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Hayek – left right and centre
My friend Martin Stewart-Weeks points me to this piece by Simon Griffiths which argues that “an engagement with Hayek does not mean a capitulation to the market”. Quite. Indeed it’s always struck me...
View ArticleGay marriage rites
I think I am in favour of gay marriage, on balance, with some reservations. I would not wave placards in the street, or even change my vote on this issue. Yet it seems that this moderate position is...
View ArticleTheorising in science: theorising in economics
Robert Waldman has a fantastic critique of Paul Romer’s recent missives on economic science. He’s commenting ultimately on why Lucas’s work isn’t such a breakthrough. In it he highlights something of...
View ArticleHolding out against the GotchaBots
I know nothing of Jeremy Corbyn other than that he’s reported to be about to win the leadership of the British Labour Party. The video above was literally the first I’d seen of him. But on looking at...
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Taste
[T]he great thing in all education is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. . . A ‘character,’ as J.S. Mill says, “is a completely fashioned will”. William James, The Laws of...
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Social middleware: another installment – another app
In an earlier post I argued the case for the ‘middleware of democracy’ arguing for the inculcation of the (largely social) skills that help constitute collective intelligence. Skills like having some...
View ArticleSurprises of the Internet
With the Internet being a regular feature of our leaves for about 20 years now, what have been the related developments that were hard to pick at the outset, what are the lessons? Five thoughts:...
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Is change we can’t theorise, change we can believe in? Part One
There’s a world of difference between (let’s call it) youthful social change seeking in the sixties and immediate post-sixties social and political movements and much social change seeking today. Then...
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Open, decentralised systems of collective intelligence and action: onwards...
David Brin offers a usefully concise means for distinguishing liberalism from what liberalism became within just a few years from Adam Smith’s death - the worship of private property or as Brin puts...
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The Secret River: The Play ★★★
I went to see The Secret River last night – and returned from the experience underwhelmed. It tries to be a truthful depiction of one aspect of the ‘frontier wars’ and so it presents a bunch of...
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What I’m reading: Things about the Parthenon YOU WON’T BELIEVE!!
What is the meaning of the relief sculpture above? I recall when I was last on the Athenian Acropolis just over a year ago marvelling at the Parthenon, not just its emphatic and sublime beauty but...
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No-pain-no-gain: High-road-low-road
This post began as a comment on Paul’s last comment on my “Mainstream Radical Centrists: Where are they?“ column. Paul boiled down his response to this: If you want to have a serious debate about...
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Evidence-based policy making – Part One: The problems
A stupid diagram – the kind of thing we can’t get enough of here at ClubTroppo. And remember “Reflect, revise and Improve”. That’s RRI – capiche?. In short, you can’t get enough RRI. In fact you should...
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Neoliberal? Moi?
Though wildly tendentious, this piece by Monbiot is an excellent spray against neoliberalism, a subject with which your correspondent has a vexed relation. I used to describe myself as a neoliberal,...
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We’re All Free Riders. Get over It! The public goods of the twenty-first...
Below is a link to my first article on a new alternative economics website – Evonomics – which has only been going fror a short period of time. It’s pretty nicely set out and emerged out of the...
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Representing a public interest organisation? The case of Gillian Triggs
I knew I could have responded and destroyed them – I could have said, “You’ve asked me a question that demonstrated you have not read our statute. How dare you question what I do?” When I was on the...
View ArticleWould sortition help against corruption?
Political parties and institutions in Australia and the US are increasingly dominated by interest groups representing the few, leading to a large policy-induced increase in inequality in recent decades...
View ArticleWar and social cooperation
Can War Foster Cooperation? by Michal Bauer, Christopher Blattman, Julie Chytilova, Joseph Henrich, Edward Miguel, Tamar Mitts – #22312 (DEV PE POL) Abstract: In the past decade, nearly 20 studies have...
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Brexit and deliberative democracy
I fantasise about the day when the people who fancy themselves the champions of liberal capitalist democracy – you know the Business Class set – will realise that they are munching through the...
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Effects of the Minimum Wage on Infant Health
Effects of the Minimum Wage on Infant Health The minimum wage has increased in multiple states over the past three decades. Research has focused on effects on labor supply, but very little is known...
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