Marginal Revolution

*Create Your Own Economy*, special offer

As an economist I believe in the power of incentives.

If you order or buy my book before midnight tomorrow (it comes out tomorrow in stores), I will send you a free, special bonus chapter.  If you've already bought or ordered the book, don't worry, you still qualify.

Just email me and tell me you bought the book, I will take your word for it.  You can send me a copy of your on-line order if you wish.

No, it's not a bonus chapter from Create Your Own Economy.

Did you know that for years I have been, on and off, drafting a book on the philosophic foundations of a free society?  The book is still years from completion.  It won't even be my next book to come.  But I do finally have an introductory chapter for that book which I will send you.  This book is my no-holds-barred attempt to answer all of the tough questions about the philosophic foundations of our belief in freedom.  It also gives a shorthand version of why I have significant reservations about the standard neoclassical approach to economic policy.  No, it is not the book's full treatment of these issues but the chapter outlines the scope of the argument and the six major problems that any philosophy of freedom must solve. 

In return I ask only that you give me your word you will not post the chapter on-line. (Comments, however, are welcome.)

This offer will not be repeated and I do not expect other people to see this chapter (much less the manuscript-in-progress) for some time to come.  So now is the best, highest return time to order or buy Create Your Own Economy.

If you're having trouble clicking through to other book outlets, the link for Barnes&Noble.com is here, the link for Borders.com is here.

What defines the Swedish soul?

This article, from Prospect, is interesting throughout.  Excerpt:

Inevitably, the subject turns to sex and marriage. I'll never forget asking one group what they thought of marriage in a country where most educated young people (and half go to university) don't get married or bear children until they are well over 30. A young woman gave me a thoughtful answer and so I asked her, "What are you looking for in a husband?" Without batting an eye or pausing for thought, she answered: "Three things. One, he must be good in bed. Two, he must be a good father. Three, when we divorce, he mustn't be bitter."

Robin Hanson comments on the USA.  Here is my earlier post on what I think of Sweden, one of my favorite MR posts.

Assorted links

1. Markets in everything: Do Stuff for Money.

2. Ezra Klein on administrative costs.

3. Jeff Friedman's Critical Review, special issue on the financial crisis, $$ but recommended; view the abstracts here.

4. Our culture of (pornographic) small bits (totally safe link).

5. Michael Lewis and derivatives and AIG.

6. Superb Dave Leonhardt column on health care and prostate cancer.

High-speed rail in Texas?

I have never blogged high-speed rail issues because I don't (yet?) have a point of view on them.  I can see the benefits from subsidizing metro systems and buses.  I don't know whether most of the planned subsidies to high speed rail will pay off.

Ed Glaeser, in a recent Op-Ed, criticized high speed rail for Texas.  On this issue, Ryan Avent gets upset at Glaeser:

Of course, Texas has four of the nation's fastest growing metropolitan areas, all within a few hundred miles of each other -- an ideal distance for high-speed rail. Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio are currently home to some 16 million people, and those metropolitan areas have added 3 million people since 2000 alone. Congestion is an issue within those metropolitan areas and will continue to worsen as they grow.

Not only is it entirely appropriate to build transportation infrastructure with future growth in mind, it's imperative. America's current sprawling growth pattern resulted in no small part from the mass construction of interstates and highways, which drew suburbanites to previously unsettled areas.

Moreover, Texan metropolitan areas are working to accommodate future growth in a denser fashion by building miles of metropolitan transit systems. Transit and rail are complementary technologies, each of which will increase the return on investment of the other.

My question is simple: how could you take rail from Dallas to Houston and cope once you got there?  San Antonio I can see, at least provided you will camp out in city center (a mistake, but that's a question for a different day).  I am willing to be converted, but what are the odds of such a line attracting significant patronage, with or without ongoing subsidy to the fares and not just to line construction?  Or is the vision that everyone takes the train and then rents a car on arrival?  According to Matt Yglesias, the plan won't even directly link Houston to Dallas.  By the way, here are some of the other planned links from Texas.  Will people really take trains from Houston to Meridien, Mississippi? 

Inquiring minds wish to know.