Author: Matt Bruenig

Status quo bias is a phenomenon in which the current state of affairs is taken as the baseline against which policy proposals are measured. It’s a devilishly strong bias that ensnares even the cleverest analysts, especially on economic policy topics. The status quo bias is also driving a significant amount of the anti-reparations arguments being… Continue reading Reverse reparations and status quo bias

Back in 1982, Peter Bauer wrote a book in which he, among other things, defended capitalist institutions on desert theory grounds. This was problematic because desert theory is an utter disaster as a justification for capitalism because capitalism doesn’t even remotely adhere to it. Amartya Sen, an economist who also has serious economic philosophy expertise,… Continue reading Amartya Sen and reparations

An exchange unfolded between Noah Smith and Jamelle Bouie on twitter about an MTV poll that found Millenials took color blind approaches to race. Here are two of the tweets. You an click through to see the others: The Millennials are right about race. All wars must end. The ending is never fair, but it… Continue reading What would constitute an end to the race war?