Arnold, you can't be the most succinct writer on the internet AND the most engaging speaker. You'll have to settle for most succinct writer on the internet and second-most-prolific EconTalk guest.
Diction and regular speech are valuable assets, despite what "Talent" asserts. Tyler warning us not to overestimate these skills is a sign of the outsized influence of the spoken word in human affairs. If you value your own thoughts, you want to present them as forcefully as possible. Learning to speak clearly and well is as important as learning to write well. Many a good product has failed through over-modest packaging.
Are institutions actually imbued with reason through our collective action or are they just more rational than the individual because the individual is inherently a self fooling irrational animal, ie Elephant in the Brain? It seems that the institutions could be more rational than the people, yet still not rational if they are not subject to evolutionary processes of trial and error. Is an institution a system that is designed or emerges from a time and place with reason and because systems are designed to be gamed, or culture changes, or another change in environmental conditions it needs evolutionary updating or it will devolve into a zombie institution, or a self licking ice cream cone, or some other pejorative of failing and dysfunctional institutional structures?
Maybe the Treasury's balance sheet would look better without QE, but what other policy should the Fed have used during the 2008-2020 period when inflation was below target?
Arnold, you can't be the most succinct writer on the internet AND the most engaging speaker. You'll have to settle for most succinct writer on the internet and second-most-prolific EconTalk guest.
Diction and regular speech are valuable assets, despite what "Talent" asserts. Tyler warning us not to overestimate these skills is a sign of the outsized influence of the spoken word in human affairs. If you value your own thoughts, you want to present them as forcefully as possible. Learning to speak clearly and well is as important as learning to write well. Many a good product has failed through over-modest packaging.
The primary social insurance is that which husbands and wives provide to each other.
As government replaces husband amongst the bottom half of the income distribution, we’ve seen religion disappear amongst that group.
The other thing churches used to do was get people jobs. Nepotism if you’re a pessimist or pre screened individuals you know well if your an optimist.
As work becomes more specialized and credentialed, this matters less. Nobody at my church could help me with my career.
Bringing it together, it used to be that if you knocked the neighborhood girl up your fellow congregation got you a union card and a wedding ceremony.
Are institutions actually imbued with reason through our collective action or are they just more rational than the individual because the individual is inherently a self fooling irrational animal, ie Elephant in the Brain? It seems that the institutions could be more rational than the people, yet still not rational if they are not subject to evolutionary processes of trial and error. Is an institution a system that is designed or emerges from a time and place with reason and because systems are designed to be gamed, or culture changes, or another change in environmental conditions it needs evolutionary updating or it will devolve into a zombie institution, or a self licking ice cream cone, or some other pejorative of failing and dysfunctional institutional structures?
Maybe the Treasury's balance sheet would look better without QE, but what other policy should the Fed have used during the 2008-2020 period when inflation was below target?
The best speaker I am aware of is Sam Harris.
Could the government have issues $800b of long term debt without pushing up long term rates?
Maybe, but if not then the fed essentially hid the long term costs of treasury actions in the short run.
Wasn’t that the point? People would have had much bigger objections to pandemic spending if their mortgage rate doubled when it was happening.