Professor of Economics | Political Economy - Public Choice - History of Economic Thought - Austrian Economics
Murfreesboro, TN
Joined August 2014
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We know where the equilibrium of predatory politics leads—a point French economists should recognize with particular clarity given their country’s long arc from the Revolution to dirigisme. Yet conceptions of social justice remain alluring enough that some economists continue to advocate expansions of the political domain that invite such predation. A more proper and humble economics, by contrast, confines itself to the design of rules that keep politics within well-defined tasks, thereby preventing the predatory equilibrium.
James M. Buchanan:
Daniel J. Smith retweeted
Josh Rauh and Ben Jaros of Stanford's Hoover Institution work out that a founder who pays California's wealth tax by selling shares must sell about $1.59 for every $1 owed, because the sale itself triggers roughly 37% capital gains tax. The bill grows the moment you try to pay it.
Zuckerberg's fortune is mostly Meta shares, not cash in the bank. California's proposed wealth tax would take 5% of it, about $12bn, so the only way he can pay is by selling shares, which would cost him control of his own company. Meta has had to invent a new kind of share just to get around that. That's the liquidity problem Zucman says doesn't exist.
Daniel J. Smith retweeted
"For reference, $43 billion is just under double what NASA spent last year."
washingtonexaminer.com/news/…
What is the role of the economist? It depends on their assumptions about politicians' knowledge and incentives (and whether they care about doing relevant work).
It’s the equivalent of a high priest reading the entrails of a bird to declare that the gods favor the leader’s already-decided course.
Given how pervasive and pernicious the failure to understand the extent to which incentives matter in the design of institutions and policy, most economists do not spend enough time emphasizing it in economics classes and public intellectualism.
Daniel J. Smith retweeted
The economic legacy of the last two years in a single chart. Americans hate tariffs.
A symptom of some economists focusing too much on “ought” rather than “is”
Daniel J. Smith retweeted
I'm gonna take a stab: When you're afraid to mention your party's signature economic policy in campaign ads, that might be a sign that the policy is unpopular because it didn't work as promised.
Just such a fun chart here from @greg_ip. If only we could tease out some meaning. Ah, well, nevertheless. 🤣
"'Economic science', defined and used analogously to the hard sciences, requires that some person be putty, subject to the manipulation and control of others." - Buchanan
Daniel J. Smith retweeted
Siding with consumers makes political sense.
Read @ToddZywicki's latest: civitasoutlook.pulse.ly/664q…
Daniel J. Smith retweeted
An unlikely alliance between farmers and conservationists illustrates how government subsidies create political constituencies that lobby to preserve them.
cc: @JaneSShaw
thedailyeconomy.org/article/…
"the vital distinction between the use of science to assist in the control of subjects-objects (animate or inanimate) and the use of science to assist in the self-imposed control of the behaviour of those who are simultaneously the controllers and the controlled, must be kept in mind." - James M. Buchanan (1982)
Giving government an ownership stake may become the most straightforward path for companies to get government privileges.
Intel's largest shareholder just exempted it from a "national security" ban on Chinese imports:
"FCC grants Intel waiver for foreign-made robotic devices" share.google/1cpyLZdVdTscar9…
