Publications, November

November is over – Almost Christmas! This month saw lots of work with my editing service, but I still managed to churn out some interesting stuff:

Notes On Liberty: (see all my posts here)

• [1] 'You're Not Worth My Time', where I offered some opportunity-cost thoughts on the idea that the perspectives and experiences of random people I meet are valuable. I estimated that I have some 60,000 hours left in life for curious intellectual endeavours: given that the full treasure trove of humanity's work on philosophy, economics, or literature, I simply don't think your half-drunken rant about "bankers", "inequality" or "climate change" is going to cut it. Your unique "perspective" is probably not worth my time. 
• This was read, liked, quoted and retweeted by Branko Milanovic whom I've followed and been a great admirer of since 2015. Omg, fangirling so much. 
• It was also on RealClearPolicy, which I think is a first for me (fantastic caption photo!)
• Shared on Naked Capitalism, which I think is merely the second time my work appears there (the first was my review of Collier's Future of Capitalism). Flattered! 
• Apparently, also shared on Hacker News. 
• [2] 'Intellectuals You Should Know About', a piece long in the making, where I originally just wanted to point out one or two intellectuals whose work I believe most people would benefit from – and then it spiralled out of control, ending with 11 different well-known and wonderful writers. Brandon's response was appropriate and added some people I also admire ("why didn't I think of them?!"). If you're wondering what to read for the holidays (or books to gift your loved ones), these two overview posts contain some tips. 

American Institute for Economic Research (all my pieces here)

• [3] 'The Real Reason Nobody Takes Environmental Activists Seriously', this piece has everything: fire and fury, bitterness, hypocrites – and turtles!
• Re-published at Capitalism Magazine with the great title "Climate Activism: Doublethink and Cognitive Dissonance"
• Re-published at the Australian blog Catallaxy Files. 
• Re-published at "Micronesia's leader newspaper", Marianas Variety. 
• Re-published at Center for Individualism.
• Featured and quoted on the blogs Australian Image and Green Jihad (!), both of which – let's say – seem a bit wacky...
• [4] 'What's the Difference Between Michael Burry and Alexander Fordyce?', a follow-up to 'If You Are Early, You Are Wrong' where I elaborate what I mean by *being wrong in financial markets*. I do this by comparing the famous Big Short investor Michael Burry with the very unknown Scottish 18th century investor and banker Alexander Fordyce. They both predicted similar things and put their money behind their conviction. Both were right on paper, but only one escaped hailed as a successful forecaster and investor. 
• Re-shared at RealClearMarkets, for what I think is my eight appearance on this great site. 
• Strange comment/twist by Dan Hugger. 
• [5] 'Why We Are Getting More For Less', where I review Andrew McAfee's great book More From Less. Completely contrary to common knowledge, economic growth does not rely on us extracting more and more resources from the planet. Indeed, for the past twenty years, the U.S. and UK and most European countries have decoupled their use of resources from their economic growth; our economies keep growing, but our use of materials, metals, agricultural land etc is falling. Surprise! Capitalism is not "wrecking the planet"; it's saving it. 
• [6] 'Don't Hand Over Your Money to Uncompetitive Banks', which included some anecdotal stuff on how high-street banks screw you over – not only on the up-front fees, but by using seriously uncompetitive rates when exchanging your funds into a different currency. There are solutions.
• Re-printed on WallStreetWindow, with a perfect little caricature image.  
• [7] 'The Great Redistribution: Who Benefits from Ruthless Capitalism?', a pretty cool piece where I emphasized three recent instances in which low-interest rate policies and ruthless capitalists benefits consumers – and almost exclusively consumers as these firms happily run their businesses at a loss: the much-lamented venture cap sector, with the plethora of unicorns (most of which are operated at a loss); the airline Norwegian's recent low-cost offering; and the online broker Charles Schwab's recent move to zero-commission stock trading. What these ruthlessly competitive capitalists do is handing over wealth and resources to us consumers. Thank you, kindly!
• Re-printed on Capitalism Magazine with the title "Economically Capitalism and Free Markets Best 'Distribute' The Wealth."
• Translated and published on Mises Brasil! I always sound so vicious and amazing in Portuguese: 'Como o atual capitalismo já está provocando uma grande redistribuição de renda: Todo mundo vê e sente, mas ninguém reconhece'
• Translated and published on the Slovak site Peniazoch.

• [8] 'An Unexpected Climate Hero: Equity Markets', my reading of EBRC economist Ralph De Haas and ECB economist Alexander Popov's article working paper 'Finance and Carbon Emission'. It turns out that economies financed by relatively more equity than debt are associated with lower per-capita CO2 emissions. Cheekily summarized: stock markets are climate heroes. 
• Re-published at Battleground State News. 
• Re-published at The Michigan Star and a similarly weirdo site called The Ohio Star.
• Re-published at The Minnesota Sun.

Mises Institute (see all my pieces here)

• [9] 'Why Behavioral Economics Isn't Very Useful', where I outlined two of my objections to behavioral econ: dressing up the very equation you just objected to, but added a mere variable ("inequality aversion") and drawing conclusions on universal human behavior based on artificial experiments or bait-and-switch techniques that compare apples and oranges.
• Republished at Sovereign Nations. 
• [10] 'When Nassim Taleb Channels Ludwig von Mises', another one of those Twitter-interactions that turn into an actual article; when reading Taleb I kept being reminded of Mises - the unapologetic, almost ruthlessly logical, treatment of various topics; the beautiful prose, the profound topics. Very similar. Though, I discuss instances of how Taleb is similar to Mises rather than when. 
• Shared on SNLS Network
• Translated into Spanish for Mises.org.es. 
• [11] 'Some Fundamental Differences Between Ludwig von Mises and Nassim Taleb', the necessary counterpart to [10]: Taleb is clearly not a Misesian, and the difference between them are as important as the similarities. 
• Re-published at WallStreetWindow. 
• Shared on SNLS Network. 
• Shared on the Flipboard site for Taleb. 

Finally blowing that old record number of publications/months out of the water! Yes! Let's see what December has in store.