Author Archive | Tyler Cowen

Danish law does prohibit certain kinds of criticism of religion and religious groups, but the prosecutor concludes that these cartoons didn’t qualify. I’m on the road right now (up at Stanford for a conference on the jurisprudential legacies of Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice O’Connor), so while I’ve read the ruling I don’t have the […]

Details here; my earlier post on the subject here.

In 1979 and 1980, Barry Treash — then a vice-president at Beneficial Standard Life Insurance Company — was involved in a kickback scheme that essentially defrauded his employer out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 1984, Treash was convicted of mail fraud and income tax evasion stemming from this scheme. Would you do business […]

Just finished reading John Scalzi’s The Ghost Brigades, and liked it very much. It’s a sequel to his Old Man’s War, which I also very much liked. It’s fresh, thoughtful, and readable; highly recommended.

Robert Sampson writes in today’s NYT Op-Ed page: …evidence points to increased immigration as a major factor associated with the lower crime rate of the 1990’s (and its recent leveling off). Hispanic Americans do better on a range of various social indicators — including propensity to violence — than one would expect given their socioeconomic […]

Tim Harford writes: …supply shortages are a fact of life. The puzzle is somewhere else: Why don’t companies raise prices when supply is short and demand is frenzied? Leaving aside oxygen and a few other essentials, there is no such thing as an absolute shortage of anything: There is only a shortage if the price […]

Here is the new Cato Unbound, a cross between a monthly magazine and a blog.  Here is how Cato Unbound works.  Here is James Buchanan, choosing three new amendments for the American Constitution; Alex Kozinski writes one of the three replies.

Avian flu has been attracting blogosphere attention for much of the last year, including from Glenn Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan. I have had a hand in starting an avian flu blog. Recently I have finished work on a 40 pp. piece on what we should do about avian flu, here is the pdf link. Here […]

Here is an extensive review and summary.

Courtesy of Kevin Drum, read the whole thing.  Hindsight is easy, but what should FEMA be doing? My view is the following.  Many levees are genuine public goods, and should receive government support, from the federal government (e.g., Army Corp; here is a brief history of their involvement) if need be although perhaps not ideally.  […]

My colleagues Charles Rowley and Francesco Parisi have just published The Origins of Law and Economics: Essays by the Founding Fathers. This volume includes essays by Gary Becker, Guido Calabresi, Richard Epstein, Richard Posner, James Buchanan, Ronald Coase, William Landes, Gordon Tullock, and many others. You could have a fun time debating who is the […]

Jane Galt says she is pro-Roe vs. Wade on abortion.  Googling "Edith Clement Economics" reveals she attended this seminar on climate change.  She also has attended other seminars on economics and the environment, plus she is a member of The Federalist Society.  She has heard the voice of VC contributor Todd Zywicki. Might she be […]

Major League Baseball hasn’t narrowed the list of the eight bidders seeking to buy the Washington Nationals and some Republicans on Capitol Hill already are hinting at revoking the league’s antitrust exemption if billionaire financier George Soros, an ardent critic of President Bush and supporter of liberal causes, buys the team. "It’s not necessarily smart […]

Eugene has asked me if I might occasionally run a cross-post from MarginalRevolution.com, if I thought the topic would be of interest to VC readers. We each believe that the two blogs do not have massive overlap of readership. So here goes… Here is one lengthy criticism of the treaty.  Look there for the details, […]

A few VC readers, most notably Dan Simon, have pointed out the dependence of the reported shoplifting results on the shoplifting of organized gangs. Here is one indicative, and to me surprising, discussion: Organized gangs are stealing bulk quantities of over-the-counter drugs such as Advil and other popular consumer items including baby formula, razor blades […]