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Rajiv Sethi's avatar

FYI, Glenn Loury just emailed this interesting piece:

https://reason.com/1981/12/01/the-best-book-on-general-econo/

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Brian Albrecht's avatar

Nice, I wrote about it in my post and tagged Glenn.

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Brian Albrecht's avatar

I’m not seeing a newsletter from Glenn. Do you have a link to it?

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Rajiv Sethi's avatar

It was just a private email... We communicate from time to time

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Brian Albrecht's avatar

Oh funny. I read email and I went to a Substack 🤦‍♂️

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Eric S Lipchus's avatar

Quality. I got some new reading material. Thank you

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Brian Albrecht's avatar

Enjoy!

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Nicole Grenier Ribadeneyra's avatar

I love vision of the anointed and economic facts and fallacies as well!

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Eduardus Christmas's avatar

Most recent conversation with Peter Robinson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn2gda_phAA .

93 and still sharp!

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Brian Albrecht's avatar

I watched a lot of Uncommon Knowledge with Sowell in college. Too much to admit...

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Eduardus Christmas's avatar

Sowell is a great thinker but many of his views (and facts) don't support certain narrative/ideology of today.

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Alastair's avatar

What did he say politically that’s been proven to be wrong? The man should be read across the board!

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Zack's avatar

Would you recommend reading "The Road to Serfdom" or "Knowledge and Decisions" first, given limited time for both?

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Brian Albrecht's avatar

Knowledge and Decisions. It's more directly applicable today even if both have lots of dated references

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jacob silverman's avatar

When you need to get all your information from just one person, that shows that you do not know how to think (feel free to erase this.).

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Brian Albrecht's avatar

The idea that I, someone who has been studying economics for a dozen years and wrote a PhD and a string of other papers unrelated to Sowell, only reads Sowell is silly. Yes I found a few connections out of my hundreds of thousands of words🙄

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jacob silverman's avatar

Several things here. First of all, good for you; you have accomplished a lot. Every person on earth has something they are good at. I had no idea you did that much PRIOR to moving into economics. Second: economics needs to be revealed containing a lot of very, very poor thinking. Unfortunately, you are not doing the big reveal. Third: if you are "someone who has been studying economics for a dozen years," so what? Some people studied Norse mythology for a dozen years or much more than that. That does not mean it is not ideology. Finally: Economics is a big discipline that has all sorts of ramifications and connections. I repeat my theme once again. You should not go by just a few connections out of hundreds of thousands of words. That isn't a good method, especially in a discipline where you can easily, easily get taken for a big ride. And what is the stuff about a dozen years? A dozen years is not a lot or a little; it is a dozen. Nothing more or less. Anyways no hard feelings, o kay?

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jacob silverman's avatar

"That changed at the end of my junior year when I picked up Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics. " you were tricked

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Adham Bishr's avatar

Thoughts on his other works? Particularly Vision of the Anointed and Black Rednecks, White Liberals?

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Daniel Melgar's avatar

Great article (I know that I am late to your work). My only criticism (and it’s minor) why do feel the need to mention Sowell’s syndicated column, which are his opinions (whether they be right leaning or libertarian). Let the reader decide for himself. The other point (and it’s only a comment) is that no non-economist will ever read Sowell’s earliest work, let alone know enough to discern your excellent critique of it. It comes across as self indulgent. No one criticizes Voltaire for his errors (because he was a man of his time) and so too is Thomas Sowell.

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jacob silverman's avatar

You are deceiving the world. Shame on you

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