Jimmy Alfonso Licon
The Second Information Revolution: How AI Makes Liberal Societies Both Stronger and Weaker
Large language models have sparked historic shifts in the economics of knowledge, upsetting the balance between accessibility, privacy, and power.
How Self-Interest Civilizes Politics
Like the market version, the invisible hand of politics depends less on individual virtue and more on institutions and incentives.
Only Lobbying and Self-Deception Can Keep Tariffs Alive
Tariffs exploit humans' self-deception and willful ignorance, making feel-good patriotism into a cover story for rent-seeking, favoritism, and graft.
What Japan’s Struggling Rice Market Teaches Us About US Tariffs
Japan eats a lot of rice. And it imposes tariffs on foreign rice to protect domestic producers — sometimes as high as 700 hundred percent. The result has been a…
What Japan’s Struggling Rice Market Teaches Us About US Tariffs
Tariffs may sound patriotic, but they almost always weaken the very industries they’re supposed to protect.
What Greta and the Pope Don’t Grasp about Degrowth
There's nothing humble or merciful about shrinking the economy, squashing free enterprise, or silencing price signals.
Helping Social Security by Helping Yourself
"Not retiring — instead, doing age-appropriate jobs — is at least a partial solution to the prospect of an insolvent Social Security trust fund." ~Jimmy Alfonso Licon
Heaps of Trouble
"The reason sorites logic is so difficult to diffuse is that there is no obvious line or threshold to be established somewhere between the incremental steps that begin with a…
