We started the week with the solution to one problem from Part I of my honors exam; I still owe you answers to the remaining four questions, and I still owe you the questions from Part II. Stay tuned.
We revisited the recurring issues of anti-discrimination policy and free trade. Reader comments, particularly from the ever-thoughtful Sierra Black, made me realize something new (to me) and important: When I write about free trade, I tend to focus on “why trade is good for us” (where “us” means the United States) rather than “why trade is good for the other guys” (where “the other guys” often means developing nations). I do this because most of the anti-trade screeds I run across are written by people who think trade is bad for us. But by presenting the arguments in a one-sided context I’ve misled readers like Sierra into wondering whether they also apply to developing nations. The answer is “Yes, only more so”—while trade benefits everyone, it benefits the smallest and poorest countries the most. Sometime soon when we revisit this topic, I’ll have to make a point of elaborating on the theory and evidence behind that.
We had a little math this week, and then some more serious math, including my attempt to squeeze the entire gist of Godel’s argument into one blog post. If you want to understand how we can know that not all true statements in arithmetic can be proven, that’s the post you should read.
We closed the week with posts on the spirit of Thanksgiving and the spirit of the day after Thanksgiving. I’ll be back on Monday.
I recently found out about some good notes on Incompleteness that seem quite accessible and might be worth a read. http://twofoldgaze.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/incompleteness-from-the-properties-of-algorithms/
Dr. Landsburg,
I just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your blog. I do it in my free time. I am currently in my first year of a Ph.D. Economics program and I hope learn much about how to more clearly articulate things from this blog.
Just figured I would let you know! Hope you keep publishing such great and intriguing stuff.
Dr. Landsburg
I love your blog so far. Could you please do a piece on the skeptics of economics? I’m speaking of works like “Debunking Economics” and anything like it. I came across that book on an anarchist site that a friend shared with me (curiously, anarchists are supposed to loathe free markets). There are those who say Pricing Theory is a big lie, contrived to support free market policies. The Econ 101 chart showing the demand curve and supply curve coming together, creating a glorious triangle of consumer and producer surpluses, is a gross exaggeration (again, supposedly). The assumption of decreasing marginal costs is apparently under fire. Are you familiar with this school of thought, or is it not even worth bothering with?