A lot of readers and heterodox colleagues have sent me this link to Bari Weiss’s interview with Harvard economics professor Roland G. Fryer, Jr., often accompanied by big encomiums. Despite my unwillingness to watch long videos, I did watch all 77 minutes of it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t mesmerized, or even much interested. There are interesting […]
Bari Weiss interviews Roland Fryer
Bari Weiss interviews Roland Fryer
22 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: academic bias, crime and punishment, free speech, law and order, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Tino Rangatiratanga and localism
20 Feb 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economics of regulation, law and economics, property rights Tags: Canada
My piece for the Saturday papers weekend before last, and now ungated here, went back to a theme that Richard Harman had noticed in the Waitangi speeches. Minister Shane Jones argued fuller debate on the meaning of Tino Rangatiratanga is inevitable, saying, “There is a deep, committed view from Pita Tipene and others that article two…
Tino Rangatiratanga and localism
Florida’s One-Man Laffer Curve
16 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
Inflation is having an effect on everything, even policy analysis. Back in 2013, I wrote that Phil Mickelson was “California’s One-Man Laffer Curve” because he wanted to escape the Golden State to save about $1.2 million per year in taxes. But now, when a goose that lays golden eggs wants to escape, the numbers are […]
Florida’s One-Man Laffer Curve
Worry Not About So-Called “Trade Deficits”
10 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, international economics, politics - USA Tags: current account
TweetThis piece by Rapoza also features a discussion of the U.S. trade deficit in “goods” – any mention of which is a sure sign that the writer is a poor economist. A trade deficit in tangible things is no more economically meaningful than is a trade deficit in yellow things or things that start with…
Worry Not About So-Called “Trade Deficits”
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Labour hid developing welfare crisis
08 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
Lindsay Mitchell writes- When National became government in 2008, Finance Minister Bill English’s determination to understand the extent of benefit-dependency led them to commission Taylor Fry to produce annual actuarial reports. These were duly published at the MSD website every year but ceased when the government changed in 2017. Now however, an Official Information request […]
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Labour hid developing welfare crisis
Some Links
06 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of regulation, health economics, history of economic thought, labour economics, law and economics, macroeconomics
TweetWriting in the Wall Street Journal, David Henderson and Charley Hooper explain why we should be thankful for high drug prices. Two slices: For Americans, paying for the discovery and development of new drugs rests on our shoulders. If we pay, we get new lifesaving medicines. If we don’t, we don’t. Almost all new drugs…
Some Links
*The Case Against Education* Makes the WSJ
01 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economics of education, economics of information, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: screening, signaling
Douglas Belkin, who has an admirably adversarial publication record on higher ed, spotlights my The Case Against Education in his latest piece in The Wall Street Journal:One result of this transactional attitude has been a sharp increase in cheating. College is one of the few products whose consumers try to get as little out of…
*The Case Against Education* Makes the WSJ
Life is full of tradeoffs: it costs money to keep chemicals out of our water systems
27 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, health economics
See Who Pays to Get Forever Chemicals Out of Drinking Water? It Could Be You: Officials say settlements with 3M and DuPont won’t cover all of the costs of building new filtration systems by John Keilman and Kris Maher of The WSJ. Excerpts:”Water systems are spending millions of dollars to filter out PFAS, the long-lasting compounds…
Life is full of tradeoffs: it costs money to keep chemicals out of our water systems
Quotation of the Day…
24 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, history of economic thought, international economics
Tweet… is from page 4 of the 1976 second edition of my late, great teacher Leland Yeager’s magisterial International Monetary Relations: Theory, History, and Policy (original emphases; footnote deleted): Our opportunity for gain is genuine regardless of why foreigners sell so cheaply. Perhaps the foreign widgets are cheap because the climate is ideal for their…
Quotation of the Day…
Will Milei succeed in Argentina?
22 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, income redistribution, labour economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, monetary economics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: Argentina
I give him a 30-40% chance, which is perhaps generous because I am rooting for him. Bryan Caplan, who is more optimistic, offers some analysis and estimates that Milei needs to close a fiscal gap of about five percent of gdp. I have two major worries. First, if Milei approaches fiscal success, the opposing parties […]
Will Milei succeed in Argentina?
Shift to renewable energy would make economic growth impossible, says expert
22 Jan 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic growth, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, macroeconomics Tags: climate alarmism
By Paul Homewood h/t Philip Bratby Even climatologists are beginning to realise that the emperor has no clothes! Economic growth as we know it is impossible if governments shift to 100 per cent renewable energy, a renowned French climatologist has said. Jean-Marc Jancovici, the author of World Without End, the […]
Shift to renewable energy would make economic growth impossible, says expert
Milei Speaks Truth to WEF Elite Power
19 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, labour economics, law and economics, macroeconomics, property rights Tags: Argentina
Argentina’s President Javier Milei had a warning for those attending the annual WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland; ‘the Western world is in danger’ from ‘collectivist experiments’ such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), and has called on the world to reject socialism and instead embrace “free enterprise capitalism” to end global poverty. H/T zerohedge “Today, […]
Milei Speaks Truth to WEF Elite Power
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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