Tyler Cowen’s three laws

by Tyler Cowen on April 15, 2015 at 9:55 am in Economics, Law, Philosophy | Permalink

Many of you have been asking for a canonical statement of what I sometimes refer to as Cowen’s Laws. Here goes:

1. Cowen’s First Law: There is something wrong with everything (by which I mean there are few decisive or knockdown articles or arguments, and furthermore until you have found the major flaws in an argument, you do not understand it)

2. Cowen’s Second Law: There is a literature on everything.

3. Cowen’s Third Law: All propositions about real interest rates are wrong.

I coined those some time ago, when teaching macroeconomics, yet I remain amazed how often I see blog posts which violate all three laws within the span of a few paragraphs.

There is of course a common thread to all three laws, namely you should not have too much confidence in your own judgment.

Addendum: Kevin Drum comments.