tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post6950318976940990730..comments2024-03-28T14:41:03.793-05:00Comments on The Grumpy Economist: Institutions and experienceJohn H. Cochranehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04842601651429471525noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-89779349721109460762016-01-05T11:31:40.026-06:002016-01-05T11:31:40.026-06:00I believe the reference should be to the late Roma...I believe the reference should be to the late Roman Republic, as the empire faded away due to its despotic nature. The Republic yielded to the despotic empire, in large part due to its poor financial position resulting from military adventurism, money debauchery and blanket loan forgiveness by writ. I recommend "History of the Roman Republic" by Theodore Mommsen. (A book that the Founders likely read, as well, because they wanted to know how things might end. Yes, it's that old a book.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-65983925976230494572015-12-27T07:33:43.668-06:002015-12-27T07:33:43.668-06:00I'll keep saying it! http://bailoutswindle.com...I'll keep saying it! http://bailoutswindle.comHarry Alffahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12373844683436620254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-73726448532631339842015-12-23T08:00:09.125-06:002015-12-23T08:00:09.125-06:00On Habituation:
It’s the conservative who would i...On Habituation:<br /><br />It’s the conservative who would interrupt what seems to be an endless modern dialectic between oikophobia and xenophobia—between globalism and fascism—with the mean between those extremes, that being the nation. The nation—and it is not to be confused with the tribe or the church, or even nationalism—is the only place where the protection of human rights can be effective, through law and also through habituation. The nation is where we learn how to treat strangers with the respect we instinctively accord to friends.<br /><br />From an edifying companion piece to this Cochrane essay:<br />http://www.libertylawsite.org/2015/12/22/the-functional-anthropologist-roger-scruton/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-53743775558278512015-12-22T02:52:39.878-06:002015-12-22T02:52:39.878-06:00I appreciate some of the things you are doing here...I appreciate some of the things you are doing here, and I like the way you are thinking about things historically. It's not deep history, sure, but I appreciate the effort and the thought. If we are going to think about these things, we need to think outside neo-classical models. I would describe myself as a Keynesian, but I agree with you about the increase in instrusive regulation. It might be worth you picking up some of the Neo-Marxian literature or Adorno/Habermas, just for another point of view - they talk about 'bureaucratic-capitalism'; the mainstream economics profession talks about a zero sum game between government and private sector activity and a strict demarcation between them. Not in this literature. You will also find a lot of explanations for the rise in political apathy, ineffectiveness and detachment between the public and the leadership that arises in advanced capitalism.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-74741699502407080692015-12-21T13:10:59.597-06:002015-12-21T13:10:59.597-06:00Anonymous,
"If you structure the carbon tax ...Anonymous,<br /><br />"If you structure the carbon tax as Hansen suggests - refunding the tax revenues equally on a per-capita basis - you appropriately motivate both the wicked and the righteous."<br /><br />Except, the federal government is not legally permitted to do that. Suppose the federal government receives $100 in carbon tax revenue and has $50 worth of outstanding debt service payments. It cannot legally refund the $100 in carbon tax revenue equally on a per capita basis because payments on the federal debt supercede all other expenditures.<br /><br />Also, if tax revenues from a carbon tax are dispersed on a per capita basis, then carbon tax payers are also recipients of that revenue, receiving their per capita share - yes? Granted, if carbon taxes are assessed as a percentage of total emissions, there will be individuals paying more in taxes than they receive back.<br /><br />It seems that Hansen treats a carbon tax as a redistribution scheme rather than an absolute punishment / reward system. In a world full of wicked carbon emitters - would the tax and expenditure have any effect? In a world full of righteous breath holders - would the tax and expenditure have any effect?<br /><br />FRestlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09440916887619001941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-6680759700863841002015-12-20T11:47:40.583-06:002015-12-20T11:47:40.583-06:00Here Cochrane misunderstands the legal principle o...Here Cochrane misunderstands the legal principle of "mens rea". <br /><br />From the Legal Information Institute at Cornell:<br /><br />The mens rea requirement is premised upon the idea that one must possess a guilty state of mind and be aware of his or her misconduct; however, a defendant need not know that their conduct is illegal to be guilty of a crime. Rather, the defendant must be conscious of the “facts that make his conduct fit the definition of the offense.”JZhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12994372644670111315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-9589062299299105302015-12-19T14:34:18.909-06:002015-12-19T14:34:18.909-06:00If you structure the carbon tax as Hansen suggests...If you structure the carbon tax as Hansen suggests - refunding the tax revenues equally on a per-capita basis - you appropriately motivate both the wicked and the righteous.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-9915695862627977982015-12-17T21:23:55.577-06:002015-12-17T21:23:55.577-06:00Matthew,
I am curious (from a psychological persp...Matthew,<br /><br />I am curious (from a psychological perspective) - which has a better chance of reducing carbon emissions - subsidies or taxes?<br /><br />It comes down to human nature - which is a more powerful motivator - punishing the wicked or rewarding the righteous?FRestlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09440916887619001941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-44047559441062516052015-12-17T10:42:28.055-06:002015-12-17T10:42:28.055-06:00I hope to see the discussion on the carbon tax gro...I hope to see the discussion on the carbon tax grow, but I wonder if that day will ever come. I think there are many climate change skeptics that will balk at the carbon tax simply on principle. I consider myself not so much as a climate change skeptic as much as I consider myself a skeptic that the throngs of self-appointed science doyens that have seemingly descended into a colossal mob mentality group think aligned with cynical politicians happy to use the fear-mongering to shower subsidies on their pet projects will have any discernable impact while wasting trillions of dollars along the way. Far better that if we agree that there is some risk of man-made climate change, no matter how far into to "black swan" tail end of the probability curve it is, it would be far better to implement the carbon tax and offset other forms of taxation to make it politically palatable. Then, the market will adjust to the activities in innovative and efficient ways. The cronyist ways in which we allow the government to pick and choose winners and to create arbitrary and unaccountable legislation through the EPA is the current alternative - and this undermines liberty and the rule of law far more than a simple and understandable and navigable carbon tax. Matthew Obenhaushttps://gymnasiumsite.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-21714174833984317302015-12-17T10:39:17.122-06:002015-12-17T10:39:17.122-06:00I hope to see the discussion on the carbon tax gro...I hope to see the discussion on the carbon tax grow, but I wonder if that day will ever come. I think there are many climate change skeptics that will balk at the carbon tax simply on principle. I consider myself not so much as a climate change skeptic as much as I consider myself a skeptic that the throngs of self-appointed science doyens that have seemingly descended into a colossal mob mentality group think aligned with cynical politicians happy to use the fear-mongering to shower subsidies on their pet projects will have any discernable impact while wasting trillions of dollars along the way. Far better that if we agree that there is some risk of man-made climate change, no matter how far into to "black swan" tail end of the probability curve it is, it would be far better to implement the carbon tax and offset other forms of taxation to make it politically palatable. Then, the market will adjust to the activities in innovative and efficient ways. The cronyist ways in which we allow the government to pick and choose winners and to create arbitrary and unaccountable legislation through the EPA is the current alternative - and this undermines liberty and the rule of law far more than a simple and understandable and navigable carbon tax. obejuan03https://www.blogger.com/profile/18142707928011627430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-44338481548298154112015-12-17T10:34:10.980-06:002015-12-17T10:34:10.980-06:00A wonderful post! Thank you Professor Cochrane for...A wonderful post! Thank you Professor Cochrane for sharing it.<br /><br />It is a great Hayekian (and Burkean) insight that institutions embody the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of past experience. But this cuts both ways. Established administrative and bureaucratic structures also embody past experience--but they embody corrupt political arrangements designed to secure rents and pass on patronage to relevant elites. Evaluating institutions, even those graced by longevity and rich history, is not so straightforward. This is a great insight of public choice economics after all. Foundational political economic institutions may well be products of perverse incentives that run deep in Western history as cronyist, oligarchic power sharing mechanisms. <br /><br />This isn't meant to be an objection to Professor Cochrane's remarks of course--the bulk of which are incisive and absolutely right. My point is merely to suggest a danger in overemphasizing the wisdom of accumulated experience as embodied in institutions.Dimitri Halikiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05445086906777445813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-31609313466456347552015-12-17T00:17:10.889-06:002015-12-17T00:17:10.889-06:00John, a great post and a wonderful speech, althoug...John, a great post and a wonderful speech, although I'm sue you received some strange looks when you discussed climate change. Very honorable thing for you to do this.<br /><br />Notwithstanding the paucity of comments you received here, you might want to consider submitting this to the Editorial page of the WSJ, if you haven't already done so. I notice you are published there from time-to-time, and I would think readers would eat up your message.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-13107892506154841912015-12-16T19:37:39.031-06:002015-12-16T19:37:39.031-06:00John,
"Foreign policy increasingly seems unh...John,<br /><br />"Foreign policy increasingly seems unhinged from simplest lessons of history as well as from the carefully built institutions of the postwar order. Eisenhower and Roosevelt did not call a press conference, announce the US putting 5000 soldiers on Omaha beach, and promise the soldiers would be out by July."<br /><br />It did? See:<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution<br /><br />"The War Powers Resolution requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without a Congressional authorization for use of military force or a declaration of war."<br /><br />Eisenhower and Roosevelt acted on the behest of the Congress. The War Powers Act was enacted after Nixon ignored Congress when they repealed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1971).FRestlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09440916887619001941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-34392286733978649802015-12-16T16:57:06.517-06:002015-12-16T16:57:06.517-06:00It’s difficult for me to understand why someone wo...It’s difficult for me to understand why someone would disagree with the core institutional principles that this post talks about (e.g., simplicity and efficiency), but has it really been a collective bad memory or is it possible that there are some inherent institutional flaws that impede self-correction? The main question that I have after reading this post is whether these institutions can be empowered to realize when they need to change themselves? Currently it seems that the way this will be achieved is once enough of us – the beneficiaries of the institutions – realize that something has fundamentally gone awry with our institutions and demand that they be changed (as alluded to in the Dodd-Frank and climate issues above), but this itself seems to have a sense of inefficiency to it. <br /><br />I agree that us institutional beneficiaries need to be vaguely aware of how the institutions operate and why, but it seems that the more complex the institutions are, the less likely we are to understand why they are the way that they are.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00039004882015316076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-62375700297074924992015-12-16T16:20:16.625-06:002015-12-16T16:20:16.625-06:00Maybe politicians are more interested in the lesso...Maybe politicians are more interested in the lessons learned from those who wielded huge amounts of power: Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Stalin, Mao - or even the lesser lights such as Papa Doc, Idi Amin, and Slobodan Milosevic. We have our own homegrown luminaries - Boss Tweed, The Great Robber Barons, Huey Long, etc.<br /><br />If you are a power-hungry sociopath those are your role models. <br /><br />"People who distrust the government are less likely to vote for the next big personality promising big new programs. Instead, they might be more attracted to candidates who promise restraint and rule of law; to administer competently and to repair broken institutions."<br /><br />Alternatively, they might decide that they don't trust career politicians and pick Trump or Carson as a solution.Michael Gorbackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05789268342873061299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-20130148382286646652015-12-16T12:35:53.285-06:002015-12-16T12:35:53.285-06:00A fair cop. Better still: become a Jew.
A fair cop. Better still: become a Jew.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-85774929935548849082015-12-16T12:13:25.496-06:002015-12-16T12:13:25.496-06:00When was this time when politicians did not use &q...When was this time when politicians did not use "any tools at their disposal"? During the Nixon Administration? Hoover's FBI? WWII?<br /><br />Economic theories implying that government has a role to play in managing demand during recessions are not at all new. They are older (and reflect more experience) than your beliefs in fully self-correcting markets.<br /><br />And how does your call for a repeat of "Omaha beach" reflect the experience of Vietnam?<br /><br />In general it is funny how any change you politically favor is "maintenance, repair, continual improvement", while changes you oppose are "New magical faiths"<br /><br />Or in summary: http://i.imgur.com/91sn32Q.jpg?fb Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-56212207401937146092015-12-16T06:11:01.917-06:002015-12-16T06:11:01.917-06:00You should consider becoming Catholic. The long in...You should consider becoming Catholic. The long institutional memory of the church makes it an expert in humanity Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-582368152716771238.post-79335615970727330142015-12-16T04:28:01.355-06:002015-12-16T04:28:01.355-06:00SUMMARY:
"There is a late Roman empire feelin...SUMMARY:<br />"There is a late Roman empire feeling in the air. "<br />ATBMPAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05204223669169160577noreply@blogger.com