Hayek

Hayek’s Knowledge Problem Wielded Like a Scalpel

Michael Giberson As previously mentioned here at KP, I cringe when I see Hayek’s “knowledge problem” insight wielded as a rhetorical club. Yet when wielded with subtlety the knowledge problem is, like a rapier, a quite delicate and forceful weapon. Carefully deployed it is the editorialist’s scalpel. So, contrary to the sidebar chatter, I did …

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Getting Hooked on Hayek

Michael Giberson Streetwise Professor dubs F.A. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom “An Intellectual Gateway Drug.” Craig Pirrong writes: “Amazingly, Hayek’s 60+ year old Road to Serfdom is the subject of contemporary political discussion even though in many ways it is about a world that disappeared long ago–and in, fact, never really existed, though Hayek feared that such a …

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I Cringe when I See Hayek’s Knowledge Problem Wielded As a Rhetorical Club

Michael Giberson The knowledge problem made the newspaper today – that’s Hayek’s concept of the knowledge problem, not the KP blog that Lynne and I operate.  But since we appreciate the significance of Hayek’s insight on the mobilization of knowledge, it seems appropriate to draw attention to Glenn Reynold’s op-ed, “Progressives can’t get past the …

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Edmund Phelps Explains “Knowledge Problem”

Michael Giberson Occasionally we hear from readers curious about the blog name, “knowledge problem.” Edmund Phelps explains the knowledge problem in an excellent essay that appeared in the Financial Times. (Registration may be required for FT.com; the essay is also posted in full at the FT‘s Capitalism blog.) Joseph Schumpeter’s early theory proposed that a …

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Cass Sunstein, Oira, and Nudging

Lynne Kiesling On Thursday President-elect Obama named law professor Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, an executive-branch office with the mission of analyzing and coordinating federal regulation. Most recently, Sunstein is known for his work with Richard Thaler on “choice architecture” and behavioral public policy, including their book Nudge. Others …

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