Sublime

is true that it is generally difficult to grow larger communities without weakening the bonds that tie everyone together. Public choice theorists have long demonstrated why special interests, when conflicting with the interests of a larger group (such as the entire middle class), tend to win in the end—namely, because it’s easier to organize a

Rational behaviour is not defined by conformity with a set of axioms set down even by such distinguished thinkers as John von Neumann and Milton Friedman.

Dans un système d'économie libre, aucune université qui se respecte ne voudrait enseigner à ses étudiants des choses si évidemment fausses et absurdes alors même qu'elle cherche à prodiguer à ses étudiants les connaissances les plus utiles. Mais dans un système académique complètement corrompu par l'argent étatique, le cursus n'est pas établi selon

Monopoly Lies

sunk-cost fallacy is identified and taught as a mistake in both economics and business courses, apparently to good effect: there is evidence that graduate students in these fields are more willing than others to walk away from a failing project.

Highly educated people don’t merely use logic; it is part of their identity. When I told one economist that you can often increase the sales of a product by increasing its price, the reaction was one not of curiosity but of anger.

Stigler’s mark in economics centered on the economic competency—or rather incompetency—of state power. Once man’s behavior was reduced to utility-maximizing self-interest, economists were able to tear down the edifices of government intervention in the economy; they sought “a large role for explicit or implicit prices in the solution of many social

in the real world, there is no such thing as an externality.