Author: Brandon Christensen

Be Our Guest: “How to make Brexit Really Worthwhile – Example: Regulation dealing with Information Asymmetries”

Brandon Christensen Economics , , , , ,

Here is the latest installment of NOL‘s new “Be Our Guest” series, this one by the pseudonymous Freeconomist. An excerpt:

Third-party certification provides assurance to consumers that a product or a supplier of professional services meets certain quality standards.

Private suppliers of third-party certification include organisations such as Consumer Reports, the American Automobile Association (AAA), which rates motels, or A.M. Best, rating insurance companies. Examples of third-party certification provided by the government are product safety regulation, food standards regulation or occupational licensure.

Private suppliers of third-party certification can only exist because the product they offer is valued enough by market participants to justify the cost of providing it. And their profits are determined by their credibility.

The same cannot be said for third-party certification provided by the government.

Please, read the rest and do keep submitting your thoughts to us.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Migration in Europe? Where to start! Kapka Kassabova, Spectator
  2. Aristotle’s definition of citizenship John Hungerford, Law & Liberty
  3. Michelangelo’s definition of citizenship M Landgrave, NOL
  4. What can the Catholic Church do? John Cornwell, Financial Times

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. The dubious logic of commodification Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling
  2. The miracle of General Equilibrium Philip Pilkington, Inference
  3. Orwell’s “Notes on Nationalism,” in Barcelona Deborah Levy, New Statesman
  4. Magical maps and island utopias Rachel Cordasco, Los Angeles Review of Books

Nightcap

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  1. Kashmir: a tale of two mothers Swaran Singh, spiked
  2. Joe Biden on the bus Scott McConnell, Modern Age
  3. Assimilation is hard Nicole-Ann Lobo, Commonweal
  4. The market for neighborhoods Salim Furth, National Affairs

Nightcap

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  1. Lessons from the East Asian economic miracle Byrne Hobart, Medium
  2. Confessions of an Islamic State fighter Alexander Clapp, 1843
  3. Russia’s vanishing summerfolk Christophe Trontin, LMD
  4. Too cool for Woodstock Rick Brownell, Medium

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Yield-curve inversion and the agony of central banking David Glasner, Uneasy Money
  2. Ossian’s Ride: wild Irish science fiction I’d never heard of Henry Farrell, Crooked Timber
  3. The pioneers of cultural relativism did a lot of good, too Patrick Iber, New Republic
  4. Umberto Eco: Champion of popular culture Paul Cobley, Footnotes to Plato

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. The moral economists and the critique of capitalism Katrina Navickas, London Review of Books
  2. Can you step in the same river twice? David Egan, Aeon
  3. Don’t forget about the indigenous populations Vincent Geloso, NOL
  4. Anthropology and the problem of the archives Morgan Greeen, JHIBlog

Nightcap

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  1. Is paternalism about status? Robin Hanson, Overcoming Bias
  2. Is academia corrupt or just prone to fads? Jacques Delacroix, NOL
  3. The trade deal fetish Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling
  4. The rise of kinetic diplomacy Monica Toft, War on the Rocks

Introducing “Be Our Guest,” a new component of NOL

Brandon Christensen Comments, Current Events , , , , ,

Check out NOL‘s newest feature, a place where you can have your thoughts and arguments published in a house of decency and legitimacy. The first guest essay comes from Ben Sharvy, a teacher in Portland, on, among other things, vaccines and the lack thereof:

What’s the damage done? Cancer patients who forego conventional treatment and exclusively choose alternative medicine are 2.5 times more likely to die. Women with breast cancer fare the worst — with a 5.7 times higher death rate among those who choose only alternative therapies. Multiple studies agree, including a 2017 report from the National Cancer Institute: Alternative medicine kills.

Read the rest, and by all means, submit your own thoughts to us. Tell your friends about this project, too.

Why this feature? Mostly because of the rather high volume of submissions I have been getting lately. Many of these pieces don’t really fit in with NOL‘s overall vibe, but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth reading or putting out into the world. So, be our guest.

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. FDR’s New Deal state and segregation Colin Gordon, Jacobin
  2. Europe’s Left is rethinking multiculturalism Joel Kotkin, City Journal
  3. The hardest problem in public policy Scott Sumner, EconLog
  4. The last great American novelist (Morrison) Ross Douthat, New York Times

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Eastern Europe’s Orthodox Christians are now loathe to condemn communism Bruce Clark, Erasmus
  2. Claude Lévi-Strauss and the French aversion to ethnographic fieldwork Patrick Wilckin, Times Literary Supplement
  3. Sainthood in the Buddhist and Hindu realms of yesteryear John Butler, Asian Review of Books
  4. The crisis in American public education Rafi Eis, National Affairs

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. The economics of bubbles Goldfarb & Kirsch, Aeon
  2. Blind faith in government Scott Sumner, EconLog
  3. “Racist” is a tough little word John McWhorter, Atlantic
  4. The story of Plessy v. Ferguson Sean Scott, Law & Liberty

Nightcap

Brandon Christensen Links , , ,
  1. Assessing Sotomayor’s first ten years with SCOTUS Ilya Somin, Volokh Conspiracy
  2. A case of mistaken identity Peter Miller, Views of the Kamakura
  3. Spain’s democratic decline Raphael Garcia, Inkstick
  4. An homage to Charlemagne David Crane, Spectator

Nightcap

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  1. From “open seas” to unconstitutional warfare Grant Starrett
  2. From “open governance” to covert wars Christopher Preble, War on the Rocks
  3. What reconstruction in Syria might look like Frederick Deknatel, Los Angeles Review of Books
  4. The most dangerous man in the world James Pontuso, Claremont Review of Books

Nightcap

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  1. What the Germans are reading R Jay Magill Jr, American Interest
  2. American conservatives have an assimilation problem Shikha Dalmia, the Week
  3. The technology trap Chris Dillow, Stumbling & Mumbling
  4. It’s not China that’s bellicose, it’s the CCP Aaron Sarin, Quillette