Why Trump Will Be a Good Force for Liberty

Back in June 2016 when most of my libertarian friends were mistakenly celebrating Brexit, I opposed them with the following very simple argument: The European Union has, on net, been a force for freedom and free trade, and against state abuse of power, taxation and money printing (David Howden & Huerta de Soto are among the famous Austrians pointing to this). Leaving the Union is likely to bring back the monetary and fiscal nationalism, beggar-thy-neighbour policies and protectionism Europe's history has been filled with for the last century or so. Ironically, libertarians who are used to spotting Nirvana Fallacies while debating lefties, were projecting all kinds of nirvana-like states of a post-Brexit Britain.

Economists vs. The Public

As was demonstrated in the Trump-mania, there is a mismatch between "experts/establishment" and the "general public" in many places of world: Brexit and Trump are simply the most recent and evident examples. I am very much enjoying the show, the only sane way of dealing with politics, but does this mean I buy the entire anti-establishment, stagnant-wages, manufacturing-workers-in-Pennsylvania story?

Of course not.

When the World Backfires on You

The world is fundamentally uncertain, as economists from Keynes to Mises to Knight embraced vigorously. Since then, economists and their love for mathematical precision have tended to lose this conviction. Events in the world are not, as intro-level econ courses would suggest, evenly scattered into nice well-known distributions whose proportions and features we are well aware of. It is not the case that every unknown future is reducible to quantifiable risk based on long-term, long-time averages the way insurance companies meticulously gather statistics on past events to profitably guess their future outcomes. Uncertainty isn't risk, and cannot be assumed to be.

Krugman + Trump = Love?

In the aftermath of the U.S. Election, the renewed discussions of Trump's potential fiscal stimulus made me think of an awkward bed-fellow of his. Remember how Paul Krugman, the most viscious of hypocritical high-profile pseudo-economists, has been calling for additional fiscal stimulus for years? How odd. Shouldn't he secretly approve of Trump?

Off With Their Heads!

The left's relationship with the alleged Inequality Disaster is strange to be sure. Whatever happened - inequality caused it: financial crises, stagnant economies, Trump's rise to power, rain in Glasgow or my dirty clothes. All inequality's fault. Nevermind that there's a million ways measurements can go wrong, and don't forget to faithfully chant Oxfam's mindless wealth inequality figures. The solution? Confiscatory taxes, Piketty-style, and if it doesn't work shout 'OFF WITH THEIR HEADS' and start preventing people from getting rich in the first place.

Can't Stump The Trump!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a blogger in the era of Trump must be writing about the election. But first, some caveats. I do this for mainly three reasons: 

1. Any trend or person that drives my indignant and beloved friends on the left as crazy as Trump does must be at least applauded and appreciated for his work;
2. Like many successful economists, I wanna play amateur political philosopher from time to time;
3. I see this strange dissonance among my fellow university students, who on the one hand go out of their way to convince everyone about the value of diversity and equality and different perspectives, yet they refuse to engage with the most striking differing perspective; that their worldview is narrow and thoroughly rejected by most “normal” people. By bus-drivers and factory workers and plumbers and cleaners, and especially blue-collar workers i.e. those people that ended up voting for Brexit and Trump. I wanna try to mend that misunderstanding. 

Last caveat: I can hold two thoughts in my head at once. By defending and applauding and explaining Trump’s achievements, I am by no means endorsing his idiotic economic policies or myths about free trade, globalisation or China. He’s becoming a politician, and as such I have a mountain of disdain for him already.

Life of an Econ Student Celebrates 1 Year

Here we are. Never did I thought I could fruitfully run a blog for an entire year. I was surprised that after 6 months I still had fresh ideas to blog about and commitment to actually write about them. Imagine my surprise now, having writting a hundred posts of varying quality, with another 35 unfinished ideas waiting in my beautiful Google Keep; material for good posts, like my reading lists, is growing faster than I can write them.

A year ago, I started this blog for mainly three reasons: 1) a distraction from doing things I should be doing (studying, working, cleaning the flat...), 2) in a personal style, keep in touch with people that felt extremely far away from me at the time, and 3) develop a platform to write, practice discipline and writing. I quickly stopped doing (2) since that purpose was better served in other ways. To this day, I often use Life of an Econ Student as therapy, ranting over senseless lectures, great books or impressive journal articles.

How to Strawman Mainstream Economics

I have a lot of criticism towards the very vague term 'mainstream economics' (not 'NeoClassical', guys..). Its emphasis of mathematical rigour and lack of economic history are probably the two most crucial ones. I mean, there is a reason I'm committing time and effort to the Real World Economics Society, attenting Rethinking events and the annual conference we organise at the University (Glasgow Economic Forum, March 11-12, 2017 – don't miss out!); people in these circles tend to be slightly more interested in actually discussing economic ideas than your average utility-maximising economics professor, even though this commitment means I have to put up with an above-average number of marxists. Well worth it.

Bono, Deaton and Malign Aid

Shortly after Angus Deaton was announced winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics little over a year ago, I found this review article he wrote for the Review of Austrian Economics in 2015. Pretty strange, right? To have a well-known mainstream economist publishing in the one of the two major outlets for writing in Austrian Economics.

Obviously, I decided to have a look.