All About Tariffs
31 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: tarrifs
I have made no secret of me deep skepticism about President Trump’s tariff policies since he announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025. My first-blink “Thoughts on the Trump Tariffs” from a few days after the announcement has held held up reasonably well, and I have posted follow-ups on the subject a number of…
All About Tariffs
Quotation of the Day…
29 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, Israel Kirzner
Tweet… is from page 30 of Israel Kirzner’s 1985 volume, Discovery and the Capitalist Process [original emphasis]: What is important about the market economy is that unexploited opportunities for reallocating resources from one (low market valued) use to another of higher value offer the opportunity for pure entrepreneurial gain. A misallocation of resources occurs because,…
Quotation of the Day…
The California billionaire tax is very likely a net revenue loser
28 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, entrepreneurship, politics - USA, public economics Tags: California, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
This paper examines the revenue and migration impact of the 2026 California Billionaire Tax Act, a one-time 5 percent tax on the worldwide net worth of individuals exceeding $1 billion. Using data from the Forbes Billionaire List, news reports detailing the residential real estate holdings of California billionaires, and public announcements of billionaire departures from…
The California billionaire tax is very likely a net revenue loser
How to Profit From a Cartel Without Joining One
27 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, financial economics, industrial organisation, law and economics Tags: competition law
Adam Smith warned that people in the same trade rarely meet without the conversation turning to a scheme to raise prices. Antitrust enforcers on both sides of the Atlantic now suspect they can skip the meeting—a shared shareholder may do the job. In May 2025, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…
How to Profit From a Cartel Without Joining One
Some Links
26 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: California, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
TweetMegan McArdle writes insightfully about California’s pending proposal to soak the rich. Three slices: These days, legislators generally don’t enact tax hikes so confiscatory that they trigger an immediate, obvious response. They adjust income tax rates by a few percentage points, fiddle with the deductions or impose new levies on some tiny portion of the…
Some Links
Mariana Mortágua on why crypto-assets are not money
26 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, financial economics, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetary economics
Economists typically identify money by the extent to which an asset satisfies three functions. First, it needs to be a medium of exchange, meaning that you give it up when you buy goods or services, and you can receive it when you sell goods or services. Second, it needs to be a unit of account, meaning that you…
Mariana Mortágua on why crypto-assets are not money
Job fatality and injury risk, and compensating differentials
25 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, health and safety, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice
Last week, my ECONS102 class covered health economics. Part of that topic involves discussion of approaches to measuring the ‘value of a preventable fatality’ (sometimes also called the ‘value of a statistical life’, or VSL). One of those approaches is the willingness-to-pay (WTP) approach, which involves estimating what people would be willing to pay in…
Job fatality and injury risk, and compensating differentials
‘Contemporary Law and Economics,’ by Adam Chilton, Joshua C. Macey & Mila Versteeg
24 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, Richard Posner, Ronald Coase
What does it mean to be a law & economics (L&E) scholar? It can’t require a Ph.D. in economics. Richard Posner doesn’t have one. He didn’t even major in economics as an undergraduate, preferring English—as did his Chicago colleagues Douglas Baird and Diane Wood. It can’t require a law degree, either, or Ronald Coase, William…
‘Contemporary Law and Economics,’ by Adam Chilton, Joshua C. Macey & Mila Versteeg
Will bystander economies be able to finance their governments?
24 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: creative destruction
From Jesús Fernández-Villaverde: Will AI poison the public finances of many modern states? There is a real risk that it will. Yesterday, I circulated a new paper, “Saving for the Machines,” which makes a simple point. Building the AI transformation will require enormous investment. The only way to induce agents to save for that investment…
Will bystander economies be able to finance their governments?
‘The Value of the Ability to Deal with Disequilibria,’ by Theodore Schultz
23 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, survivor principle
The most valuable skill in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) may not be coding, prompt engineering, or any of the other competencies appearing in job listings. It may be the ability to figure out which skills will be valuable next. Half a century ago, Theodore Schultz had a name for something much like this:…
‘The Value of the Ability to Deal with Disequilibria,’ by Theodore Schultz
Are Banking Systems Inherently Unstable? | @GeorgeSelgin | Hayek Program…
22 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, business cycles, economic history, economics of regulation, great depression, great recession, history of economic thought, law and economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: monetary policy
SIEPR Economic Summit 2026 | California Wealth Tax
22 Oct 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: California, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
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