Thinking Out Aloud

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland , Humpty Dumpty famously holds that a word means what he wants it to mean : "When I use a word,...

Anti (Muslim) immigrant sentiment is proving increasingly an electoral winner in Europe. Adding anti-bailout sentiment seems to increase th...

This is based on a comment I made here . Xavier Marquez has a great post on the role of cult of personalities in signaling support for a di...

This was originally provoked by a question and answer here . The problem with the real price of money is that it is not real. There is a vi...

This was originally provoked by a question and answer here . One of the most productive questions ever asked in economics is: “why do firms ...

I kept trying to read this natural money site but it is so ignorant of economic history it makes my head hurt. Interest on loans is (mostly...

A friend has been painted for the Archibald Prize . The artist knows how modern critics want her to paint, but it is not how she likes to pa...

This is the second and concluding part of my review of Philip F. Lawler’s The Faithful Departed: the Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture ,...

Philip F. Lawler’s The Faithful Departed: the Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture is an intelligent, thoughtful examination, by a committ...

There are two mistakes one can make in thinking about human nature. One is to think there is no common human nature and the other is to thin...

A recent guest post On the [US] Constitution as a “Counter-Revolutionary” Act by John Venlet (who blogs at improved clinch ), and the subs...

Philosopher Stephen Hicks has written one of my favourite intellectual and philosophical histories, Explaining Postmodernism . His Nietzsch...

I am generally not in favour of solving problems by more regulation, but regulations which encourage stability, reduce risk and increase inf...