I had another dream, I had another life
“Is Poland’s government right-wing or left-wing?” asks a recent article in The Economist. Its leaders revere the Catholic church, vow to protect Poles from terrorism by not accepting any Muslim refugees and fulminate against “gender ideology” (by which they mean the notion that men can become women or marry other men). Yet the ruling Law and … Read more
I’ve mentioned the populist trade problem before. GMU economist Bryan Caplan has published on the irrationality of voters, demonstrating that voters tend to suffer from biases that disagree with the findings of actual economists. Given our current political climate, consider what he calls “anti-foreign bias”: Harvard’s Greg Mankiw writes in The New York Times, Voters clearly … Read more
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal describes “The Rise of Zero-Sum Economics” among both political parties: [Trump] sees [trade] not as a form of cooperation where everyone wins but a contest where someone must lose for someone to win. “We already have a trade war, and we’re losing badly,” he declared last month. It’s not just … Read more
If you Google “Trump” and “Brexit” you’ll get an avalanche of articles suggesting that the explanation of the UK’s vote to leave the EU is an expression of populist outrage, resurgent nationalism, and an admixture of xenophobia to boot. That might not be accurate. Walker’s post highlighted an alternative view. But let’s roll with it … Read more
What comes next? You’ve been freed Do you know how hard it is to lead? You’re on your own Awesome. Wow. Do you have a clue what happens now? Economist Emily Skarbek makes an important observation following U.K. voters’ decision to leave the European Union: No one knows just how this is going to … Read more
“Curbing this inequality requires a clear understanding of its causes,” writes Brooking’s Jonathan Rothwell. “Three of the standard explanations—capital shares, skills, and technology—are myths. The real cause of elite inequality is the lack of open access and market competition in elite investment and labor markets. To bring the elite down to size, we need to … Read more
This is part of the General Conference Odyssey. Perhaps the best irony about the GOP candidates’ rhetoric against the refugees is that it technically, according to the Bible, makes them Sodomites. This was my friend Stephen Smoot‘s Facebook status a while back, referring to Ezekiel 16:49-50: “Behold this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: … Read more
The Boston Globe made this interesting observation last week in the wake of the terrorist attack in Brussels: Long before Tuesday’s terror attacks in Brussels, it was clear that Belgium had become a breeding ground for Islamist extremists. Hundreds of Belgian Muslims — as many as 500, according to one estimate — have gone to … Read more
A recent article in Vox outlines the problem of anti-trade populism: Bernie Sanders sells himself as a champion of the little guy. But talk to economists and development experts, and you hear something different: Sanders’s policies on trade would hurt the very poorest people on Earth. A lot. Here is the basic issue. Sanders has, … Read more
We’re a group of heavy readers here at Difficult Run, but we’ve mainly expressed our love of books over the last couple years through sporadic lists. As bibliophiles, we take an interest in what others are reading. We often buy or rent books based on the suggestions of others. However, we also research the books under consideration to … Read more