tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74647082024-03-15T21:09:18.920-04:00Kids Prefer CheeseRefusing to listen to your stupid "Ted Talk"...since 2004Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.comBlogger8397125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-70517915965768212522023-07-24T15:22:00.002-04:002023-07-24T15:22:43.571-04:00Geoffrey Brennan (9/15/44-7/28/22)<p> </p><p>Long-time Duke faculty member and friend Geoffrey Brennan died in Canberra, Australia of complications from acute leukemia. </p><p> “Geoff” joined the Duke Department of Political Science in January 2005 as the Nan Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor, and has served as a Research Professor since. He helped co-found, and staff, the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program, a joint effort of Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. His primary appointment, and most of his time, was spent at the Australian National University in Canberra.
He was an eminent scholar in Public Choice, and Public Economics, with some of his influential early work published with Nobel Prize-Winner James Buchanan, including <i>The Power to Tax</i> and <i>The Reason of Rules</i>. </p><p>In the 1990’s Geoff’s interests turned toward the connections between Public Choice and the growing field of “behavioral economics.” In <i>Democracy and Decision</i> (with Loren Lomasky), he considered a novel solution to the “paradox of voting” by giving expressive voting a much firmer theoretical foundation. In 2000 Brennan followed up this work with <i>Democratic Devices and Desires</i>, with Alan Hamlin. He extended this perspective with the discipline-crossing book <i>The Economy of Esteem</i>, written with philosopher and political scientist Philip Pettit. </p><p>His final book, <i>Explaining Norms</i>, with Lina Erikkson, Robert Goodin and Nicholas Southwood, has implications that are still being explored in research work and laboratory experiments.
Geoff was co-editor of the collected works of James M Buchanan, and was extraordinarily energetic in working to create intellectual bridges. </p><p>He was the first non-U.S. president of the Public Choice Society in 2002, and helped co-found the European Center for the Study of Public Choice in Rome. Locally, Geoff and his spouse Margaret were famous hosts when they were renting Duke’s R. Taylor Cole House at 7 Sylvan Road in Durham. Guests enjoyed not just fellowship and good food, but might be an audience for Geoff’s remarkable singing voice, perhaps in a rendition of “Bye, Bye, Blacksburg” or other favorites. </p><p><br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-31669603966785938262023-07-24T15:22:00.000-04:002023-07-24T15:22:26.180-04:00Election Day 2022<p>Got to walk to our polling place and exercise my voting privilege.</p><p>Even Gordon Tullock would have approved of my voting today, since I got to vote for myself! (<a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Michael_Munger">NC Senate District 13</a>)</p><p>It was crowded, but the line was negligible, two people at each of two different stations to be identified and then to get the ballot.</p><p>On every election day, I am often reminded of Emerson's 1844 observations of watching folks go to vote. That's almost 180 years ago, but it rings true now.</p><p>At least, it rings true to me. </p><blockquote><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I remember standing at the polls one
day, when the anger of the political contest gave a certain grimness to the
faces of the independent electors, and a good man at my side looking on the
people, remarked, "I am satisfied that the largest part of these men, on
either side, mean to vote right." I suppose, considerate observers looking
at the masses of men, in their blameless, and in their equivocal actions, will
assent, that in spite of selfishness and frivolity, the general purpose in the
great number of persons is fidelity. The reason why any one refuses his assent
to your opinion, or his aid to your benevolent design, is in you: he refuses to
accept you as a bringer of truth, because, though you think you have it, he
feels that you have it not. You have not given him the authentic sign.</span></i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 27.0pt; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ralph Waldo Emerson, “<a href="https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-second-series/new-england-reformers/">New England Reformers</a>,” 1844.</span></p>
<p></p></blockquote>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-47833324247559643962022-03-17T16:57:00.003-04:002022-03-17T16:57:40.356-04:00Transaction Costs in Everything: Wooden Puzzle Sharing Platform<p>This is actually pretty remarkable.</p><p>There is small (by proportion, though fairly large in number) subculture of wooden puzzle enthusiasts. Really high quality, die-cut, wooden puzzles.</p><p>But of course each puzzle is reasonably expensive, and once it's assembled it's really just....well, a picture with a bunch of squiggly lines in it. Not that much to look at.</p><p>A natural for sharing. Enter the <a href="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/">Hoefnagel Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle Club</a>! You keep the puzzle for as long as you want. And puzzles are generally "returned" by mailing it to the the next user, not back to the central facility. And everyone can afford better and more varied puzzling!<br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiToGUWy1jfMBDaOPMfH_iIl8I1pJaM3qAWNvbeCIvtUtEHPEw29lAzVTjLjiL5zmtwJgGSay5p09oCnxgwSpq5t8iWz_5du3i1gqu0bKqkzVwZ_nvFIfIdJkUEGbCNVkRDb-5cfa8J59M7xFkptgyUH_Mz7cIWwPcdI1EBsJvjmh5mKJQQ_OY=s1004" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1004" data-original-width="962" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiToGUWy1jfMBDaOPMfH_iIl8I1pJaM3qAWNvbeCIvtUtEHPEw29lAzVTjLjiL5zmtwJgGSay5p09oCnxgwSpq5t8iWz_5du3i1gqu0bKqkzVwZ_nvFIfIdJkUEGbCNVkRDb-5cfa8J59M7xFkptgyUH_Mz7cIWwPcdI1EBsJvjmh5mKJQQ_OY=s320" width="307" /></a></div><br /><table style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Avenir; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><tbody><tr align="left"><td><span style="font-size: medium;">A library of wooden jigsaw puzzles delivered by mail.</span></td></tr><tr height="25"></tr><tr align="left"><td><span style="font-size: medium;"><big><b style="font-weight: bolder;"><a class="puzzles-badge" href="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/browse.html" style="background: rgb(80, 90, 240); border-radius: 5px; color: white; font-size: 20px; padding: 10px 50px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">Browse The Library</a></b></big><a href="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/wishlist.html" style="background-color: transparent;"></a></span></td></tr><tr height="25"></tr><tr align="left"><td><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/static/agcLavenderBullet.png" style="border-style: none; vertical-align: 0%;" width="9px" /><span> </span>Like old-school Netflix, but for puzzles<span> </span><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/static/agcLavenderBullet.png" style="border-style: none; vertical-align: 0%;" width="9px" /></td></tr><tr height="20"></tr><tr align="left"><td><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/static/agcLightBlue.png" style="border-style: none; vertical-align: 0%;" width="9px" /><span> </span>Unlimited puzzles, keep puzzles as long as you want<span> </span><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/static/agcLightBlue.png" style="border-style: none; vertical-align: 0%;" width="9px" /></td></tr><tr height="20"></tr><tr align="left"><td><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/static/agcLavenderBullet.png" style="border-style: none; vertical-align: 0%;" width="9px" /><span> </span>30 brands:<span> </span><a href="https://www.artifactpuzzles.com/" style="background-color: transparent;">Artifact</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://www.libertypuzzles.com/" style="background-color: transparent;">Liberty</a>,<span> </span><a href="https://www.stavepuzzles.com/" style="background-color: transparent;">Stave,</a><span> </span><a href="https://www.wentworthpuzzles.com/us" style="background-color: transparent;">Wentworth</a><span> </span><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/static/agcLavenderBullet.png" style="border-style: none; vertical-align: 0%;" width="9px" /></td></tr><tr height="20"></tr><tr align="left"><td><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/static/agcLightBlue.png" style="border-style: none; vertical-align: 0%;" width="9px" /><span> </span>800+ different<span> </span><a href="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/woodjigsawpuzzles.html" style="background-color: transparent;">wooden</a><span> </span>jigsaw puzzles<span> </span><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://www.woodenjigsawpuzzles.com/static/agcLightBlue.png" style="border-style: none; vertical-align: 0%;" width="9px" /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-86284410642260078692021-10-31T08:39:00.006-04:002021-10-31T08:39:55.146-04:00Transaction Costs in Everything: Needs a Lift<p> This request appeared on "<a href="https://nextdoor.com/">Next Door</a>," an app for communicating about neighborhood doings and information.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi659ai1GORsTw8mzG4UrwxuwSjWtysy7WotI0mcsDbiOOisv9ZzOOf8Wstb7ONQwupCL8vCoTErHiZavzUPQFcU3bUgaTtrpU9W6luA9YF9KnKIHr2F58XXKS96jcLfNxA_2AOpg/s1297/Car+bay+rental+ND.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="1297" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi659ai1GORsTw8mzG4UrwxuwSjWtysy7WotI0mcsDbiOOisv9ZzOOf8Wstb7ONQwupCL8vCoTErHiZavzUPQFcU3bUgaTtrpU9W6luA9YF9KnKIHr2F58XXKS96jcLfNxA_2AOpg/w556-h240/Car+bay+rental+ND.PNG" width="556" /></a></div><br /><p>Many "shade tree mechanics" have their own set of ramps, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Service-Portable-Vehicle-Hydraulic-Capacity/dp/B092M1V3NB/ref=asc_df_B092M1V3NB/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=532859501758&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18380279911474180275&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009736&hvtargid=pla-1429409428308&psc=1">some with hydraulic lifts like this one</a>.</p><p>But if I could rent a real lift for (say) $44.95 an hour, and could schedule the time, I could get a lot more done very quickly. Oil change, tires, brakes; could do several things at once. Plus, the rental could come with a standard set of basic tools, which in the case of auto repair is both standard and quite specialized. Would need a way to check all the tools are there at the end, and are unbroken, but that should be possible if we can just use electronics to reduce (say it with me!) transaction costs.</p><p> <a href="http://diyautorepairshops.com/diy-auto-repair-bay-rental.php">Okay, the $44.95 is NOT HYPOTHETICAL!</a> Anything I can imagine, some entrepreneur has already tried. That one is in Denver, by the way. A video, if you are interested:</p><p><br /><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QTez5el0spQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p><p>Given the labor shortages plaguing many parts of the country, we might see apps/facilities that rent out auto lifts, commercial kitchens....what else, folks? The sky is the limit, if the sky were transaction costs. <br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-53944565348969949312021-10-18T08:51:00.000-04:002021-10-18T08:51:41.565-04:00Transaction Costs in Everything: "MiLaw Who Needs Constant Attention"<p data-pos="4" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border: 0px none; clear: both; color: #111516; display: block; font-family: TiemposTextWeb-Regular, Georgia, Times, serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 30px; margin: 34px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/craigslist-ad-offers-1000-to-find-a-wedding-date-for-mother-in-law-that-needs-constant-attention/articleshow/84537671.cms">CraigsList ad</a> seeks a wedding escort for a future bride's mother-in-law, offering $1,000 for two days work.</span></p><blockquote><p data-pos="6" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border: 0px none; clear: both; color: #111516; display: block; font-family: TiemposTextWeb-Regular, Georgia, Times, serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 30px; margin: 34px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">The<span> </span><a href="https://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/tlg/d/wallkill-wedding-date-wanted-for-mother/7349518403.html" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px none; color: #185f7d; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-language-override: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: currentcolor none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">ad</a>, titled "Wedding Date Wanted for Mother-in-Law," was posted on July 11 to the Hudson Valley Craigslist,<span> </span><a href="https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/news/article/Wedding-date-wanted-for-1000-dollars-16320222.php" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px none; color: #185f7d; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-language-override: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: currentcolor none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Times Union</a><span> </span>reported. The ad<span> </span><a href="https://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/tlg/d/wallkill-wedding-date-wanted-for-mother/7349518403.html" rel="nofollow" style="border: 0px none; color: #185f7d; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-language-override: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: currentcolor none 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">said</a><span> </span>it was looking for someone available for an August wedding in Hudson Valley.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border: 0px none; clear: both; color: #111516; display: block; font-family: TiemposTextWeb-Regular, Georgia, Times, serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 30px; margin: 34px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;">"She needs constant attention and supervision," the ad read. "She will probably wear white and try to escalate small dramas - your job is simply to distract and de-escalate. Flatter her for 2 days and make an easy $1,000."</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: small;">I dunno. $1,000 is not much, for the set of skills and...well, "attention" that this might require.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Not putting too fine a point on it, but applicants MIGHT want to see a photo of the MiLaw in question, before a final price is negotiated.</span> <br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-76517710431365033572021-10-07T07:53:00.003-04:002021-10-07T07:53:24.601-04:00Transaction Costs in Everything: The Drill<p> Coordinating the sharing economy can be complicated. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sharing-Economy-Its-Pitfalls-Promises-ebook/dp/B09CDV3VS9">That's why there are platforms.....</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLz9apewBvNVldmp_GXDW2inCIzTZBPak7vdhYLwfuMlHC45KOSTN5wTyOTCNu_CScCIu9ukLDb0RG5k5PUcc4owa9ZDswZhixV5WiQExXgO8Ja9ov0Qjk4JR-S8T_OZXD4RbkPw/s900/Drill.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="270" data-original-width="900" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLz9apewBvNVldmp_GXDW2inCIzTZBPak7vdhYLwfuMlHC45KOSTN5wTyOTCNu_CScCIu9ukLDb0RG5k5PUcc4owa9ZDswZhixV5WiQExXgO8Ja9ov0Qjk4JR-S8T_OZXD4RbkPw/w640-h192/Drill.gif" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>With thanks to the LMM for the find...<br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-40409000486654926372021-09-26T10:20:00.003-04:002021-09-26T10:20:54.790-04:00Don't Cross the Streams: Economies of Scale in Ignoring Sports Teams<p> Three weeks ago today, Sept. 5, I paid close attention to the St. Louis Cardinals baseball game against the Brewers. The Cards lost by giving up 5 runs, in stupid and inept fashion, in the 9th inning, blowing a 5-1 lead.</p><p>I announced that baseball season was (for me) OVER, and I would be ignoring the Cardinals and all of baseball from this point until Spring training, when pitchers and catchers report in February.</p><p>This promise I have kept, scrupulously. </p><p>My impression (I wouldn't actually KNOW, of course, because I'm ignoring baseball) that soon after I unplugged the Cardinals have won some games, and are playing better. Given that their winning percentage at the time I began to ignore them was 0.51, it is a simple binomial calculation to show that the chances of them winning (say, I don't know) 15 games in a row is less than .000001. </p><p>By any reasonable standard of inference, then, it is MY IGNORING OF THE CARDINALS that has produced any success (of which of course I am unaware, but have heard rumors). </p><p>This is an enormous power; <a href="https://twitter.com/C_Wolbrecht/status/1441882003054505986">my good friend Christina Wolbrecht has gone so far as to suggest that I seclude myself in a remote Unibomber style cabin</a>, to ensure that I am able to continue to ignore the Cards. I should note that Donna Gingerella has endorsed this proposal, on condition that I write home occasionally. </p><p>So far so good. But I have a friend, a pathetic Reds fan (if that is not redundant, and of course it IS redundant), who has asked that I should ALSO ignore the Reds. He would be willing (I won't give his name, but his initials are Michael Martin) to pay a small amount for this service.</p><p>It struck me that this is quite a business opportunity. Rooting FOR a team is time-consuming; that's why I gave up on the Cards: it was taking a lot of time and sadness. But IGNORING a team is easy, and of course it SCALES. I could ignore MANY teams, with no additional cost.</p><p>But then I saw the problem in the reasoning: what if two teams I'm ignoring PLAY EACH OTHER. It would be the equivalent of "crossing the streams" in Ghostbusters. And that would be very, very bad. Egon said so. <br /></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wyKQe_i9yyo?start=40" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><p>So, sorry folks: ignoring the Cardinals is going to be my sole project for the rest of this year. I'm happy to accept bids to ignore YOUR team next year, once I have started watching the Cards again. <br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /><span face="TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #0f1419; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 20px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 800; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-20885928529917683762021-09-17T08:00:00.001-04:002021-09-17T08:00:04.127-04:00Transaction Costs in Everything: Thai Taxi Gardens<p> For now, at least, Thailand has WAY "too many" taxis.</p><p>Parked, they take up a lot of valuable surface area, and create runoff for rain.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3ixp0eshrTfkGALa83PYR0KsLCroYSFEA0MR1e3lZYcZuDr_WVu7uA_XCdofr1_2k8dOsGb7fo6WwtH4RcS7Te1S3M1rNev9PpO5PTxyH1OIoqBUy4zS_-Dscl4Nr8-XSilPuQ/s640/Thai+taxi+garden+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3ixp0eshrTfkGALa83PYR0KsLCroYSFEA0MR1e3lZYcZuDr_WVu7uA_XCdofr1_2k8dOsGb7fo6WwtH4RcS7Te1S3M1rNev9PpO5PTxyH1OIoqBUy4zS_-Dscl4Nr8-XSilPuQ/s320/Thai+taxi+garden+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>But if <a href="https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/coronavirus/taxis-in-thailand-are-growing-miniature-vegetable-rooftop-gardens-on-taxi-roofs-to-make-use-of-unused-cars-ng-b882009282z">you put a small plot of "land" atop each taxi.</a>..voila! Modular commodification of excess capacity!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFvacvq-QlWtn-Di4ukOPOWg2vmV8LKYm4OzpZ4_9j6Qe-_VkQ7jHi5ah48te_moq1HfefGnXJJh6rjveweHPpes_awgTC6dCZCJ_kUQHG9xHHDWTaWdYapz-mmRF0jalCyNdrFg/s828/Thai+taxi+garden+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="828" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFvacvq-QlWtn-Di4ukOPOWg2vmV8LKYm4OzpZ4_9j6Qe-_VkQ7jHi5ah48te_moq1HfefGnXJJh6rjveweHPpes_awgTC6dCZCJ_kUQHG9xHHDWTaWdYapz-mmRF0jalCyNdrFg/s320/Thai+taxi+garden+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>As argued<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sharing-Economy-Its-Pitfalls-Promises-ebook/dp/B09CDV3VS9/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Munger+sharing+economy&qid=1631879805&sr=8-1"> in my recent book, these are LITERAL platforms</a>!<p></p><p> <br /><br /> <br /></p><p><br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-62181978940679054572021-09-07T08:54:00.005-04:002021-09-07T08:54:44.252-04:00Is Behavioral Economics Dead? Should It Be? <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK8c_UQ4U3PJJN2GP6TRGQT5ZMlht5XpLKuowm1lKpefnaDM3a-qZcugM0NBS8_uF4FwF2UKmPfr2ofavCdqnMtFvzKZqPve2Nn0XWd4d2yV7ZimCFaxtGbNP31XvOrHbfLjky2Q/s195/BehEcon.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="178" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK8c_UQ4U3PJJN2GP6TRGQT5ZMlht5XpLKuowm1lKpefnaDM3a-qZcugM0NBS8_uF4FwF2UKmPfr2ofavCdqnMtFvzKZqPve2Nn0XWd4d2yV7ZimCFaxtGbNP31XvOrHbfLjky2Q/w277-h304/BehEcon.JPG" width="277" /></a></div><br /> Wow....<a href="https://www.thebehavioralscientist.com/articles/the-death-of-behavioral-economics">Pretty harsh, from an insider of Behavioral Economics</a>. <p></p><p>But <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/08/20/a-study-on-dishonesty-was-based-on-fraudulent-data">also this, rather embarrassing</a> and even ironic since the study was "about" honesty... </p><p>To be fair, <a href="https://www.econtalk.org/nassim-nicholas-taleb-on-rationality-risk-and-skin-in-the-game/%20">Nassim Taleb and a few others have been very critical</a> for a long time. But the collapse of house of behavioral cards is still pretty dramatic. </p><p>Taleb's argument is very plausible: If human behaviors are evolved, then the existence of certain patterns cannot actually be "irrational," though it <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/anti-market-atavism-explained/">may be atavistic</a>).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-86314027647614995192021-09-06T07:39:00.004-04:002021-09-06T10:38:44.474-04:00Transaction Costs in Everything<p> As any reader of KPC knows, we often credit Tyler Cowen ("LeBron") for his occasional, but always insightful, series of posts on "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120416082704/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/28/the_fp_top_100_global_thinkers?page=0,44" target="_blank">Markets in Everything.</a>" </p><p>I have been accused of finding "Transaction Costs in Everything," so I might as well own that. My plan is to post at least weekly on this, and so have a collection of applications.</p><p>Prompted in part by this (accurate) comment from the LMM:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6MTcRXV-ms6v8v-vsfeXPYdK_82FncI6oo9zx-2_ZlQ-BLj22uGBPEif88UeLM9LU66pHCONrFhv73JdmHD7IM6bBvlcMmbg5tkCkjqfG2YesJD54ILWxFRhI-8sk2z0v_D40g/s690/Transaction+Costs.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="690" height="403" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH6MTcRXV-ms6v8v-vsfeXPYdK_82FncI6oo9zx-2_ZlQ-BLj22uGBPEif88UeLM9LU66pHCONrFhv73JdmHD7IM6bBvlcMmbg5tkCkjqfG2YesJD54ILWxFRhI-8sk2z0v_D40g/w502-h403/Transaction+Costs.JPG" width="502" /></a></div><br />An example, then.<p></p><p>We had a piece of furniture, a bed frame actually, that we were going to throw away. But the LMM wondered if someone might want it. So she posted a "free, take it!" listing on <a href="https://nextdoor.com/" target="_blank">NextDoor</a>. </p><p>Within half an hour, two people had said they wanted it. Instead of sending it to the dump, it was now actually going to be used by someone who needed it.</p><p>I was very excited by this, and of course launched off into my rambling: "Do you know WHY this happened, why someone will now use something we were going to throw away?"</p><p>LMM: "Well, it's not because of you...." (It is barely possible, as all my coauthors know, that I sometimes take credit for things I did not actually do, I'll admit that. So her response was not out of line...) </p><p>MM: "Quite so. No, the answer is...." (LMM is staring at me, already mildly disgusted at the coming lengthy disquisition) <br /></p><p>"transaction costs! Or rather the reduction in transaction costs. The small value of the thing we are giving away, an old bed frame, limits the amount of effort justified by finding someone who needs it. YOU would not have gone door to door, knocking and asking 'need a bed frame? need a bed frame?' But you didn't have to. Because the<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sharing-Economy-Its-Pitfalls-Promises-ebook/dp/B09CDV3VS9/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&keywords=Michael+Munger&qid=1630928150&sr=8-6"> transaction costs on both sides, announcing the availability of the free thing and finding a willing taker for the free thing, were reduced by a platform</a>, the bed frame went to a higher valued use instead of the dump! The online platform helped us make better use for a bed platform! It's a triumph of cooperation in the new sharing economy!"</p><p>She's got that <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThousandYardStare">thousand yard stare </a>at this point.</p><p>I continue, very excited: "Such an important, general insight! Why, I bet they'll put 'He's Reducing Transaction Costs in Heaven' on my tombstone!"</p><p>LMM (sotto voce): "Soon, I hope."<br /></p><p><br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-22334109566322241312021-06-10T10:29:00.001-04:002021-06-10T10:29:06.980-04:00Per Capita<p> SO many people just repeat the line about the US having the "most deaths from COVID," as evidence that Trump (but NOT the CDC, FDA, and other bureau-nebishes) "botched" the American "management" of the pandemic. For example, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/11/14/934973850/u-s-adds-184-000-coronavirus-cases-in-one-day-with-no-end-in-sight">NPR's constant "America is the world leader in Coronavirus fatalities..."</a><br /></p><p>I have some sympathy for that (except the absolving of the CDC, which was borderline criminally negligent; <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/818072542">to be fair, NPR hammered the CDC</a>) view. But it really does matter that the US is a very large country, with a large population. The more relevant consideration is deaths per 100,000, and by THAT measure the US is not even in the top 10 "most deaths." </p><p>Took the data from the <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality">Johns Hopkins database</a>, and then deleted all the tiny countries with fewer than 10,000 total deaths (there were MANY countries that had very high death rates per capita, but only a few hundred deaths total, which seems to put TOO MUCH emphasis on the per capita thing...)</p><p>The resulting table, deaths per capita as of June 1, 2021, for countries with at least 10,000 total deaths, is reproduced below. And the results are interesting. <br /></p><p><iframe height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/15jsPcGv2_KUw-LN5LyA7tGgvI0AuVHEA/preview" width="640"></iframe><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>1. The US is not in the TOP TEN.</p><p>2. Countries with national health services, including the UK, Italy, and Belgium, have MORE deaths per capita than the US.</p><p>3. Sweden, which of course did the "no lockdowns" thing, has FAR fewer deaths per capita than the US. You can say Sweden had more deaths than Sweden WOULD have had, if they had locked down, but clearly locking down everything by force was not a panacea. </p><p>Anyway, if you want to say that the US health authorities got a lot of things wrong, and never acknowledged that they made this much worse than it should have been, I'm with you. But the US is not even close to the "most deaths" if you use a reasonable measure that controls for total population size. <br /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-61239153401848705432021-03-10T07:40:00.001-05:002021-03-10T07:40:04.924-05:00Sam Peltzman Drops the Mic<p> As you may recall from my <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/opinion/the-dangers-of-safety-equipment.html">NY Times a piece a few years ago</a>, one has to recognize that the regulatory problem is not just parametric optimization. In my example, the problem was that football helmets, which are actually quite good at protecting the head, result in MORE head injuries. </p><p>Interestingly, last year--2020--there were far fewer cars on the roads, because of social distancing, the shutdown of bars and restaurants, and the fact that many people did not commute to work at all. </p><p>The result: <a href="https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/03/04/report-crash-rates-in-2020-hit-highest-level-in-almost-a-century/%20">MORE TRAFFIC DEATHS</a>. People drove much more aggressively on the nearly empty roads. To be fair, the total number of accidents did in fact fall by quite a bit, as you would expect. But the severity of the accidents that did happen? That was up sharply, especially outside of cities. </p><p>The point? Regulations have to take into account the likely response of citizens, based on expectations. You can't just twirl dials and pull levers when it comes to public policy. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil3WTXjrvRxa_Q5hqhwb93kKlh1UgQbGAaVdR3kudmKd4X0bxckAD_qU7cVEJuEDe1sWgGOEtDuTTEIues23RgHOgsQvkj-iIgQZqb9PAFX4y3FyfkECTZ6BXhhXvBO3oAEyOjGA/s400/sam-peltzman-c8238829-f5f1-4a9b-83b8-191ff196e75-resize-750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="400" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil3WTXjrvRxa_Q5hqhwb93kKlh1UgQbGAaVdR3kudmKd4X0bxckAD_qU7cVEJuEDe1sWgGOEtDuTTEIues23RgHOgsQvkj-iIgQZqb9PAFX4y3FyfkECTZ6BXhhXvBO3oAEyOjGA/w482-h313/sam-peltzman-c8238829-f5f1-4a9b-83b8-191ff196e75-resize-750.jpg" width="482" /></a></div><br /> (If you don't <a href="https://www.learnliberty.org/blog/car-crashes-and-hockey-fights-how-safety-mandates-can-make-life-more-dangerous/">get the Peltzman reference..</a>..)<br /><p></p><p> </p><p> </p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-55992374996688277672021-01-30T12:25:00.002-05:002021-01-31T18:34:11.699-05:00Conversations with Tyler<p> People this is what I have to put up with! What follows below is verbatim.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>TC</b>: Lonzo Ball really good! Pelicans could be decent if they make Zion the #3 option.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Angus: </b>So far this year Lonzo is at 11 ppg, 4.6 assists, 2.3 turnovers. His PER is 10. Zion's is 24. Ingram 20. Lonzo is shooting 38.8 from the field, 30.1 from 3 and 58.3 on free throws. His career shooting numbers are about the same as that. So, that's the opposite of good.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>TC: </b>You are like those people who do not wish to approve the AstraZeneca vaccine!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Angus: </b>If he was 56% effective, I would definitely approve him.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>TC:</b> Just don't let anyone over 60 years of age watch him play.</p>Angushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03656436431053306500noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-42968875024523397592021-01-29T09:49:00.007-05:002021-01-29T09:49:45.609-05:00Brown Paper Packages Tied Up in String<p> </p><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="fhhvp-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="fhhvp-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="fhhvp-0-0">Most pleasing musical sounds:</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="2oind-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2oind-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="2oind-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="1dn6q-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1dn6q-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="1dn6q-0-0">1. Electric guitar with Alnico pickups played through a tube amp and a speaker with paper cone and alnico magnet.</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="1nqf4-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1nqf4-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="1nqf4-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="2otk1-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="2otk1-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="2otk1-0-0">2.Hammond B-3 organ </span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="8ktn2-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="8ktn2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="8ktn2-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="28g1n-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="28g1n-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="28g1n-0-0">3. Fender Rhodes piano</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="3vi32-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3vi32-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="3vi32-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="furmd-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="furmd-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="furmd-0-0">4. Stradivarius Cello</span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="3jbn6-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="3jbn6-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="3jbn6-0-0"><br data-text="true" /></span></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="b6egr" data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0">5. Selmer Paris tenor Sax </span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="public-DraftStyleDefault-block public-DraftStyleDefault-ltr" data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0" style="direction: ltr; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="1bscc-0-0">I couldn't pick a guitar brand. I play a Reverend guitars East Ender (a tele-strat hybrid). But I have to admit there are a lot of great sounds coming from Gibson too. It's all about the downstream I think. Only 20 Strad cellos ever made, Yo Yo Ma plays one. Here it may be about the compositions for me. Bach's suites for solo cello are some of the very greatest things a human has ever created. Selmer-Paris was Stan Getz's axe.</span></div></div>Angushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03656436431053306500noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-81497867891403935772021-01-28T12:29:00.002-05:002021-01-28T12:29:17.020-05:00F**K, Marry, Kill<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm really exhausted by this quixotic attempt at the elevation of (price) theory. As Boettke, Coyne and Leeson (2003) themselves point out, theory has evolved to the point where any proposition is provable, making good empirical work more important than ever.</span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Take the minimum wage for example. There's the basic supply and demand model that says one thing and there are monopsony and other models that say something else. IT'S AN EMPIRICAL QUESTION!</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">In the absence of experiments, modern methods that try to get at identifying causal effects are super-important.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">If your theory is so right, you should be able to find empirical support in models using the best available methods for the problem.</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">None of this is to say that empirical work doesn't suffer from file drawer bias or p-hacking, or cannot be influenced by the ideology of the researcher. Of course it can. BUT SO CAN THEORY!!</div></div><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I really feel like to be a scientist, you have to have at least some tiny part of your brain be willing to consider the possibility that your preferred theory may be wrong.</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">5 years ago I would have said that raising the minimum wage was a laughably horrible way to try and help people, but today I'm not so sure how bad it really is. Thanks to the research of Dube and company.</div></div>Angushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03656436431053306500noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-64395699510009734842021-01-07T09:20:00.000-05:002021-01-07T09:20:02.634-05:00Smoking Hot Takes on Jan 6, 2021<p> Three hot takes:</p><p>1. The lack of security at the Capitol was clearly a tactic. I'm not sure the Capitol Police are really at fault, though of course in retrospect it was a really bad mistake. During the BLM marches on the mall, there were fully fitted out infantry/police, 2 or 3 deep, on the Capitol steps. On Jan 6, very few police, and not wearing riot gear. The thought must have been that it would be better not to have a show of force, to avoid provoking violence. </p><p>The police had no way of knowing in advance that Trump was going to throw them under the bus, actually telling his supporters to go to the Capitol and (implicitly) mob it.</p><p>I do have a question about the counterfactual: Suppose there had been a substantial show of force, and the mob had attacked (more than a few of the rioters were armed). There would have been dozens of casualties, on both sides. Would that have been better?</p><p>For myself, the answer is yes. The symbol of the relatively easy takeover of the Capitol is very bad. But having 5 police and 20 rioters killed and wounded (say) would have been pretty bad also.</p><p>2. DJT<a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-speech-save-america-rally-transcript-january-6"> made a speech </a>at the rally yesterday. He said that being "weak" was bad, and now was the time for strength. Having the Capitol stormed by a mob, almost without resistance, and having the cops <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/mob-uses-chemical-irritants-on-police-when-they-stormed-u-s-capitol">be sprayed with mace</a> and beaten up, and having people breaking into secure areas and the offices of elected officials, is NOT strength.</p><p>The only way to make that strength is if you care only about Trump, and hate the U.S.</p><p>3. We are lucky that Trump is lazy, incompetent, and shallow. With a competent leader, capable of planning, yesterday could have been an actual coup. Imagine that instead of firing up the mob and then being surprised (I think) that they did something, Trump had in fact led the March to the Capitol. Imagine that he had quietly coordinated that march with even one dissident tank battalion. With 50 tanks, that march could have actually occupied the Capitol and held the Congress hostage.</p><p>Instead, Trump went back to the WH to watch TV, like he always does, unless he's playing golf. That's not what Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hussein, or Putin would have done. </p><p>The best analogy is probably Mussolini's "<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/March-on-Rome">March on Rome,</a>" where King Emmanuel likewise did not offer police or military opposition. It's very fortunate that Trump is not capable of carrying out a detailed plan. It could have been much, much worse, since it turns out that the Capitol was wide open for the taking.<br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-76288202506701686052020-12-31T10:38:00.002-05:002020-12-31T10:42:08.835-05:00A memory: Murray Weidenbaum<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">In grad schooI, I worked for Murray Weidenbaum, at the Wash U CSAB, as a research assistant. He gave me a hard assignment, on the costs of trade barriers.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFCPF7GQJNZiwfe3PMeJpr132dUez5DgWSH1mMh_CSXsAZYxnuuJv4Kuy0VNVOpCGoCfYlz5tz94b9QoNtgnkyfUokWfOcW7j4UjYyisB9EYZ2jDoFHsv_X-bxM680meHHOlaVA/s512/marked+up.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="512" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlFCPF7GQJNZiwfe3PMeJpr132dUez5DgWSH1mMh_CSXsAZYxnuuJv4Kuy0VNVOpCGoCfYlz5tz94b9QoNtgnkyfUokWfOcW7j4UjYyisB9EYZ2jDoFHsv_X-bxM680meHHOlaVA/w425-h246/marked+up.jpg" width="425" /></a></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span></p><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I did the research, and wrote a draft. It took about a month. </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span> <br /></span></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It came back completely covered with changes, amendments, cross-throughs, and requirements for more research. There may have been three or four sentences, total, in ten pages, that were unchanged. (This was 1982, in the days of pen and paper revisions).</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> <br /></span></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQIf3PQYpXRgYmjW2ky7doG0HhESPkwQR8ggVJzRmtNWFqSTmZfzJd0qa99fs1ioepCC_bHrFel9-H12lBnR4mfRODpw6tiU2YEHti8RX9jDY_zhRn9hU7QtzyQwwO3fxg2bRLQ/s258/weidenbaum.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="193" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWQIf3PQYpXRgYmjW2ky7doG0HhESPkwQR8ggVJzRmtNWFqSTmZfzJd0qa99fs1ioepCC_bHrFel9-H12lBnR4mfRODpw6tiU2YEHti8RX9jDY_zhRn9hU7QtzyQwwO3fxg2bRLQ/w277-h418/weidenbaum.JPG" width="277" /></a></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I was disappointed it was so marked up, and I guess it showed in my face. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Murray saw that, and laughed. "Look, Mike. This is fine. If it had been bad, I would've made some vague suggestions and told you it was good. That would have been the end of it. And the end of YOU, frankly. I'm don't have time to train RAs."</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">"Instead, this is a workable draft. Remember:<span> </span>busy people only spend time on good first drafts. You did a competent job, so I spent time on it. Now go finish it." </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He added me as a coauthor (<a href="https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/1983/7/v7n4-3.pdf">second author, but still</a>). And taught me that no first draft is any good. The GOAL is to have a first draft worth marking up so much that it looks like red spaghetti. That's actually what success looks like!</span></span></div></div><p> </p><p> </p>
<p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-76135788514248857482020-10-12T05:30:00.001-04:002020-10-12T05:30:03.475-04:00 Monday's Child is Full of Links!<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9W4weIUq3PiZzMG8EPTUZSp2BYJfSbZCdX7NO3vh4VMD3VTznzpdT7UI7w4gcdme_10zr0FHlZPzVWWrUS46GozFUV2YjMo1_zFxmadX3-VUO8_fCZFdPFLCs44u33bK8agJEA/s501/Monday%2527s+Child.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="501" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9W4weIUq3PiZzMG8EPTUZSp2BYJfSbZCdX7NO3vh4VMD3VTznzpdT7UI7w4gcdme_10zr0FHlZPzVWWrUS46GozFUV2YjMo1_zFxmadX3-VUO8_fCZFdPFLCs44u33bK8agJEA/s320/Monday%2527s+Child.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>1, <a href=" Monday's Child is Full of Links!"> Interview on CNN with the EYM</a>. </p><p>2. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/07/kamala-harris-sexist-racist-attacks-spread-online/?arc404=true&utm_campaign=wp_week_in_ideas&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_ideas&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F2c0ed59%2F5f82e5da9d2fda0efb460155%2F59f48aa6ade4e230f7cd7abc%2F10%2F74%2Ffeb1f91277f9143b08d49813bf204e36">Anatomy of a smear campaign</a>. Not sure it was a "campaign," but it is an example of how information cascades plague social media. </p><p>3. <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/fantasy-football-the-history-of-fantasy-football-the-biggest-seasons-and-the-future/">An idiosyncratic, but interesting, history of fantasy football</a>. </p><p>4. <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/why-do-basketball-players-make-more-than-teachers/">Why do basketball players make more than teachers</a>?</p><p>5. <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/plato-v-mises-mises-wins/">Plato v. Mises</a>? (Mises wins...) </p><p>6. <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/james-m-buchanans-normative-vision-fifteen-years-later/">James Buchanan's normative vision</a>. </p><p>7. Econtalk: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivQvvlpjBl0&t=633s">On the Future of Higher Education</a>.</p><p>8. IHS:<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tRlt8BwB7w&t=2s"> Is capitalism sustainable</a>?</p><p>9. The "<a href="https://theihs.org/career-resources/guide-to-academic-publishing-with-mike-munger/">Munger's Guide to Academic Publishing</a>."</p><p>10. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jkQhKjddtw">"Answers" ad from my 2008 Governor </a>campaign. <br /></p><p><br /></p>Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com1Raleigh, NC, USA35.7795897 -78.63817877.469355863821157 -113.7944287 64.089823536178841 -43.4819287tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-57820775640361918632020-07-04T08:12:00.000-04:002020-07-04T15:31:09.783-04:00Frederick Douglass and the 4th of July<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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As promised, "something about the warts" of the USA on the 4th of July.
In 1852 Frederick Douglass (one of my favorite libertarian heroes!) gave a speech. Below is a version of that speech, read by some of FD's descendants today.<br />
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The great thing about Douglass is that he <b><i>believed</i></b> in America, at least in its potential. He believed in ideas, and thought that the values in Declaration of Independence meant just what they said. But he was disappointed, over and over. Even after slavery was ended, Jim Crow and other government policies betrayed Douglass's hopes. The end of slavery did NOT install blacks as full citizens; that took more than another full century.<br />
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And if you consider access to government programs, fair treatment in the courts and by the police, and place in society, not even then. That legacy of disparate treatment has prevented access to education and buying a home, the two things that have lifted so many other citizens out of poverty and sent us (including me) up the stairway to the American dream. <br />
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The question is whether we all take the words of the Declaration, signed today nearly 250 years ago, mean anything. I hope they do.
<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/07/03/884832594/video-frederick-douglass-descendants-read-his-fourth-of-july-speech">
I think this is worth listening to. It's less than 8 minutes.</a><br />
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"What To The Slave Is The 4th of July?"
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NBe5qbnkqoM" width="560"></iframe>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927.html">The text of the speech, and some background on Douglass</a>.</span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Frederick-Douglass-Self-Made-Timothy-Sandefur/dp/1944424857/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tim+sandefur&qid=1593864270&sr=8-1">A great book, by Tim Sandefur. </a></span></b></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/7/3/what_to_the_slave_is_4th">A reading by James Earl Jones</a>. </span></b></li>
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Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-87333798131896935182020-06-15T11:20:00.003-04:002020-06-15T11:23:19.649-04:00That State Ain't Gone Crazy. That State Gone STATE.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
An essay in which I try to adapt the Chris Rock insight about the nature of things, or, if you will, "The Thing Itself."<br />
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<a href="https://www.aier.org/article/the-state-isnt-going-crazy-its-going-state/">AIER LINK</a>.<br />
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And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGEv5dC0lo4">link to the Chris Rock bit</a>, if you haven't seen it.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TBq77c3oMXU" width="560"></iframe>
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Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-41624323778832934552020-05-11T09:50:00.002-04:002020-05-11T09:50:53.276-04:00Unicorn: Sighted!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The video YOUR GOVERNMENT does not want you to see!</div>
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Because the truth is out there, people. And it has a horn in the middle of its forehead.</div>
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(From the most excellent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0rbQWJb_zo">Duke Political 2020 Graduation "Marking the Moment" </a>video by Shaun King and Georg Vanberg) </div>
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Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-16281694409103103542020-05-04T05:30:00.000-04:002020-05-05T13:18:07.036-04:00Monday's Child <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Monday's Child is Full of Links<br />
<br />
1. <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/after-the-virus-universities-will-survive/?fbclid=IwAR30z5SQ2rqXRZE_h-ezMZ2sjup8_zjlpKLdg7F-QPVxNG5Rz5qnYk95MKI">A piece on the future of universities</a>. The point being that professors and their self-important classes are missing the point.<br />
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2. So. I know <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/28/meat-industry-supply-chain-faq/">what to do about the meat industry losing workers</a>. Let the workers "price gouge," and charge much higher wages. Because <a href="https://reason.com/podcast/when-price-gouging-is-good-michael-munger/">high prices are better than empty shelves.</a> <br />
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3. <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/why-politicians-focus-on-trivia-in-the-midst-of-disaster/">Bikeshedding</a>.<br />
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4. "<a href="https://twitter.com/prageru/status/1255255227663597571/photo/1">Alex, I'll take 'No, it isn't' for $500, please.</a>"<br />
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5. <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/five-things-that-will-end-the-madness/">The end....of the beginning</a>.<br />
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6. A video about a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elp0z3zQH84&feature=youtu.be">unicorn sighting in the wild</a>.<br />
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7. How can he possibly think<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/05/trumps-unhinged-rant-about-new-attack-ad-shows-his-weakness/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most"> this makes him look good</a>? I mean, forget the merits. Why SAY it?<br />
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8. <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/10/141031-zombies-parasites-animals-science-halloween/">Parasites that turn their "hosts" into zombie slaves</a>.<br />
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9. <a href="https://www.aier.org/article/matt-ridley-on-innovation/">Matt Ridley on "Innovation</a>." Interestingly, <a href="https://reason.com/2020/05/03/what-its-like-to-be-a-rational-optimist-in-a-pandemic/">Ridley is pretty concerned about the covid19 thing</a>.<br />
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10. That ol' ceteris. She ain't paribus. <a href="https://reason.com/2020/05/04/8-possible-reasons-for-the-huge-international-differences-in-covid-19-deaths/">At least in international comparisons</a>. I'm not usually a stickler on the causal inference thing, but cross-sectional comparisons are worse than useless, without a lot of other conditions being met.<br />
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11. Makes you wonder.<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/496086-gop-ohio-state-lawmaker-refuses-to-wear-face-mask-because-faces-are-the"> I hope the guy wears pants, at least</a>. Even if that covers up his "image of God."<br />
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12. <a href="https://ifunny.co/picture/the-best-from-mad-dog-mattis-1-i-don-t-P4Y4H7DI6">Lessons in diplomacy from General Mattis</a>.<br />
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Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-8480570546584466672020-04-23T13:20:00.002-04:002020-04-23T13:27:02.723-04:00Hot Sauce<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There is no reason to buy hot sauce. The hot sauce you can make is easy, stupid cheap, and way better.<br />
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Step 1: What kind of chili do you want to work with? <a href="https://www.tastingtable.com/cook/national/best-spicy-chile-peppers-hottest-pepper-how-to-cook-with-chiles">There are many</a>. But preparation may matter more than type; in a way, it's like tea. Varieties of tea are different, but the way the tea is manipulated is the source of the most interesting flavors. Mexico is to jalapenos as China is to tea: millenia of messing around with different preparations. And, I don't actually think that there is any serious debate: there is ONE PARTICULAR PREP that stands apart.<br />
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The kind of chili you want to work with is <a href="https://www.mexicanplease.com/what-are-morita-chiles/">the MORITA</a>. You're welcome, I saved you all that time. Moritas are a subtype of chipotle, but if you ask for chipotle powder you will NOT get Morita. You want the whole Moritas, with stems on. They are smoked red-ripe jalapenos, and they retain a little softness and fruitiness.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsw_vKUxgsU5dQI_GBucYz7c23xNI6ma-Gocjt-2wJzj5RcS5kiW4WoWXWtb3_IGZSDHr3hu3G2iUhokg4WKijkwtrw12gYXK_HSR50PSMuH7M2_T2ebp-rZglam9ajuircm-wQ/s1600/moritas.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="872" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrsw_vKUxgsU5dQI_GBucYz7c23xNI6ma-Gocjt-2wJzj5RcS5kiW4WoWXWtb3_IGZSDHr3hu3G2iUhokg4WKijkwtrw12gYXK_HSR50PSMuH7M2_T2ebp-rZglam9ajuircm-wQ/s320/moritas.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Step 2: Ingredients:<br />
2 cups of chopped morita<br />
1 apple, cored and chopped but peel on<br />
3/4 cup red wine vinegar<br />
3/4 cup water<br />
Tablespoon of salt. <br />
Honey or sugar to taste<br />
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Step 3: Create<br />
Heat a cast iron skillet, and put the whole dried moritas in the skillet. They will smoke a little, and swell up. Shake them around (no oil or water, just dry!). Remove them and put them on a cutting board. As soon as they are cool enough, remove the stems and the hard part where the stem connects, roughly chop the chiles. (I leave the seeds. But up to you. Seeds are hot, without much fruity or smoky flavor. But they do add some texture)<br />
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Put in a steep sided microwave safe bowl. Add the vinegar, water, salt, and apple, and stir around until everything is at least moistened. Cover with plastic wrap, and microwave for 3 minutes on high.<br />
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Remove from microwave and let sit for 10 minutes. Then do that again, 3 minutes on high, let sit for 10 minutes. (The apple should be somewhat soft by now).<br />
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Use an immersion blender or food processor to reduce everything to a thick paste.<br />
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Add 1 tablespoon of sugar or honey, blend it in, and give a taste. Add more sweet or salt as suits you. And add more water if it is too thick.<br />
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Cover tightly and let sit in refrigerator for at least two days.<br />
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Stir up the mixture if it has settled. Go!<br />
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It works spooned on tacos, or in burritos. But it is also a great side sauce on eggs, or any kind of meat. And one of the best uses is as a marinade/cooking sauce on grilled chicken or grilled steak. It's thick enough that it will stick when you cook, and help create some great bark on the chicken skin. You immediately get a smoked flavor as if...well, you know. As if it the meat had been smoked.<br />
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A note of warning: this sauce is hot. It is not ketchup. The heat is a subtle, smoky, fruity hot, but it's still hot. Be cool with it. (I usually freeze about 2/3 of this batch, in two containers, so that I can thaw them and use them later).<br />
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Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-68325750971321011082020-01-17T08:07:00.001-05:002020-01-17T08:07:32.763-05:00Mungowit's End<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I created a YouTube channel, with short videos based on some of my essays on economics.<br />
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Fun to make, and I'm learning a lot about videos, to help me teach students how to do "video papers," a much more useful application of their time than writing academic papers.<br />
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So far:<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez7nsEnDrWk"><br /></a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez7nsEnDrWk">Everybody Loves Mikey</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w47wdvkSU8&t=21s">I'll Stick with These</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCK81YQ_jjY&t=15s">They Clapped</a><br />
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<a href="https://youtu.be/vLBxciXY8WM">The Mancgere</a><br />
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More every week, on Friday mornings! </div>
Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7464708.post-33943644913243812852019-12-30T07:00:00.000-05:002019-12-31T08:54:54.353-05:00Monday's Child is Full of Links!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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1. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/12/27/how-year-old-study-was-misconstrued-create-destructive-broken-windows-policing/">A new version of the "broken windows" fallacy</a>?<br />
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2. <a href="https://twitter.com/thehumanxp/status/1200267160528019456">There was a complaint, kids sledding on road. Cops sent their best undercover unit</a>.<br />
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3. The market-based "liberal" system has created so much prosperity, and that prosperity is so widely shared, that the two greatest problems facing the poor at this point are (1) <a href="https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/60/11/2667">obesity</a> and (2) <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-by-income-level-of-country?time=1990..2017">population growth resulting from reduced infant mortality</a>. But the market system can fix that, too: the next stage is to <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4241751-2-diverging-worlds-wealthy-nations-population-and-demographic-declines-poor-nation-growth-no">pass the wealth threshold where obesity and birth rate</a> fall. Plus, <a href="https://www.intelligenteconomist.com/environmental-kuznets-curve/">market systems will fix the environment</a>, and through the same logic. <br />
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4. I'm always surprised when <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614917/our-pathetically-slow-shift-to-clean-energy-in-five-charts/?utm_campaign=site_visitor.unpaid.engagement&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social_share&utm_content=2019-12-29">people are surprised at the reluctance to switch to "clean energy</a>," which is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/05/27/we-shouldnt-be-surprised-renewables-make-energy-expensive-since-thats-always-been-the-greens-goal/#7f39f61f4e6d">expensive, inefficient, and not always all that clean</a>.<br />
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5. Standard transitional gains trap stuff here. <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/95542/fds-19l.pdf?v=1858.2">The demand for corn, without ethanol mandate, has been stagnant. </a>So eliminating ethanol mandate (which is <a href="https://smarterfuelfuture.org/blog/details/the-ethanol-mandate-is-an-expensive-failure/">hugely expensive and harmful to the environment</a>, since corn is not sugar cane) would cause bankruptcies of many farmers. It does NO GOOD, it's EXPENSIVE, but eliminating it is <a href="https://www.lawliberty.org/2013/09/26/the-transitional-gains-trap/">POLITICALLY IMPOSSIBLE</a>. Welcome to Public Choice, folks!<br />
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6. <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/tom-sukanens-prairie-ship?fbclid=IwAR1zhtwxoDTWm6A_TWMqaXVQuY4exQzZohYQHNjYC7_VYqB51lXSPdxrwNo">Quite a lot going on here</a>. Prairie ship, that's all Ima say.<br />
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7. <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveStuWill/status/1211123335796363264">A dog that plays Jenga</a>. Not everything has to be complex, or ironic, you know.<br />
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8. <a href="https://www.lawliberty.org/2019/12/30/top-episodes-of-liberty-law-talk-for-2019/">Top 3 episodes of Liberty Law Talk for 2019</a>.<br />
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9. <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-tale-of-two-suburbs/?ex_cid=538twitter">A Tale of Two Cleveland Suburbs</a>.<br />
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10. <a href="https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-daily-podcast/understanding-models-legal-sex-work">Models of legal sex work</a> (Cato podcast).<br />
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11. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/22/us/virginia-crash-roads/index.html">They had a bad day on the road</a>.<br />
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12. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/21/business/carnival-glory-returns-to-new-orleans/index.html">They had a bad day at a dock on a bay.</a><br />
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13. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/12/30/i-ignored-friends-familys-warnings-not-marry-my-husband-was-i-making-big-mistake/">Pretty amazing "David" story</a>.<br />
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14. <a href="https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/12/capital-and-ideology-by-thomas-piketty.html"> I am always surprised when people take T-Pikk seriously</a>.<br />
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15. <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article238523668.html">Dave Barry's "Year in Review</a>."<br />
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16. And the best year in review column I know of, from David Collum. Yes, the Collum column!<br />
<a href="https://www.peakprosperity.com/2019-year-in-review-part-1/">Here's Part I</a>, and <a href="https://www.peakprosperity.com/2019-year-in-review-part2/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">here's Part II</a>.<br />
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17. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/01/mexico-city-decriminalize-sex-trafficking">One way to end the illegal selling of humans is to make sex work legal</a>. These people (mostly women) need rights, not rescue. <br />
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18. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2019/12/30/bret-stephens-and-the-perils-of-the-tapped-out-column-091437">Brett Stephens steps in it</a>.<br />
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Grand Lagniappe: Camel shadows. Hard for a second to understand the perspective....<br />
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Mungowitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02340064320347875601noreply@blogger.com0