Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Month: November 2015

  • Did Money Evolve? You Might (Not) Be Surprised

    You probably won’t be surprised to know that exchange, trade, reciprocity, tit for tat, and associated notions of “fairness” and “just deserts” have deep roots in humans’ evolutionary origins. We see expressions of these traits in capuchin monkeys and chimps (researchers created a “cash economy” where chimps were trained to exchange inedible tokens for food,…

  • Why Tyler Cowen Doesn’t Understand the Economy: It’s the Debt, Stupid

    In a recent post Tyler Cowen makes an admirable effort to lay out his overarching approach to thinking about macroeconomics, revealing the assumptions underlying his understanding of how economies work. (Even more salutary, this has prompted others to do likewise: Nick Rowe, Ryan Avent.) Cowen’s first assertion: In world history, 99% of all business cycles are real business…

  • Wait: Maybe Europeans are as Rich as Americans

    I’ve pointed out multiple times that despite Europe’s big, supposedly growth-strangling governments, Europe and the U.S. have grown at the same rate over the last 45 years. Here’s the latest data from the OECD, through 2014 (click for larger): And here’s the spreadsheet. Have your way with it. More discussion and explanation in a previous…

  • Why Prosperity Requires a Welfare State

    I’ve got a new post up at a new site, Evonomics Magazine (“The next evolution of economics”). It’s an impressive offshoot with some great articles, assembled by folks involved with The Evolution Institute, which I’m a big booster for. My readers here will find much familiar in the post, but I’m happy with how it…