Download: PDF | EPUB When it comes to Bitcoin, there’s one thing that almost everyone agrees on: the network sucks up a tremendous amount of energy. But from there, disagreement is the rule. For critics, Bitcoin’s thirst for energy is self-evidently bad — the equivalent of pouring gasoline in a hole and setting it on fire. But for Bitcoin advocates, the network’s energy gluttony is the necessary price of having a secure digital currency.

Download: PDF | EPUB Tech development is often portrayed as an open road — a smooth freeway of continuous progress. But the truth is that the road of technology is more like a suburban street, paved with numerous unmarked dead ends. To see one of these dead end, look at roads themselves. As a method for moving people, roads work well … until you fill them with millions of cars.

Well, another year of blogging is over. For me, it was a year of research themes. I spent the first half of 2023 debunking interest-rate orthodoxy. Then I spent the second half of the year studying the world’s billionaires. Here were the top 5 posts: Do High Interest Rates Reduce Inflation?

Download: PDF | EPUB In their book Manufacturing Consent , Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky argue that the mainstream media functions largely as a propaganda arm for the state. When the war drum beats, the corporate media tows the government’s line, censoring facts that don’t fit the official narrative. Outside of war, media bias is typically less overt. But to the careful observer, it can still be discerned.

Download: PDF | EPUB There’s an old joke that economics is too important to be left to economists. In the same vein, I think rich people are too important to be left to the self-help industry. Yes, the popular appeal of you-can-get-rich-too books is obvious. But what’s not obvious is why so few social scientists study wealth. ¹ Clearly, the public thirsts for serious inquiries about the rich.

{.attachment-thumbnail .size-thumbnail .wp-post-image width=“150” height=“150” decoding=“async” loading=“lazy” srcset=“https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/money_yacht.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/money_yacht.png?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1 600w,

{.attachment-thumbnail .size-thumbnail .wp-post-image width=“150” height=“150” decoding=“async” loading=“lazy” srcset=“https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/gatsby_cover.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/gatsby_cover.png?resize=1200%2C1200&ssl=1 1200w,

{.attachment-thumbnail .size-thumbnail .wp-post-image width=“150” height=“150” decoding=“async” loading=“lazy” srcset=“https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/forbes400_fade.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/forbes400_fade.png?resize=1200%2C1200&ssl=1 1200w,

{.attachment-thumbnail .size-thumbnail .wp-post-image width=“150” height=“150” decoding=“async” loading=“lazy” srcset=“https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/counting_billionaires.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 150w, https://i0.wp.com/economicsfromthetopdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/counting_billionaires.png?resize=1200%2C1200&ssl=1 1200w,

Download: PDF | EPUB Blair Fix and DT Cochrane Every billionaire is … a factory for producing policy failures at scale. — Cory Doctorow The planet has a billionaire problem. According to Oxfam, the world’s billionaires have more combined wealth than the bottom 60% of humanity — some 4.6 billion people. Given this obscene situation, calls are growing to rid the world of the billionaire class. But how do we make that happen?

And with that, my postdoc is done. Backing up a bit, for the last two years I’ve had a wonderful research position at York University supervised by political economist Jonathan Nitzan. It was the rare kind of postdoc that allowed me to work on my own research. (What I did with my time? Look at the last two years of writing on this blog!) Anyway, the job’s been a blast, but the position is over at the end of the month. So what comes next?