DOCSLIB.ORG

An Interview with the Armchair Economist, Steven Landsburg

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
An Interview with the Armchair Economist, Steven Landsburg POLICY Volume 29 No. 1 • Autumn 2013 ideas • debate • opinion CONTENTS FEATURES: 3 Over-Regulation is Stifling Australia’s Media 43 Target 30: Reducing the Burden for Future Generations Ian Robertson Simon Cowan The current regulatory framework is broken, with poor prospects for reform. A campaign to reduce government spending below 30% of GDP within the next 10 years 8 Moochers Making Movies: Government Assistance to the Film Industry Gene Tunny INTERVIEW Governments should not chase the overseas film production dollar. 46 The Armchair Economist Steven Landsburg, author of The Armchair Economist, 16 Why Economists Succeed (or Fail) to Influence talks about making economics accessible to a general Policy audience. Peter Shergold Research findings get lost in translation between 53 Security in Sri Lanka academia and public administration. Dayan Jayatilleka speaks to Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe about the security situation in Sri Lanka. 21 How Economists Succeed (and Fail) to Influence Policy Stephen Kirchner BOOK REVIEWS Can economists do well and do good?. 57 The Modest Member: The Life and Times of 25 The Tribes that Hire the PhD Bert Kelly Dan Klein By Hal Colebatch Academic hiring perpetuates ideological outlooks. Reviewed by Stephen Kirchner 28 James Buchanan: An Assessment 58 Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment: A New Geoffrey Brennan Approach to the Firm Buchanan taught us to focus on the rules of the By Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein game. Reviewed by Barry Maley 34 Crony Capitalism Adam Creighton 61 The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression The Tea Party and Occupy movements can find common ground in opposing crony capitalism. By Angus Burgin Reviewed by Brian Doherty 39 Liberating Aboriginal People from Violence Stephanie Jarrett 63 Redefining the Poverty Debate: Why a War on Stephanie Jarrett on the event that motivated her to Markets is No Substitute for a War on Poverty research and write about violence against Aboriginal By Kristian Niemietz women. Reviewed by Andrew Baker POLICY staff Editor-in-Chief & Publisher: Greg Lindsay Editor: Stephen Kirchner Assistant Editor: Mangai Pitchai Design & Production: Ryan Acosta Subscriptions: Kerri Evans and Alicia Kinsey We are pleased to announce that Dr Stephen Kirchner is taking over as the Editor of Policy magazine. Dr Kirchner is well known to Policy Policy Magazine readers, having been a frequent contributor over many years. He is also Ph: +61 2 9438 4377 • Fax: +61 2 9439 7310 known to many through his Institutional Economics blog and op-ed Email: [email protected] contributions to The Australian and the Australian Financial Review. He is ISSN: 1032 6634 ideally suited to the role and we eagerly await his first edition. Please address all advertising enquiries and correspondence to: Dr Kirchner is Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies The Editor and a former Senior Lecturer in the School of Finance and Economics, Policy University of Technology Sydney Business School He has worked as a PO Box 92 St Leonards NSW 1590 Australia financial market economist with Action Economics LLC and was Director of Economic Research with Standard & Poor’s Institutional Market © 2013 The Centre for Independent Studies Limited Services, based in Sydney and Singapore. He has also worked as an Level 4, 38 Oxley Street, St Leonards, NSW adviser to members of the Australian House of Representatives and ABN 15 001 495 012 Senate. He has published in leading academic journals, including Public Cover images: © Ambro10, Hocusfocus | Dreamstime.com Choice and the Australian Economic Review. Printed by Ligare Pty Ltd Distributed by Gordon & Gotch Australia Dr Kirchner holds a BA (Hons) from the Australian National University, and Gordon & Gotch New Zealand. a Master of Economics (Hons) from Macquarie University, and a PhD in The Editor welcomes unsolicited submissions. All full-length economics from the University of New South Wales. articles (other than reproductions) are subject to a refereeing process. Permission to reproduce articles may be given upon With the new editor, there will be a number of initiatives designed to application to the Editor. enhance future issues of Policy. Editorial Advisory Council In addition to the existing print edition, the Winter 2013 issue of Policy Professor James Allan, Professor Ray Ball, includes a new digital edition that will be accessible on the web and a Professor Jeff Bennett, Professor Geoffrey Brennan, Professor Lauchlan Chipman, Professor Kenneth wide range of tablet and other devices The digital edition will be fully Clements, Professor Sinclair Davidson, Professor searchable and better integrated with social media. It will also enable an David Emanuel, Professor Ian Harper, Professor Helen Hughes, Professor Wolfgang Kasper, Professor improved digital archive of back issues. The digital edition will replace Chandran Kukathas, Professor Tony Makin, Professor the current emailed pdf for online-only subscribers, but will also be Kenneth Minogue, Professor R.R. Officer, Professor Suri available to other subscribers. CIS will be in touch with subscribers in Ratnapala, Professor David Robertson, Professor Razeen Sally, Professor Steven Schwartz, Professor Judith Sloan, the near future with a sample edition. The new digital edition will improve Professor Peter Swan, Professor Geoffrey de Q. Walker. the reader experience and make Policy more accessible to a wider range Policy is a quarterly publication of The Centre for of readers. Independent Studies in Australia and New Zealand. Views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect Policy is open to feature articles, interviews, review essays and book the views of the Centre’s staff, advisers, directors, or officers. reviews covering a wide range of policy issues and ideas from any disciplinary perspective. Feel free to get in touch with Stephen to discuss POLICY is a publication of any ideas you may have at [email protected]. We are also open to The Centre For Independent Studies. inquiries from potential advertisers. The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) is Australia’s leading independent public policy institute. Its major Contributor deadlines are as follows: concern is with the principles and institutions underlying a free and open society. Spring 2013: 30 July CIS believes in: Summer 2013–14: 30 October • individual liberty and choice, including freedoms of association, religion, speech, and the right to property Further information for contributors and subscribers can be found at • an economy based on free markets www.policymagazine.com. • democratic government and the rule of law • the importance of an autonomous and free civil society CIS promotes its vision by fostering public debate about major social, constitutional, and economic issues. Policy has been the flagship publication for the CIS for many years, To remain independent of government influence on and we look forward to your company as we continue our tradition of its activities and direction, the Centre relies on untied exploring ideas and public policy challenges from a classical liberal contributions from individuals, companies, and charitable trusts, and income from the sale of its publications. perspective. Greg Lindsay For information on CIS membership, Policy Executive Director subscriptions, and other CIS publications and events, please visit our website at www.cis.org.au or: The Centre for Independent Studies ph: +61 2 9438 4377 • fax: +61 2 9439 7310 email: [email protected] FEATURE OVER-REGULATION IS STIFLING AUSTRALIA’S MEDIA The current regulatory framework is broken, with poor prospects for reform, argues Ian Robertson hen the Broadcasting Services the 55 legislative concepts that form the basis of Act (BSA), which regulates current Australian media regulation and found broadcasting and online services the majority to be either ‘broken or under in Australia, was passed by significant strain.’ ParliamentW in 1992 it totalled fewer than 100 pages. Today it is 10 times that length. The Convergence Review The BSA was intended to be a significant In December 2010, Minister for Communications departure from the previous regime of detailed Stephen Conroy announced the Convergence and complex black letter law and an adversarial Review. At the time of releasing the terms of approach to regulation and enforcement. The reference for the review he said: ‘The government Act aimed to substantially free up broadcasting recognises that regulatory measures designed in regulation in Australia with a much lighter touch the 1980s may not be the most appropriate for approach, and an emphasis on co-regulation and the 21st century.’ appropriate flexibility to meet ever-changing The Convergence Review Committee was circumstances. And for a while it did. established in early 2011 with Glen Boreham, However, regular complex amendments to a former managing director of IBM Australia the BSA in the 20 years since have significantly and current chair of Screen Australia, as its chair. increased its length and made parts of it similar The terms of reference for the review covered a to income tax law in the complexity of their broad range of issues, including media ownership provisions. Much of this complexity stems from laws, media content the BSA’s underlying principles of strong standards, local content restrictions on ownership and control, and rules, and the allocation extensive anti-avoidance provisions to prevent of radiocommunications them from being circumvented. Other restrictions spectrum. in the BSA are intended to stifle competition. The review set out The very detailed provisions restricting the on a deregulatory path activities of datacasters are an example—they have operated effectively to ensure that datacasting has not occurred in Australia. And the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), which is the regulator Ian Robertson heads the media, responsible for the BSA and 25 other Acts and entertainment and communications 523 pieces of regulation that regulate much of practice of Holding Redlich, and Australia’s media, itself recognises that the current was from 1997 to 2004 a part-time media regulatory model is substantially flawed.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • When: Friday, February 5Th 2016 Where: Florida State University's
    When: Friday, February 5th 2016 Where: Florida State University’s campus Union Room 315, (3rd floor of Oglesby Union) Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1640 For Whom: College and High School Instructors of Principles of Economics The Gus A. Stavros Centers for Economic Education of Florida State University and the University of South Florida invite you to participate in the 12th annual workshop on the teaching of introductory economics at the college and high school levels. The workshop will kick off with a welcoming reception on Thursday, February 4th from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM at the FSU Stavros Center for Economic Education located at 250 S. Woodward Avenue. The workshop presentations on teaching ideas and other innovations in economic education will begin Friday, February 5th in Union Room 315. This year’s workshop will feature presentations by several leaders on the front lines of economic education, including Patrick Walsh (St. Michael’s College), Steven Landsburg (University of Rochester), and Daniel Winchester (Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University). Registration Information The registration fee for the workshop is $60. This fee covers the workshop, meals, and all related activities. We recommend that the $60 registration fee be paid by either check or money order (made out to FSU) and sent to the Center for Professional Development; 555 West Pensacola Street; Tallahassee, Florida 32306-1640. If you pay via credit card, you will be charged a processing fee. The credit card fee is beyond our control, which is why we want to make you aware of it. Below is a link you can use to register for the conference online: https://usi.capd.fsu.edu/emc00/register.aspx?OrgCode=10&EvtID=14509&AppCode=REG&CC=115102 903651 Hotel Information In February, state legislative committees will be meeting in Tallahassee.
    [Show full text]
  • X2236 Office Hours: Office Hours: Tu 1:30-3:30 W 10-Noon and by App’T
    Jon Bakija Jim Mahon Schapiro 330 Schapiro 337 office: x2325 office: x2236 Office hours: Office hours: Tu 1:30-3:30 W 10-noon and by app’t. and by app’t [email protected] [email protected] POLITICAL ECONOMY 250 ECONOMIC LIBERALISM AND ITS CRITICS Fall 2016 Economic liberalism holds that society is better off if people enjoy economic freedom. Its critics point to what they believe this position ignores or what it wrongly assumes, and hence, how it would make bad policy. This course explores the relationship between politics and economics by surveying influential works of political economy. Its first part examines major thinkers in relation to the historical development of capitalism in Western Europe and the United States: the classical liberalism of Adam Smith, Karl Marx's revolutionary socialism, and the reformist ideas of John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes. The second part considers mid-20th-century writers who revise and critique economic liberalism from a variety of perspectives, including Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, Arthur Okun, and Albert O. Hirschman. The third part surveys significant recent contributions relevant to the themes of the course, with applications to current public policy issues, including topics such as: power relations and autonomy in the workplace; asymmetric information and social insurance; economic inequality and distributive justice; equality of opportunity; the economics of health care; positional goods and the moral foundations of capitalism; intergenerational equity and climate change; economic nationalism and new trade theory; behavioral economics; finance and financial crises; and rent-seeking. The combination of the historical focus of the early part of the course with discussion of modern policy issues and debates in the latter part of the course permits you to appreciate the ongoing dialogue between classical and contemporary views of political economy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Essential MILTON FRIEDMAN FRIEDMAN
    The Essential MILTON The Essential MILTON FRIEDMAN FRIEDMAN Milton Friedman was one of the most influential economists The Essential of all time. He revolutionized the way economists think about consumption, about money, about stabilization policy, and about unemployment. He demonstrated the power of committing oneself to a few simple assumptions about human behaviour and then relentlessly pursuing their logical implications. He developed and taught new ways of interpreting data, testing his theories by their MILTON ability to explain multiple disparate phenomena. His successes were spectacular and his techniques were widely emulated. But Friedman’s influence extended beyond economists. To the public at large, he was the world’s foremost advocate for economic and FRIEDMAN personal freedom. In the United States, he helped to end the military draft, to broaden educational choice, and to change the regulatory climate. Worldwide, almost all central banks now follow policies that are grounded in Friedman’s insights and recommendations. This book briefly summarizes Friedman’s extraordinary contributions to economic theory, Landsburg Steven economic practice, economic policy, and economic literacy. 978-0-88975-542-0 by Steven Landsburg The Essential Milton Friedman by Steven E. Landsburg Fraser Institute www.fraserinstitute.org Copyright © by the Fraser Institute. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Th e author of this publication has worked independently and opinions expressed by him are, therefore, his own, and do not necessarily refl ect the opinions of the Fraser Institute or its supporters, directors, or staff .
    [Show full text]
  • The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (Princeton University Press, 2007)
    No. 594 May 29, 2007 The Myth of the Rational Voter Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies by Bryan Caplan Executive Summary In theory, democracy is a bulwark against greed and the public interest. I call this anti-mar- socially harmful policies. In practice, however, ket bias. They underestimate the benefits of democracies frequently adopt and maintain poli- interaction with foreigners. I call this anti-foreign cies that are damaging. How can this paradox be bias. They equate prosperity not with produc- explained? tion, but with employment. I call this make-work The influence of special interests and voter bias. Finally, they are overly prone to think that ignorance are two leading explanations. I offer economic conditions are bad and getting worse. an alternative story of how and why democracy I call this pessimistic bias. fails. The central idea is that voters are worse In the minds of many, Winston Churchill’s than ignorant; they are, in a word, irrational—and famous aphorism cuts the conversation short: they vote accordingly. Despite their lack of “Democracy is the worst form of government, knowledge, voters are not humble agnostics; except all those other forms that have been tried instead, they confidently embrace a long list of from time to time.” But this saying overlooks the misconceptions. fact that governments vary in scope as well as Economic policy is the primary activity of the form. In democracies the main alternative to modern state. And if there is one thing that the majority rule is not dictatorship, but markets. A public deeply misunderstands, it is economics.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Issue (PDF)
    • 1 THE Freeman From the President 2 Principles Must Come Before Politics by Richard M. Ebeling Columns 4 Perspective ~ Why Cut Taxes? by Sheldon Richman 6 Inflation Is a "Phantom Menace"? It Just Ain't So! by Gene Callahan 15 Ideas and Consequences ~ Growing Up Means Resisting the Statist Impulse by Lawrence W. Reed 27 The Therapeutic State ~ The Therapeutic Temptation by Thomas Szasz 38 Our Economic Past ~ Always Think of Incentives by Stephen Davies 47 The Pursuit of Happiness ~ We Need Multimedia Economics Teaching by Russell Roberts Pdge 38 Features 8 Are CEOs Paid Too Much? by Robert P. Murphy 13 Export-Led Recovery, Multipliers, and Other Fanciful Notions by Christopher Lingle 17 The Anatomy of Economic Advice, Part III by Israel M. Kirzner 23 Mandating Renewable Energy: It's Not Easy Being Green by Michael Heberling 29 What Is Going on in France? by Pierre Garello 34 Chernobyl in Perspective by Jim Peron 40 FEE Timely Classic ~ Government in Business by Murray Rothbard Page 23 Book Reviews 42 Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-First Century by Deepak Lai Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling 43 Laws of Fear fcv-.yn^ i^sh^i. by Cass Sunstein Reviewed by Donald J. Boudreaux ' 44 Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves by Adam Hochschild Reviewed by Becky Akers 45 Why Men Earn More by Warren Farrell Reviewed by George C. Leef Page 42 From the President Principles Must Come Before Politics BY RICHARD M. EBELING e live in a time of quick fixes and patent political officeholders, talk about democracy means medicines.
    [Show full text]
  • The MYTH of the RATIONAL VOTER
    The MYTH of the RATIONAL VOTER BRYAN CAPLAN THE MYTH OF THE RATIONAL VOTER THE MYTH OF THE RATIONAL VOTER WHY DEMOCRACIES CHOOSE BAD POLICIES B r y a n C a p l a n PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD Copyright © 2006 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 3 Market Place, Woodstock, Oxfordshire 0X20 1SY All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Caplan, Bryan Douglas, 1971- The myth of the rational voter : why democracies choose bad policies / Bryan Caplan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-691-12942-6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-691-12942-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Economic policy. 2. Democracy. 3. Political sociology. 4. Representative government and representation. 5. Rationalism. I. Title. HD87.C36 2006 320.6—dc22 2006030855 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Utopia Printed on acid-free paper. °o press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 10 987654321 The serious fact is that the bulk of the really important things economics has to teach are things that people would see for themselves if they were willing to see. —Frank Knight, “The Role of Principles in Economics and Politics” I have often wondered why economists, with these absurd­ ities all around them, so easily adopt the view that men act rationally This may be because they study an eco­ nomic system in which the discipline of the market en­ sures that, in a business setting, decisions are more or less rational.
    [Show full text]
  • Economics Diploma Ceremony
    UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER ECONOMICS DIPLOMA CEREMONY FRIDAY, MAY FIFTEENTH TWO THOUSAND TWENTY 2020 Department of Economics Diploma Ceremony History University of Rochester Department of Economics The Department of Economics at the University of Rochester was re-established in 1957 under the leadership of Professor Lionel McKenzie who became its first chairman. Since its inception, the Department has come to be considered one of the world’s leading places to study modern economics. Over the years, department faculty and graduates have distinguished themselves in numerous ways, including: multiple memberships in the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, editorship of numerous journals, countless professional publications, and one PhD graduate, and two former faculty members going on to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. Today, faculty and students continue to come to Rochester from around the world, making Rochester a truly global department. The Department’s Undergraduate Program is one of the most popular in the College, typically graduating over 120 students annually. Our students now have the choice to major in either Economics or Financial Economics, while students in other majors often choose Economics to fulfill their cluster requirements. We are proud of our tradition that the entire faculty is involved in our undergraduate program, with full-time faculty teaching virtually all our curriculum. Our curriculum provides student with a common core of analytic courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics and statistics. Students then specialize in areas of interest, choosing electives ranging from public finance to econometrics, money and banking to sports economics, and so forth. Most importantly, our students leave prepared to think analytically.
    [Show full text]
  • An Interstate Compact to End the Economic Development Subsidy Arms Race Michael D
    An Interstate Compact to End the Economic Development Subsidy Arms Race Michael D. Farren and Matthew D. Mitchell MERCATUS RESEARCH Michael D. Farren and Matthew D. Mitchell. “An Interstate Compact to End the Economic Development Subsidy Arms Race.” Mercatus Research, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Arlington, VA, July 2020. ABSTRACT Targeted economic development subsidies do not work as advertised. In fact, the balance of economic theory and empirical evidence suggests that they are more likely to undermine development than to enhance it. Yet policymakers face strong incentives to continue to offer subsidies. Because subsidies are economi- cally costly but politically valuable, they create a situation similar to a prisoner’s dilemma. An interstate compact offers a solution by changing the political pay- offs. Importantly, interstate compacts enable policymakers to credibly commit to ending what many already see as a race to the bottom. Ending the mutually destructive subsidy war would allow state and local governments to repurpose up to $95 billion annually to tax relief and other projects with better payoffs. JEL codes: H2, H7, O2, O4 Keywords: economic development, economic growth, public finance, subsidies, subsidy in kind, tax benefits, state government, local government, expenditures, intergovernmental relations, institutions and growth, regional development © 2020 by Michael D. Farren, Matthew D. Mitchell, and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University This paper can be accessed at https://www.mercatus.org/publications /corporate-welfare/-interstate-compact-end-economic-development -subsidy-arms-race. The views expressed in Mercatus Research are the authors’ and do not represent official positions of the Mercatus Center or George Mason University.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 a Version of This Paper Was Later
    1 A version of this paper was later published in Advances in Austrian Economics (David Emamuel Andersson, ed.) SPONTANEOUS CITIES Peter Gordon University of Southern California ABSTRACT Spontaneous orders are all around us. These have been defined as resulting from human action rather than human design. Prominent examples include language, the common law, the scientific process, the various applications of the internet, and the market economy – all of them important contributors to our wealth and welfare. Yet we are also surrounded by objects that are products of human design. The list is too long and too obvious to enumerate. In this essay, I will claim that cities are spontaneous orders. The theory has been well developed by Webster and Lai (2003) while the intuitions had been articulated by Jacobs in 1961. I will discuss two challenges to this view: (1) considerable and numerous human design elements make up the city; and (2) there are schools of thought that maintain that cities are or should be all about human design. So in thinking about cities, what is the logical division of labor between spontaneous order and human design? Given the dispersed nature of specialized knowledge and discarding the unrealistic idea of idealized and all-knowing master planners, learning via trial-and- error experimentation and discovery is essential. This is most likely to occur at any scale for which private ownership is possible. 2 “Their intricate order – a manifestation of the freedom of countless numbers of people to make and carry out countless plans – is in many ways a wonder.” Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities I.
    [Show full text]
  • Mar 29, 2012 Issue 8
    C AMPUS TIMES VOLUME 139, NUMBER 8 Serving the University of Rochester community since 1873 THURSDAY , MAR C H 29, 2012 Administration shifts course, Words with Alec: Baldwin set for D-Day planned for a Monday commencement BY KAIT HOLDEN BY JULIA SKLAR cause the school is at constant SP ORTS EDITOR PRESENTATION EDITOR risk of losing the library’s Serious concerns over stu- The University announced beloved tower to a plane crash, dent responses to the initial in a statement on Tuesday, airplane safety is a matter of Dandelion Day date change M a r c h 2 7 t h a t t h i s y e a r ’s c om - utmost importance for the have led administrators, who mencement speaker will be University. moved the day to a Friday, r e now ne d a c t or A le c B a ldw i n , UR President Joel Selig- after weeks of negotiations, despite a controversy this year man, on the other hand, did to rethink their decision and s u r r o u nd i n g a We g m a n s c om - not seem to be bothered by the move the date to Monday, mercial he starred in. idea of having Baldwin speak April 30. The commercial — aired as at the University’s 162nd “Monday is a great alterna- a holiday special — was pulled commencement ceremony tive to Friday,” Dean of the prematurely in response to an on May 20. College Richard Feldman said. unrelated incident involving “I just fucking love Weg- “Students are more likely to be Baldwin being kicked off of an mans,” he said.
    [Show full text]
  • Landsburg on Limbaugh Incites Dialogue at UR
    The Campus Times will be on hiatus until March 29. Be sure to visit us at www.campustimes.org for periodic updates! C AMPUS TIMES VOLUME 139, NUMBER 7 Serving the University of Rochester community since 1873 THURSDAY , MAR C H 8, 2012 Landsburg on Limbaugh Admissions releases video incites dialogue at UR to remember oUR name BY LEAH BULETTI three days last week, saying in the wake of Limbaugh’s NEWS EDITOR in one instance that Fluke personal attack. UR President Joel Selig- was “having sex so frequently President Obama also man issued a statement that she can’t afford all the thanked Fluke for her public on Wednesday, March 7 birth-control pills that she backing of his regulations condemning the remarks needs.” mandating contraception of UR economics professor Limbaugh garnered cre- coverage, the latest develop- Steven Landsburg, who, dence for his remarks from ment in what has increas- in a blog post on Friday, Fluke’s testimony, in which ingly become a raging politi- March 2, incited discussion she said that Georgetown cal furor. about the inflammatory students spend $1,000 per Prior to Limbaugh’s comments Rush Limbaugh year on contraception, im- apology, Landsburg deemed made about Georgetown plying, he said, that Fluke Limbaugh’s remarks a Law student Sandra Fluke is having sex more than five “requisite mockery” and and the national debate on times per day. his choice to label her a birth control. Limbaugh apologized for slut because of her support Fluke testified before con- his remarks, saying in a post for free campus contracep- gressional Democrats that on his website on Saturday, tives a “spot-on analogy” she wanted her college health March 3 that he “chose the in the first of three blog COURTESY OF RO C HESTER .EDU plan to cover birth control, wrong words in my analogy posts on the topic, the Ur’s Office ofa dmissions and Financial aid launched a music video on Wednesday, which prompted Limbaugh to of the situation.” His apology first published on Friday, March 7 to instill pride in prospective and current students and University alumni.
    [Show full text]
  • Book, and for a More Thorough, Critical Discussion, See Shaun Ha
    Notes 1 The Problems with Traditional Economic Models of Choice 1 . For the basics of this model, see any microeconomics text- book, and for a more thorough, critical discussion, see Shaun Hargreaves Heap, Martin Hollis, Bruce Lyons, Robert Sugden, and Albert Weale, The Theory of Choice: A Critical Guide (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992). There are also many popular books, such as Steven L ev itt a nd Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics (New York: Harper, 2005) and Steven Landsburg’s The Armchair Economist (rev. ed.; New York: Free Press, 2012), which mas- terfully illustrate the insights of this model when applied to many puzzles of everyday life. 2 . Commitment was introduced into the economics discussion by economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, who won the Nobel Prize for his integration of philosophical concepts into economic analysis. See his paper “Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory” in his collection Choice, Welfare and Measurement (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982), pp. 84–106. I also strongly recommend his short but powerful book On Ethics & Economics (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987) for an introduction to incorporating ethics into economics and the challenges it pres- ents. His work was a tremendous influence and inspiration for my own efforts in the field of ethics-and-economics, including the book you’re holding now (and this chapter in particular). 3 . On the issue of modeling moral principles as preferences or constraints, see Robert S. Goldfarb and William B. Griffith chapters “Amending the Economist’s ‘Rational Egoist’ Model to Include Moral Values and Norms, Part 1: The Problem” and “Amending the Economist’s ‘Rational Egoist’ Model to Include Moral Values and Norms, Part 2: Alternative 152 NOTES Solutions” in Kenneth J.
    [Show full text]