Contemporary political discourse is dominated by economic terminology. Candidates run on platforms that emphasize “jobs, jobs, jobs,” and sitting representatives (and presidents) justify their policies through references to GDP growth. There is simply no way to approach politics without grappling with this stuff. Yet even as it takes on an outsized role in the formulation of Continue Reading …
Episode 123: Economics with Hayek and Sen (Intro by Seth Benzell)
On F.A. Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society" (1945) and Amartya Sen's On Ethics and Economics (1987). Is economics a pseudoscience? Certainly, trying to model a phenomenon mathematically and so predict, for example, the consequences of proposed legislation is better than acting blindly, but given the complexity of the system, are the simplifications required to create a Continue Reading …
Topic for #123: F.A. Hayek and Amartya Sen on Assumptions of Economics
On 8/17/15, Mark, Seth, and Wes were joined by Boston University economics grad student and long-time PEL fan Seth Benzell to talk about two texts: “The Use of Knowledge in Society” by F.A. Hayek (1945) and On Ethics and Economics by Amartya Sen (1987). Go listen to Seth Benzell's introduction for a straight-up summary of the two essays and how they relate. Seth Paskin Continue Reading …