Meanderings of an Eccentric Economist

Save It for What?

Repair, Reputation, and the Temporal Costs of Institutional Failure

24 hrs ago • Tarnell Brown

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The JetBlue – Spirit Fiasco and the Rise of Amtrak Economics

What happens when antitrust becomes stealth industrial policy: fewer low fare options, stronger incumbents, and a “public utility” airline no one voted…

May 2 • Tarnell Brown

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April 2026

Orbán Lost. The Machine Did Not

Why the fall of one strongman matters less than the political machinery that made him possible — and why the same machinery still threatens free…

Apr 13 • Tarnell Brown

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March 2026

Capitalism’s Source Code

How the State Makes Markets — and Why Cronyism Comes with the Package

Mar 29 • Tarnell Brown

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Why Institutions Keep Fighting the Last Battle

How institutional learning turns past success into present paralysis.

Mar 11 • Tarnell Brown

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Temporal Accountability and the Iran Strike

Why crisis-time incentives and historical-time consequences rarely align

Mar 1 • Tarnell Brown

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February 2026

Why Does Venmo Make Payments Public?

How social payments replaced institutional trust with visibility.

Feb 27 • Tarnell Brown

Replication Notes: Tariffs, Time, and Constitutional Incentives

Mapping the time horizon of tariff authority, economic costs, and institutional review

Feb 25 • Tarnell Brown

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Don’t Put Your Faith in Princes — But Do Notice When the Right Ones Win

Hernando de Soto and Liberalism Beyond Strongmen

Feb 24 • Tarnell Brown

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When Correction Looks Like Failure

Institutional Learning and the Paradox of Democratic Responsiveness

Feb 20 • Tarnell Brown

McArdle’s Libertarian “Polemic” Was Really a Mechanism Failure

How a paleolibertarian takeover turned a liberal party into a political vehicle

Feb 16 • Tarnell Brown

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The Myth That Won’t Die

What Heritage’s own fraud database reveals about incentives, institutions, and the persistence of a political myth

Feb 15 • Tarnell Brown

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