The Vegetarian Mandate

On October 31st I wrote: It’s so simple, just find a big ‘social problem’ with dozens, or hundreds, of different causes and impose a single 2,000 page solution. I don’t know why we didn’t think of this approach to solve the obesity epidemic. We’ll just put nutrition labels on candy machines, ban soft drinks over… Continue reading The Vegetarian Mandate

Lobbyists

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s recent rant about lobbyists in the Trump transition team (just before they were all sent packing) brings me once again to editor David Rotman’s MIT Technology Review article Capitalism Behaving Badly. Specifically this: [W]e should admit that markets are created and shaped by government policies, including government support of innovation. If we… Continue reading Lobbyists

What has government done to you lately?

…would be a better headline. What’s Government Done For You Lately? Here is the core error of the 20th century: the belief that government can accomplish anything with enough intelligence, resources, and power. It afflicted regimes all over the world from Lenin’s 100 years ago to Obama’s today (and this will also be true of… Continue reading What has government done to you lately?

Stick to your knitting

I keep thinking about the MIT Technology Review article mentioned in my previous post. Editor of Technology Review David Rotman strays into territory far removed from his magazine’s titular mission by reviewing Rethinking Capitalism: A series of essays by authors including Joseph Stiglitz, an economist at Columbia University who won a Nobel Prize in 2001,… Continue reading Stick to your knitting

Corporatism behaving predictably

You would be disappointed if you expected a publication called MIT Technology Review would eschew half baked, agenda driven articles about economics. The MIT School of Economics needs to give some remedial instruction to David Rotman, Editor of Technology Review. In a recent article, Capitalism Behaving Badly, he reviews Rethinking Capitalism, A series of essays… Continue reading Corporatism behaving predictably