Executives had too much confidence in their risk management strategies. Regulators, too, had excessive confidence in the measures that they had in place to ensure safety and soundness of banks and other...

December 1, 2009 08:38 AM, by Arnold Kling) Bill Easterly is not of fan of military nation-building in Afghanistan. He writes, critics of top-down state plans for economic development are also not fans of top-down state plans for military development.

December 1, 2009 02:00 AM, by David Henderson) He [Parnell Thomas, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee] tried to placate her [Ayn Rand] with promises of a "whole [new] special hearing devoted to nothing but ideology," where she could

December 1, 2009 12:16 AM, by Bryan Caplan) My colleague John Nye specializes in French economic history. Other than his job market talk, though, I can't say that he's done much to bring me up to speed in this field.

November 30, 2009 06:41 PM, by Arnold Kling) The Washington Post reports, a new Washington Post poll also reveals deep dissatisfaction among GOP voters with the party's leadership as well as ideological and generational differences that may prove big obstacles

November 30, 2009 05:27 PM, by David Henderson) In the lead segment of "60 Minutes" last night, CBS did the unusual: it presented an incoherent story. The topic was gold being mined in the Congo, many of the proceeds of

November 30, 2009 09:01 AM, by Arnold Kling) Steve Horwitz and Mark Perry look at trends in household appliance prices and ownership. Perry writes, By almost every measure of appliance ownership, poor American households in 2005 had much better living

November 30, 2009 08:50 AM, by Bryan Caplan) Don Boudreaux's open letter to Ben Bernanke reminds me how badly I overestimated my former teacher's practical wisdom:Dear Mr Bernanke:I had to down an extra mug of coffee this morning to be

November 30, 2009 08:41 AM, by Arnold Kling) This story reports, The Obama administration, battling a foreclosure crisis that shows no signs of relenting, will step up pressure on mortgage companies to do more to help people remain in their

November 30, 2009 12:55 AM, by Bryan Caplan) Lately my colleague Dan Klein has presented new evidence that the "invisible hand" was more central to Adam Smith's thought that most scholars now believe. Perhaps that's why this passage from Will

November 30, 2009 12:00 AM, by Bryan Caplan) Robin responds to my cryonic doubts as I expected: By changing the subject to hard science, where I grant that his knowledge vastly exceeds my own. Alas, as in past arguments, he

November 29, 2009 12:00 AM, by Bryan Caplan) "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." --Woody AllenOne of the most...

November 28, 2009 12:02 PM, by David Henderson) Ever since I was an assistant professor at the University of Rochester's B-school (now called the Simon School) in the late 1970s, I have believed in the Efficient Markets Hypothesis. The basic

November 28, 2009 12:00 AM, by Bryan Caplan) From a naive point of view, uncertainty clearly tips the scales against costly action. If you're only 50% sure that your transmission if broken, for example, you have less reason to replace

November 27, 2009 12:00 AM, by Bryan Caplan) Last week, I received a Polish translation of a long essay I wrote over a decade ago on Spanish anarchism. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-9), an avowedly anarcho-socialist movement called the

November 26, 2009 08:24 PM, by Bryan Caplan) I say it's silly for parents to worry much about other parents' opinions of them. They're probably too tired and distracted to pay any attention to you, anyway. Robin demurs:Bryan presumes we

November 26, 2009 01:35 PM, by David Henderson) Musician Dave Carroll recently posted a video on YouTube after United Airlines refused to take responsibility for one of its employees' having wrecked his Taylor guitar. In his last conversation with the

November 26, 2009 08:57 AM, by Arnold Kling) Tyler Cowen recently said, if everyone read the book and was persuaded by it, would anything change for the better? An author should aim to write a book which matters. My latest

November 26, 2009 08:25 AM, by Arnold Kling) In an interview, Bruce Greenwald says, Basically, in the Depression a huge sector of the economy that everyone had always regarded as central, died. And it dies for an almost virtuous reason.

November 25, 2009 03:20 PM, by David Henderson) In his excellent post on price discrimination and how pervasive it seems to be, Arnold states: The manufacturer would like to charge $400 to JS and $200 to BZ. However, to do