Economic Theory and Acadmics — Alpha.Sources

Economics brain food

Glenn Loury is preparing to host a conference at the Hoover Institute, honouring the life and works of Thomal Sowell. To that end, he is hosting a number of conversations on his podcast. The first one with Emily Skarbek, associate economics professor at Brown University, and the second with Jason Riley, columnist for the WSJ, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. They’re great conversations even if you, like me, are not familiar with the works and life of Thomas Sowell. TS, still going strong in his 90s, writes and thinks about core principles of economic thought, social life, individual responsibility and rights, and it is great to hear Glenn and his guests flex their intellectual muscles on these topics. I’d add to these two a recent Econtalk episode in which Russ Roberts sits down with his friend, and long-time guest on Econtalk, Mike Munger to discuss the question of what capitalism is.

We could all use a space online to unplug once in a while, especially in our current moment. For that purpose, you could do a lot worse than listening to the conversations above.

A question of time

I’ve been thinking about time recently. In economics and finance, time is central to our analysis. Most of the information we care about, after all, is spread and dispersed across time. As a result, the way we embed our models with information, and how we sort and organize that information, is often a question of time. The information embedded in time is powerful, often overwhelming.

Things to think about #10 - Ukraine, the Endgame, and Coding with AI

Glenn Loury and John McWhorter are at their best when they disagree, and I enjoyed their discussion about the disastrous exchange between Trump, Vance, and Zelensky at the White House. Both agree that the U.S. is right to push for a negotiated settlement, which involves pressuring Ukraine to acknowledge its precarious position. However, they diverge on how this pressure was communicated and its potential repercussions. Glenn argues that Trump and the vice president rightly prioritized American interests by applying pressure on Zelensky, while John takes the opposite stance, framing his argument within a broader critique of the U.S. president and his administration.

A new feudalism?

I recently finished Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis, on audiobook read by the author himself. It offers an interesting perspective on modern capitalism or, in the opinion of the author, why capitalism as we know it is dead. Mr. Varoufakis writes from the left, which grants him a unique perspective inherent to that side of the political spectrum. Marxism is interesting primarily for its critique and diagnosis of capitalism’s structure, not for its purported inevitable end-result of a communist revolution. In this sense, Mr. Varoufakis’ book is an enlightening read.

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