Category Archives: Uncategorized

Constant distractions are leading to major declines in top-level reasoning. What to do?

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Till 20 year ago, IQ scores in the West increased about 3 points per decade ever since the 1920s, a phenomenon known as the “Flynn effect”. That rise in IQ test scores, which have an average of 100 and a … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Employment, Gender, History, Inequality, IT and Internet, Media, Parenting, Public and Private Goods, Science, Social, Uncategorized | 16 Comments

Expected and Unexpected Winners in the West from the covid hysteria.

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Paul Frijters

[micro-trigger alert: dark humour ahead] The top prize for economic winners in the covid hysteria goes to the pharmaceutical companies who were quickest to jump on the covid-vaccine business. They are already selling billions of unproven vaccines that will now … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

A short story by Herbert Simon

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

I’ve been dipping into Herbert Simon’s autobiography, Models of my life. He’s from an interesting time in the intellectual history of economics and the social sciences. The major contributions of his professional life began in the 1950s and, though he … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

What works: getting to the land of ‘how’: Part Three

Posted on July 3, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

The final third part of this essay – cross-posted at The Mandarin, only here with footnotes. New ways of institutionalising know-how Given governments’ evident failure in rising to the challenges of the third way, it’s not surprising that there are … Continue reading →

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The corona cost-benefit analyses of Richard Holden, Bruce Preston and Neil Bailey: ooops!

Posted on May 18, 2020 by Paul Frijters

The economic and social damage of lock downs in Australia is starting to get noticed so much that even academic economists are paying attention. After months of resisting actual data, some Australian economists who previously refused to even contemplate the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 74 Comments

The Drew Pavlou case: business with China versus the American lobby

Posted on May 10, 2020 by Paul Frijters

In a week from now, UQ student leader Drew Pavlou will face an internal hearing at the University of Queensland to decide whether or not he will be expelled for having organised rallies against various pro-China organisations on campus and … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Democracy, Indigenous, Inequality, Journalism, Law, Libertarian Musings, Politics - national, Print media, Race and indigenous, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

How the Corona narrative will flip: two predictions.

Posted on April 16, 2020 by Paul Frijters

My first prediction is an easy one: many countries are going to ease their restrictions on social isolation in the coming weeks, including many countries with an ongoing corona problem. They simply have to if they want to have any … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Democracy, Economics and public policy, Politics - international, Politics - national, Science, Social Policy, Society, Uncategorized | 83 Comments