 2x the normal length. I cannot cover all the points, but here is one excerpt: The larger theme is becoming evident: AI will radically disrupt power...
View ArticleAlice Evans on the ideological gender divide
I suggest, Men and women tend to think alike in societies where there is Close-knit interdependence, religosity and authoritarianism, or Shared cultural production and mixed gendered offline...
View ArticleWhat happened in 17th century England (a lot)
East India Company founded — 1600 Shakespeare – Hamlet published 1603 England starting to settle America – 1607 in Virginia, assorted, you could add Harvard here as well King James Bible – 1611 The...
View ArticleFrom the beginning, “neoliberalism” was an obnoxious term
It was meant as an insult, implying that Mises – a marginalist – was trying to salvage 19th century liberal economics from the collectivist attacks of the Marxist left and the Nazi right, hence the...
View ArticleDid the Trump tariffs help the heartland?
No, but they did get him some votes there: We study the economic and political consequences of the 2018-2019 trade war between the United States, China and other US trade partners at the detailed...
View ArticleReligion and the ideological gender gap
The key insight is that women have always been more [economically] left-wing than men, but that women were also more religious (both vs today and vs men) and that this was a moderating force against...
View ArticleLiteracy or Loyalty?
Why does schooling in much of the developing world not result in much in the way of increased skills? Maybe because education bureaucrats in these counties want obedient citizens more than literate,...
View ArticleWhat should I ask Coleman Hughes?
I will be doing a Conversation with him, based in part around his new book The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America. On Coleman more generally, here is Wikipedia: Coleman Cruz...
View ArticleCorrelations between spouses
Correlations between spouses Extraversion: r= .005Neuroticism: .082Height: .227Weight: .154Education: .5Political party: .6 "Mates tend to be positively but weakly concordant on personality and...
View ArticleI am tired of making this point
Both rightists and leftists assume that the U.S. spends far lower to combat social problems (poverty, healthcare, education) than peer nations, but that is not true. pic.twitter.com/CXdVDNWb6p — David...
View ArticleWell-functioning democracy for neither me nor for thee?
I have been following only snippets of the debate over whether Biden should step down as the Democratic nominee, for instance here Josh Marshall responds to Ezra Klein (NYT). Most of all, I am struck...
View ArticleScott Sumner on Nato
He titles his post What Tyler and Trump get wrong about NATO, excerpt: I believe that both Trump and Tyler misunderstand the role of Nato. The most important aspect of Nato is not the amount it spends...
View ArticleParagraphs to ponder
But anyone who actually wants to help people will eventually find themselves occupying positions of authority. And at that point, you need to act like a librarian who shushes people and collects late...
View ArticleShruti Rajagopalan interviews Doug Irwin
Doug of course is one of the top trade economists. Here is the audio, video, and transcript, from the same wonderful Mercatus team that brings you CWT. Here is one excerpt: RAJAGOPALAN: I have a...
View ArticleWhy don’t nations buy and sell territory more?
Egypt has agreed to a $35bn deal with the United Arab Emirates to develop the town of Ras el-Hekma town on its northwestern coast, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced on Friday after...
View ArticleWhat should I ask Fareed Zakaria?
Here is Fareed’s home page, here is Wikipedia: Fareed Rafiq Zakaria…is an Indian-American journalist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria GPS and writes a weekly...
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