EconTech

Seriously, I just don’t understand how this administration has gotten away with breaking as many serious laws as they have. I don’t like, but can see, politicians getting away with things like corruption, nepotism, inept wars, even false premises for war. These are all things that strike at our values of democracy. But even then, [...]

I bring up social welfare functions relatively often. There is not a whole lot written about them these days; they have serious theoretical issues; they have more serious practical issues; and yet, in my mind, it is one of the most important topics in policy oriented economics. Many have accepted the proposition that the social [...]

I’m going to have to disagree with Language Log on this one.
The difference between the diamond traders and application of Shari’a are likely to be significant. For those under the age of 18, who decides whether their ‘consent’ to Shari’a law is consensual; something unlikely to be of issue among the diamond traders. By [...]

Not exactly breaking news here. And delving into the economic numbers isn’t exactly necessary to indict Putin. But more data is always useful, so here goes. There is more, and if you have an FT subscription it is worth reading, but I don’t want FT getting mad at me for reproducing in full:
Why Putin’s rule [...]

It is unfortunate, too. There may be e-voting Luddites, but most of the objections I am aware of come from e-geeks who are generally excited about technological developments. However, these are also the people who are very aware of how badly companies can muck up software and hardware products. Not only that, some of us [...]

In some ways, I would give democracy a little bit more credit. In other ways, a little bit less.
For more credit, we could turn to Sen, his analysis of famine and democracy, and the now famous remark that ‘democracies don’t have famines.’ To some extent, this is an extension of ‘interest group politics,’ remarked on [...]

I haven’t written much about e-voting initiatives, and there is too much to be written in a single space. But a few quick thoughts before passing you on to the well-versed Stokes. Avoiding the technical issues of which I am not capable of commenting on intelligently, the economic issues in these devices and processes are [...]