A Global Human Capital Index
Finding ways for people to be healthier and better-educated is both a useful goal in itself, and also an investment that increases future economic production. When I find myself worrying, as one does, that the world is falling to pieces, it's useful to remember basic facts:
- 12/01/2019
- 5
Daniel Kahneman: "People Don't Want to be Happy"
The great utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham famously argued that "it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." This principle was revolutionary in its own way. It treated people as equal. It did not emphasize the happiness of one gender over another, or one race or religion over another, or the happiness of nobles over commoners. It gave consideration to the happiness of the poor, prisoners and slaves. But it also opened up a number of deeper questions, like what actually makes people happy.
- 11/01/2019
- 6
Indonesia Rising
Everyone knows the two countries in the world with the largest populations: China and India. But what countries are next on the list? The United States is third, with 331 million people. And fourth in total population is Indonesia, with 265 million people. When it comes to total size of economy, Indonesia is now about 9th, similar to UK and France (using the purchasing power parity exchange rate). By 2050, Indonesia could also be the fourth-largest economy in the world, behind China, India, and the United States.
- 11/01/2019
- 7
Some Economics of Gun Regulation
When it comes to regulate gun ownership, the ratio of confident predictions to actual research evidence can be distressingly high. A substantial report from the RAND think tank, which I wrote about last spring, spells out this theme in some detail ("The Distressingly Weak Lessons of Research on Gun Control", March 12, 2018). The Regulatory Review, A Publication of the Penn Program on Regulation, has entered the fray with a series of nine short essays on "Bringing Expertise to the Gun Debate." which ran from November 5-15, 2018. Here are some points that caught my eye:
- 08/01/2019
- 5
When Alan Greenspan Worried about Overly Large Budget Surpluses
There was a time, less than 20 years ago, when a major concern for the US government was how it would deal with the problems of paying off all government debt, which was projected to happen by about 2010. Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, made it a major point in his "Outlook for the federal budget and implications for fiscal policy" when he testified before the US Senate Budget Committee on January 25, 2001.
- 08/01/2019
- 7
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