An annotated archive of moralized economic scapegoating
When caricature replaces economic argument.
Economic demonology replaces an economic idea with a morally monstrous caricature, attributes that caricature to its defenders, and then blames it for complex social harms.
This archive is unapologetically market-liberal. It does not ask whether an argument sounds compassionate. It asks whether the argument is intelligible, historically honest, economically coherent, and offered in good faith.
The archive
Case files
Not a museum of stupid posts. Training in how to think—and argue—in public.
Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer · Evonomics · 2016
Self-interest is not selfishness
The argument accuses market liberals of conflating self-interest with selfishness while constructing its case through that very conflation.
Tim O’Reilly · Evonomics · 2016
The invisible hand is not a promise
The argument credits unions with creating good jobs while ignoring coevolution, wealth, productivity, worker choice, and the coercive privileges through which organized interests can corrupt institutions.
A real capitalist’s premise
The relevant divide is not capital against labor. It is voluntary cooperation against political privilege, open competition against imposed exclusion, and association against compulsion.