MPS 2010 in Sydney Australia

|Peter Boettke|

I have been in Australia since Thursday (it is Sunday here) and finally adjusting to the time changes.  The MPS conference starts tonight.  Here is the home page for the conference.  I will report on some of the papers and conference discussion as the week progresses.  Also this upcoming week will be the Nobel Prize selection which I am sure will lead to some fascinating discussion among the participants here in Australia.

Comments

[Mario Rizzo]

Pete,

I bet most MPS participants will not react strongly either way to the prize this year. Job search is important but the contributions, especially of Peter Diamond, are buried in a lot of technicalities.

I was hoping for Thaler (and Fama) to promote discussion of the kind of issues about rationality, etc. I -- and you -- think are important.

[Pietro M.]

I sometimes read O'Driscoll talking about search theory.

So I was downloading something on this topic written by Alchian, Kyiotaki, Wright to get an idea about it, especially to understand monetary economics with better tools than the cash-in-advance and the money-in-the-utility nonsense.

My first contact with the literature, two pages on the Walsh (Monetary theory and policy) has not been an epiphany, but maybe there's something of interest beyond the technicalities.

I don't know...

[Jerry O'Driscoll]

Alchian had a comprehensive vision of economics as search theory. Producers search for the profit maximizing price. Workers search for the highest wage (total compensation). Entrepreneurs search for profit opportunities. Nothing is "given."

[Rafe Champion]

At the MPS, the inspirational Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson could not attend which was a blow but people can pick up the text of all his major speeches here
http://www.cyi.org.au/speeches.aspx

This speech by a conservative politician is a commentary on the disastrous conditions in the remote settlements which prompted Federal intervention over the top of a state (territory) government that refused to move.

http://www.formerministers.fahcsia.gov.au/malbrough/speeches/Pages/alfred_deakin_02oct07.aspx

Noel Pearson gave a talk to CIS about this, he said you don't appreciate the bourgeoise virtues until you see communities where they are absent.

And this describes a disastrous decision by the central wage fixing authority which mandated equal pay for Aboriginal stock workers which threw them all out of work and set the stage for the disasters that followed under "progressive" welfare-oriented policies.

http://www.hrnicholls.com.au/archives/vol1/vol1-8.php

The other episode in that paper describes how the trade unions practically destroyed the rule of law in Australia. The writer, Sir John Kerr, became the Governor General who dismissed the Whitlam Government in 1975.

[Peter Boettke]

Terry Anderson and Harold Demsetz are giving brilliant talks on property rights, externalities, Hayek and Coase. Both are talking about why we should move beyond externalities discussions.

[Rafe Champion]

Background reading for the session on economic reform in Australia this afternoon, links to a classic 1930 paper on Australian protectionism, tributes to Alf Raggigan, heroic reformer in the bureaucracy, Bert Kelly, the "modest member" in the House, and some others.

http://catallaxyfiles.com/2010/10/12/mont-pelerin-commentary/

[Jerry O'Driscoll]

The "left" party in New Zealand, Labour, is to the right of the Republican party on free trade and free markets. Mike Moore, who headed GATT, was a former firebrand Labour politician. I heard him give an energetic talk in DC defending free trade as "the best hope for the worst off."

[Roger Koppl]

Pete,

So what do Anderson and Demsetz mean by "move beyond externalities"?

[Mario Rizzo]

Where are the reports from the "front"? I bet Pete is having too much fun.

[Rafe Champion]

He is taking the crash course on Australian culture
http://catallaxyfiles.com/2010/10/13/mps-australian-culture-day/

[Jerry O'Driscoll]

It's 3:38AM on Thursday in Sydney.

[Peter Boettke]

Mario,

Looking forward to talks today by Jason Potts, et al on the future of economics.

Chandran K wrote a very good paper for the conference. At the Earhart conference prior Razeen Salley was extremely good.

Met several fascinating people here and a lot of old friends.

I heard from a friend yesterday that Jerry Dwyer has an outstanding presentation on the financial crisis that I wish he would have presented here so I plan on asking him today if I can get a copy of his paper on this topic.

I hoping to post on Nobel Prize sometime before I leave Sydney. I think Tyler's summary is very good, but I think Alchian's earlier paper is more insightful than Diamond's. And I really think the "messynomics" idea is based on simplistic categories --- cleanomics = laissez faire; while messynonomics = intervention. But the real contributions that were made by Mises-Hayek-Kirzner and by Alchian, Buchanan, Coase, etc. is that the messy world engenders market adjustments which serve to ameliorate the messiness. Market forces _at work_ do there job precisely _because_ we live in a messy world.

Boulding's review of Samuelson in the JPE summed this up best when he wondered whether the flawless precision of mathematical economics would actually be rendered impotent in comparison to the literary vagueness of classical economics and economic sociology in terms of explaining the messy reality of the world. Boulding's remarks continue to be proven correct. And btw, how amazing was it for him as a John Bates Clark medal winner to take that stand!!!!

Pete

P.S.: I saw a group of Kang-a-ros actually hopping away in the wild yesterday --- very cool. And I learned that I like port.

[Mario Rizzo]

Thanks, Pete.

I never had port. Must try it at SDAE in Nov.

[Peter Boettke]

Mario,

My treat -- along with a cigar. I am trying to change my image.

Pete

[Steve Horwitz]

Change /= better :)

[Mario Rizzo]

Yeah, I smoked a cigar at a wedding recently. So off we go...

[Roger Koppl]

Good post, Pete. I wish economists would remember that the cleanonomics of Leon Walras was meant as a description of the ends of policy, not the real messy economy. He called himself a "scientific socialist," though not in a Marxian sense. Thus, GET describes the goal of the interventionist (and, in Walras's case, cooperativist) state. In other words, the originator of cleanomics was not even trying to describe the market process. He was criticizing it. He explicitly opposed French liberal economists. Only later was the myth invented that Walras was somehow describing Adam Smith's invisible hand with "rigorous" mathematics.

[Roger Koppl]

Oops. Posted the above to the wrong thread. I've cut and pasted. Sorry about the multiple posts.

[Rafe Champion]

Mario, you really need to have an oak-lined study to get the best flavour from your port and a cigar which you take after dinner and witty conversation at the high table.

[Coach Carryalls Bags]

After a long flying, the dorbeetle left the thumb girl at an unfamiliar place and flied away. The thumb girl was afraid very much.