While investment in Mexico and China draws the president-elect’s ire, most of the foreign affiliates are located in other high-income, high-standard countries, accounting for three quarters of the affiliate value added. What attracts U.S. investment is not primarily low wages but wealthy customers, skilled workers, free movement of goods and money across borders, the rule of law and political stability. U.S. majority-owned affiliates employ twice as many workers in Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia as they do in Mexico and China.
David Henderson is rightly unimpressed with Alan Blinder’s recent popular article.
Jim Dorn reflects on the dangers of giving the state a monopoly over the supply of money.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb scorchingly criticizes intellectuals with no skin in the games that they subject others to. (HT Tyler Cowen) A slice:
Typically, the IYI [Intellectual Yet Idiot] get the first order logic right, but not second-order (or higher) effects making him totally incompetent in complex domains. In the comfort of his suburban home with 2-car garage, he advocated the “removal” of Gadhafi because he was “a dictator”, not realizing that removals have consequences (recall that he has no skin in the game and doesn’t pay for results).
Mark Perry applauds Thomas Sowell upon the latter’s retirement from regular column-writing.
The late Ralph Raico writes about the great Wilhelm von Humboldt.
