When Suffering Is A Good Thing (Newsletter 047)
When we strive and struggle, when we push beyond our comfort zones, we learn what we can do. In contrast, we do not learn any useful limits sitting on our couches.
To the Citizens of the 2100s (from the 2020s)
You know the history, but do you know what we were thinking when the world lost its collective mind at the end of the 2020s? As someone who lived through it, I want to tell you.
The Scariest Monsters Are Well-Intentioned (Newsletter 041)
Today I will offer two current day figures who have the potential to have massive impacts on humanity going forward, one negative and one positive.
Bread and Circuses (Newsletter 035)
We often mistake advances in technology with advances in the human condition itself.
I Want It Now! (Newsletter 024)
It seems like many politicians view themselves as entertainers first, and legislators or representatives a distant second. After all, you must be popular to be elected, the thinking goes
Is Your Country A GDPaholic? (Newsletter 022)
People all over the world are telling us something about their well-being that is not being captured in measures of GDP. They are telling us this loudly and clearly if you look for the data, and policymakers are largely ignoring them.
Where Does The 2% Inflation Target Come From Anyway?
Would you rather have greater purchasing power, or "output that is close to the economy's maximum sustainable level of output"?
Aspirin Recommendations Make My Head Hurt
How could so many experts have been so wrong about something that everyone believed for decades?
Hold Fast To Truth
Holding fast to truth is not an easy path, but it is the least difficult of all other alternatives. This is a tribute to Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 1974 essay "Live Not By Lies"*
You Get What You Incentivize (Newsletter 016)
If your appetite is unlimited, no amount will ever be sufficient to satisfy your wants. No amount of tax is "fair" when there is no limit on what you aim to spend and redistribute.