Tag: Theory
A stealthy step towards abolishing income tax
The man who “laboureth much, and sparing the fruits of his labour, consumeth little” should not, Hobbes argued, pay more “than he that liveth idlely, getteth little, and spendeth all he gets”.
Economic abstractions conceal the true contours of human life
No economic model can describe “the world as it really is”.
The startling human progress that economists fail to see
The most important source of economic advance comes not from doing the same things better, but from achieving the same objective in a completely different way.
Philistines may carp but scientists should reach for the sky
Anthropology helps us understand the world, in ways that are helpful whether we are talking about the internal contradictions of communism or the pathologies of financial crises.
How big data lets us see a little further into the...
Big data can help us understand the past and the present but it can help us understand the future only to the extent that the future is, in some relevant way, contained in the present.
Economists: there is no such thing as the ‘economic approach’
Economics is not a method but a subject – one defined by the problems it sets out to tackle not the techniques it uses.
Why London homes remain affordable – it is the buyers who...
The monetary rewards attached to different occupations and social positions change from one period of history to another. The houses remain, the backgrounds of their occupants change.
Tendulkar was great – but the stats say he was not...
Cricketers as gifted as Mr Tendulkar will appear from time to time, but it is unlikely that one as skilful as Bradman will appear in the entire history of the world.
The design flaws that lead to financial explosions
Nuclear power and financial systems both have the capacity to blow up the world. Perhaps there are lessons from one for the other.
The Nobel committee is muddled on the nature of economics
Financial economics, for half a century a showpiece in economic departments, is today struggling to maintain credibility in the face of the financial instability of the past two decades.
