See One Country’s Dream of EV-Driven Prosperity Helps Fuel a Coal Binge Instead: Indonesia pitches its plan to leverage natural resources as a model for other developing nations by Jon Emont of The WSJ. Excerpts:”A few years ago, Indonesia set out to turn its treasure trove of nickel into an electric-car manufacturing boom.It imposed a sweeping…
Life is full of tradeoffs: if we want more nickel to make EV batteries we might have to use more coal
Life is full of tradeoffs: if we want more nickel to make EV batteries we might have to use more coal
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: unintended consequences
Is ESG investing illegal?
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, global warming Tags: active investing
For fund managers, it may violate their fiduciary responsibility (to maximize returns) to their shareholders. Apparently, the legal risk is too big for JP Morgan, State Street, and BlackRock: Asset managers have been walking a fine legal line. GOP Attorneys General in 2022 warned that they might be violating their fiduciary obligations and antitrust laws.…
Is ESG investing illegal?
How to Play Against the Bishop’s Opening as Black [TRAPS Included]
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in chess
Aussie Energy Execs Urge a Coal Backup “Safety Net” to Ease the Net Zero Transition
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: Australia, wind power
“… the pace of the renewables coming forward is too slow, relative to the ambitions articulated for the nation …”
Aussie Energy Execs Urge a Coal Backup “Safety Net” to Ease the Net Zero Transition
“We Don’t Do That Here.”: Former NY Times Editor Blasts the “Gray Lady” for Bias and Activism
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: free speech, media bias, political correctness, regressive left
Former New York Times editor Adam Rubenstein has a lengthy essay at The Atlantic that pulls back the curtain on the newspaper and its alleged bias in its coverage. The essay follows similar pieces from former editors and writers that range from Bari Weiss to Rubenstein’s former colleague James Bennet. The essay describes a similar […]
“We Don’t Do That Here.”: Former NY Times Editor Blasts the “Gray Lady” for Bias and Activism
Genetic Insurance
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, entrepreneurship, health economics Tags: adverse selection, health insurance, moral hazard, screening, self-selection, signaling
Genetic testing identifies disease risk, enabling individuals to dodge environmental triggers, optimize treatments, and improve planning. Yet, the fear of increased insurance premiums deters many from undergoing tests. Genetic testing offers societal benefits but also presents significant distributional challenges. To address this, my 1994 paper proposed the idea of genetic insurance. For a small fee […]
Genetic Insurance
The US Housing Market Is Very Quickly Becoming Unaffordable
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: land supply, zoning
In a post from July 2021, I discussed housing affordability and “zoning taxes” — in other words, how land use restrictions such as zoning were driving up the cost of housing in some US cities. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York stood out as the clear outliers, with “zoning taxes” adding several multiples […]
The US Housing Market Is Very Quickly Becoming Unaffordable
Goodbye to the Productivity Commission
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
The Productivity Commission closes its doors on Thursday and goes out of existence. There have been a couple of recent articles on the demise of the Productivity Commission, and the chair (Ganesh Nana) has even put out his own statement (not exactly compelling) on productivity, and policy options for improving New Zealand’s dismal performance. There […]
Goodbye to the Productivity Commission
Statewide Rent Control Being Considered in Washington
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: rent control
Five things to know about WA proposal to limit rent hikes | The Seattle Times Isn’t rent control one of the most studied economic experiments? And hasn’t it been shown to be, over the long term, a disaster for everyone involved? What does economic evidence tell us about the effects of rent control? | Brookings […]
Statewide Rent Control Being Considered in Washington
Life expectancies
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in health economics Tags: life expectancies, The Great Escape
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Former PM Hipkins & Profs Bloomfield & Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated
27 Feb 2024 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
Why are we still talking about Covid when many countries – like the US – have moved on? Well the US economy is currently booming and ours is stuck in the mud. The reason has emerged over time. Although our response to the virus was to be commended in early 2020 when no-one knew what…
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Former PM Hipkins & Profs Bloomfield & Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated
Claims about Iran (from the comments)
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, development economics, economics of crime, economics of religion, growth disasters, law and economics Tags: Iran
I’ve chatted with a lot of Iranians online in the past few years (they’re in Iran). Some of their takes (always subject to the “plural of anecdote is not “data”)… 1. Islam is seen by younger people as the doctrine of a failed government staffed by a bunch of crooks. 2. And it’s a foreign, […]
Claims about Iran (from the comments)
Lifespans of the rich and famous, from 800-1800 C.E.
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, population economics Tags: life expectancies
Life expectancy is one of the key statistics in human wellbeing. However, we know surprisingly little about life expectancy prior to the systematic recording of births, deaths, and marriages, which began in England in 1538 with the establishment of parish registers. Many other countries started recording this data, but later in the 16th Century (or…
Lifespans of the rich and famous, from 800-1800 C.E.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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