Thoughts at Random

The main idea: the Left gravitates towards a Corporatist and then Socialist Oligarchy, as the Right does towards an Interventionist Autocracy run by a strong man. 0. Posts on this blog are ranked in decreasing order of likeability to myself. This entry was originally posted on 25.04.2022, and the current version may have been updated several times from its original form. 0.1 I have not read De Jouvenel (they stopped asking us to attend the office, can't fit long from unless on the way there and from) though I am aware of many “in a nutshell” versions digested by others. Further, I have not read C.A. Bond either (unavailable, though I remember the blog) and there go the two authorities on the HLvM model. If below one finds any silliness that would have been easily avoided by anyone who had read either of them, now you know how it got there.    0.2 This post is a fluff piece, containing analysis and commentary but no proposed solution to some issue. I try to keep this sort of ...

The main idea: modeling an inclined line whose angle is the interest rate and whose starting and ending points are monetary circulation volumes now and in the future explains a slew of otherwise peculiar relationships between interest rates and monetary policy.  0. Posts on this blog are ranked in decreasing order of likeability to myself. This entry was originally posted on 09.12.2021, and the current version may have been updated several times from its original form. 0.1 This post is a fluff piece, containing analysis and commentary but no proposed solution to some issue. I try to keep this sort of stuff to a minimum as commentary for commentary’s sake is not the point of this blog.   1. Setting the true risk-free interest rate 1.1 Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose the monetary authority (and it can only be the monetary authority) decides to issue consols, bonds that will pay out a set amount every month forever. It sets the price and – this is crucial – commits to...

The main idea: money can be placed in three tiers depending on whether it has or lacks neutrality and a responsive supply. 0. Posts on this blog are ranked in decreasing order of likeability to myself. This entry was originally posted on 14.01.2025, though it is a much expanded first part of my first post from September 2021. The current version may have been updated several times from its original form.  0.1 This post is a fluff piece, containing analysis and commentary but no proposed solution to some issue. I try to keep this sort of stuff to a minimum as commentary for commentary’s sake is not the point of this blog.  1.1 The economy under the division of labour is a massive and massively complex system with immense degrees of freedom. Only money, an emergent computer of comparable capability, is equal to the task of daily optimising resources such as to fulfill demand to the greatest degree possible. Money alone can run such calculations at any reasonable speed. 1.2 Thes...

The main idea: the impact on externalities on driving up the optimal size of property / political units.  0. Posts on this blog are ranked in decreasing order of likeability to myself. This entry was originally posted on 27.07.2022, and the current version may have been updated several times from its original form. 0.1 This post is a fluff piece, containing analysis and commentary but no proposed solution to some issue. I try to keep this sort of stuff to a minimum as commentary for commentary’s sake is not the point of this blog.  1 Is it the individual? In defence of zoning, or why you can’t own a piece of a city 1.1 The bane of private property owners are externalities, stuff you do where you only reap some of the benefit or bear some of the cost. Look it up. A reliable way to eliminate externalities is to internalise them, i.e. have the same owner own all bits of property affected by each-other’s externalities, at which point the owner is able to rationally calculate the ...