Michael Munger 🏖️🔪👨‍🍳

Tranquility Base here. The episode has landed. econtalk.org/the-economics-… With all best wishes to my friend @EconTalker for another....well, some years.

@StephenKarlson It's actually meaningless. That's why Coase literally refused to define TC.

@mungowitz Fair enough, but if you thought the nonconvexities of location theory were annoying, disentangle the even more abstract nonconvexities of transaction cost theories!

ECK-shually, trade theory is TRANSACTION COST theory. And transport comes under the "transfer" component of the TRIANGULATION/TRANSFER/TRUST triumvirate. But, yes. The answer is: Transaction Costs.

keeping shutting down data-centers in blue states; texas is building the future and we're housing the workers too!

.@RepEdCase: "That we even have to waive the Jones Act to try to hold down skyrocketing fuel and other energy costs is a blanket admission of the Jones Act’s crippling effects on our economy..."

Well, there aren't any errors. The claim is correct. The misspellings are distracting, but there are no actual errors in the message.

Smithian liberalism is the will to develop and improve social accountability (most fundamentally, the conscience) for the initiation of coercion. Such accountability begins with understanding what “the initiation of coercion” means. Next comes norms, institutions, rules for accountability for manifestations of the initiation of coercion: 1. between jural equals, 2. between ruler/governor and ruled/governed, 3. between governments. Number (3) involves rules for war and rules in war.

“I think he is the best coach in the history of college sport; and I will always dislike him.” - @mungowitz on Coach K econtalk.org/the-economics-…

@ECLOGITE110 Excellent point. What IS the motivation? Those folks, Ehrlich-Gretta, etc, may be lying or they may be deranged. The real question is why they are given a forum for the nonsense they spew. Yes.

@mungowitz What was their motivation to platform a charlatan? He's no different than Gretta or Mann.

This, exactly this, yes. Sure, he said some dumb stuff. Lots of people do. I hear dumb stuff at the Thanksgiving table with uncles & cousins. The difference is that news media and nighttime talk show hosts kept giving Ehrlich a stage. AND lots of people bought his argument.

Okay, now "LinkedIn gyaani" is my new favorite phrase.

Terrific piece by @profgoose We live in "Baudrillard’s prediction—world where simulation has so thoroughly replaced reality that maps generate their own territories, copies float free of originals, & the distinction between genuine & constructed collapsed into irrelevance..."

Dang. Brandon is en fuego. Yes.

Interesting piece by @Nonicoc in RATIONALITY AND SOCIETY. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10… "brings metaethical beliefs into positive theory of constitutional choice...a tractable formal account of how truth-commitment shapes optimal rules and the costs of collective organization."

It's really wonderful to see @mungowitz and other libertarians in addition to the great @Kaleidicworld exploring how Michel Foucault's critique of power intersects with public choice economics. Great piece at @liberalismorg liberalism.org/p/seeing-with-…

Ladies and gentlemen, @mungowitz has arrived at @liberalismorg. And he does not disappoint. liberalism.org/p/seeing-with-…

Artificial intelligence was supposed to be Baudrillard's prophecy fulfilled — copies with no originals, simulation all the way down. Instead it's doing something nobody expected: proving that reality pushes back. Habermas died recently. He spent his life arguing the better argument wins. Now machines can generate those arguments and knowledge at scale. New piece on what that means for a 50-year intellectual war. #AI kylesaunders.substack.com/p/reality-bats…

Shocking...WHY, exactly? It may be worrisome, and has been for some time. But far from shocking. In fact, anything ELSE would be surprising.

No president likes to lose in court. But Trump's continued public seething in response to his SCOTUS loss on tariffs is even more unseemly than usual. reason.com/2026/03/17/kav…

This is a 1000-gram iron bar. In its raw form, it’s worth around $100. If it’s turned into horseshoes, its value rises to about $250. If it’s made into sewing needles, its value jumps to roughly $70,000. If it’s crafted into watch springs and gears, it can be worth around $6 million. And if it’s transformed into precision laser components, like those used in lithography, its value can reach $15 million. Your value is not defined only by what you are made of, but by how well you shape your potential into something extraordinary.