Newmark's Door

Brief reviews of three excellent introductory economics books. I'd add Trade-Offs: An Introduction to Economic Reasoning and Social Issues, 2nd ed. to the list.

A review of a new book by Justice Gorsuch. A highlight from the review:

His book cites guesstimates that U.S. statutory law runs to 60,000 pages, with another 188,000 pages of regulations, which delineate 300,000 criminal sanctions . . . 

How did it come to this? “That is the question of the book, and I don’t have a complete answer for you,” Justice Gorsuch says. But it involves a shift “both up and across in our separation of powers.” By “up” he means a movement of responsibilities from states and localities to Washington. By “across” he means a flow of authority from Congress to the D.C. agency apparatus.

Which plays to two of my favorite political points: we need less federal government (and more federalism) and less bureaucracy at all levels.

Very much related, with more details on the rabbit story: "Justice Gorsuch on the Administrative State". (Yes, I know one story does not an argument make. But, c'mon, it's one heck of a story.)

"These three strands of the libertarian synthesis—the moral argument, the knowledge problem and the public choice problem—can be summarized simply: You have no right to run my life; you don’t know how; and if you try, you’ll mess it up."

Positive review of Money and the Rule of Law (edited by Pete Boettke, et al.) by Nathanael Snow, a former student of mine.

Nice piece by sociologist Fabio Rojas. This is worth remembering (and teaching to younger generations):

By 2024, there have been many writers and researchers who have documented the many limitations of communes, kibbutzim, and worker co-ops. The message is fairly consistent. These organizations suffer from all sorts of problems, ranging from factionalism to poor morale to suboptimal decision-making. Perhaps the best that can be said of such communities is that they might succeed when they are kept small and participants are selected based on a strong commitment to egalitarian principles. Otherwise, failure is the usual outcome.

Excerpt from The Science of Weird Shit by Chris French & Richard Wiseman:

We can learn so much about the human mind by investigating what lies behind experiences that appear to be paranormal. Factors like attention, perception and memory can all play a part.

What I've also found is that you can almost always uncover a logical explanation for things that appear to be paranormal.

Review of The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. The book sounds quite interesting, but I have my doubts about theories that explain too much.

A crabby, insightful, funny review of Walter Issacson's biography of Elon Musk. Excerpt:

Listen, Walt: I know everyone at your Aspen Ideas Festival get-togethers is always prattling on about changing the world, I know every two-bit billionaire claims to be changing the world with their obnoxious SaaS fintech bullshit, I know all your buddies in Washington speak in the same language of creepy blissed-out messianism, but Elon Musk has not changed the world. He is not a great innovator. He is not a genius. He is not taking the human species anywhere in particular. He’s boring. Even his faults are boring! Musk is a very ordinary man. A con man; a fraudster. Worst of all, a government contractor.

Book and especially the movie are great.

Yikes.

Flyvbjerg’s database of more than 16,000 big projects shows that only 8.5 percent are on-budget and on-time and that only 0.5 percent are on-budget, on-time, and deliver the promised benefits—and these numbers make no allowance for budget padding.