Joakim Book

Freelance writer and globetrotter with an unhealthy addiction to financial history and all things money. #future #optimism #monpol #climate

All Time

Last 30 daysDec 23, 2020 – Jan 21, 2021
Last monthDec 1, 2020 – Dec 31, 2020
Last 6 monthsJul 1, 2020 – Dec 31, 2020
Last yearJan 1, 2020 – Dec 31, 2020
Select date rangeFeb 22, 2019 – Jan 21, 2021
All time
No Date

111 articles sorted by

Jan. 16, 2021

AIER

From the Land of Financial Bubbles⁠

Print Everywhere we look, the world looks bubbly. Politically, we may point to the anger bubbling among people who feel like they were robbed of power ‒ or their opponents who want to wield that power for their own, not exactly goodhearted purposes.…

Jan. 12, 2021

AIER

Lockdowns Don’t Prevent Coronavirus Spread⁠

Print Much has been said about the terrifying models that in the spring projected such a staggering number of deaths from the novel coronavirus. In hindsight, as bad as the pandemic has been, it never even approached the dismal numbers suggested ‒…

Jan. 11, 2021

AIER

More or Less Democratic⁠

Print Garett Jones of George Mason University has written an engaging book: 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites A Little More and the Masses a Little Less. After a year where plenty of elites were dead-wrong and plenty of masses were…

Jan. 6, 2021

AIER

Bitcoin’s Impressive Year in Perspective⁠

Print Bitcoin’s returns are no longer astronomical. At this time last year, the financial press was filled with stories of bitcoin’s outsized returns. The controversial cryptocurrency had been the highest performing asset of the 2010s, by orders of…

Dec. 31, 2020

AIER

Feelings Over Facts Is Dangerous to Human Liberty⁠

Print What I most clearly remember from the 2016 Presidential Election was a bumper sticker with the enlightened message “Trump 2016: F*** Your Feelings!” Four years later, after a harrowing election and a moralizing society even more at war with…

Dec. 24, 2020

AIER

Oxford’s Stringency Index is Falling Apart⁠

Print Since the pandemic started, the chattering classes ‒ and particularly those of us who have been somewhat skeptical of the policy interventions ‒ have used a chart tool from Our World in Data. This site, run by Oxford researcher Max Roser with a…

Dec. 22, 2020

AIER

The Year Populism Was Right and the Experts Weren’t⁠

Print Two thousand and twenty has been an odd year. A year on which more books, unqualified articles, and uninformed opinions will be voiced than possibly any other year in the history of our species. Then again, we all have megaphones of various…

Dec. 15, 2020

AIER

The Rescue From Madness⁠

Print In his memoirs, written in the 1940s but not published until after his death, the great economist Ludwig von Mises wrote, “I set out to be a reformer, but only became the historian of decline.” Most people contemplating the political and…

Dec. 5, 2020

AIER

You’re Not Underpaid ‒ But LeBron Is⁠

Print I have a friend who constantly complains about her low pay. All things considered, she’s rather privileged: lives a good and healthy life, in a safe and beautiful country; she’s thinking of buying a house; she controls her own hours (her work…

Nov. 30, 2020

AIER

Value Is What I Say It Is⁠

Print As a profession centered around choice, prices, production, information and values, economics is not always particularly good on those topics. As the saying goes, “An economist is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of…

Nov. 25, 2020

AIER

How Bad is Our Social Dilemma?⁠

Print I have spent some time with Tristan Harris lately. Online, of course, and as a passive consumer of his words, delivered to me through popular podcasts and social media recommendations (for example here, here, and here). I’m not the only one, as…

Nov. 22, 2020

AIER

Covid Governments and Social Harmony⁠

Print As if our societies didn’t have enough conflicts, we have added a new beautiful way of pitting one person against another: Covid-restrictions. Instead of clamping down with the mighty force of government on some innocent behavior, politicians…

Nov. 17, 2020

AIER

Money for the Masses!⁠

Print Histories of money are a dime a dozen. Some are comprehensive, others infused by an overarching theory or political agenda, others still are superficial and simplistic. Jacob Goldstein, of the popular NPR podcast Planet Money, has written a…

Nov. 13, 2020

AIER

The Orwellian Pandemic⁠

Print The phone conversation was just about finished. From the other end of the line the formalities started to trickle in: “Anything else I can do for you, Sir?”, “It was a pleasure to serve you,” “Have a great rest of your day,” etc. We all know…

Nov. 11, 2020

AIER

David Skarbek on Prison Order⁠

Print Now that social order seems to decay all around us, let’s talk about governance. No, not “government,” the formal institutions that comprise the state, the highest office of which Democrats and Republicans fight over, but governance: how any…

Nov. 3, 2020

AIER

The ’Rona Squeeze and a Swedish Hip-Hopper⁠

Print And so it was time again. Tightened restrictions, mandatory limits on public life, curfews, orders to stay-at-home, travel bans with invasive hoops, and all the other anti-corona policies that ostensibly aren’t lookdowns: they look like…

Oct. 28, 2020

AIER

The Tide-Theory of Climate Change⁠

Print I was watching the tide today and thought of climate change. Yes, they are different phenomena; the tide is predictable, well-known, and reverses itself like clockwork roughly every six hours, whereas climate change is unpredictable, uncertain,…

Oct. 22, 2020

AIER

Climate Catastrophism and a Sensible Environmentalism⁠

Print Like many of us, I had an iconic and charismatic high school teacher who left a lasting impression. He used to say something memorable about asking for forgiveness: “Apologize if you’re in the wrong,” he said, “but double down if you’re…

Oct. 18, 2020

AIER

Will Things Ever Go Back To Normal?⁠

Print Early in the pandemic I advised readers to zone out, take a break, and read fiction and other works of art that have stood the test of time. There’s only so much crazy we can deal with and there’s only so much mental benefits to be had from…

Oct. 14, 2020

AIER

Trump Mania: Why Do We Care So Much About Politics?⁠

Print The morning after Trump was elected, people in my university class were crying. Fair enough, you think: you’ve heard about the emotional fragility of today’s youth, and perhaps you’ve read Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s great book The…