Shocker! EPA chief admits nature can ‘restore’ itself (but only if the EPA caused the problem)
15 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, environmental economics, industrial organisation, Public Choice, public economics Tags: constitutional law, sovereign immunity
Creative destruction in taxi rent capitalisation
13 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, Uber
@metiria @NZGreens child poverty is driven by housing unaffordability – by Green opposition to RMA reform
13 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of regulation, labour economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, urban economics Tags: antimarket bias, child poverty, expressive voting, family poverty, green rent seeking, housing affordability, land use planning, Leftover Left, New Zealand Greens, NIMBYs, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, RMA, zoning
#moreinclusivenz @povertymonitor Killer graphs & #infographics by NZ Children's Commissioner. Shameful content, NZ http://t.co/mG987C5kh0—
Isabella Cawthorn (@fixiebelle) July 26, 2015
Nothing much has happening to child poverty before housing costs in New Zealand since the early 1980s. It is after housing costs poverty that is crucifying the children in New Zealand.
Source: Bryan Perry, Household Incomes in New Zealand: trends in indicators of inequality and hardship 1982 to 2014 – Ministry of Social Development, Wellington (August 2015), Table F6 and table F7.
An economy that is not working for all of us, is simply not working. http://t.co/zZu0LOy7ED—
Green Party NZ (@NZGreens) August 13, 2015
From HES 2013 to HES 2014 median household income rose 5% in real terms (5% above the CPI inflation rate)…
On the AHC moving line measures, child poverty rates in HES 2014 are around the same as their peak after the GFC. A good amount of the rise from HES 2013 to HES 2014 is due to the large rise in the BHC median, as noted above, rather than a change in the numbers in low income per se.
The parties that oppose measures to increase the supply of land and reduce the cost of housing through reform of the Resource Management Act and its many restraints on the supply of land are the New Zealand Labour Party and New Zealand Greens.
Children's views on poverty #childpovertynz occ.org.nz/assets/Uploads… http://t.co/wZHJ19QcpN—
Child Poverty NZ (@povertymonitor) September 08, 2015
How @equitablegrowth showed inequality helps growth when arguing inequality harms growth
10 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, currency unions, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, Euro crisis, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: British disease, entrepreneurial alertness, Eurosclerosis, France, German unification, Germany, growth of government, sick man of Europe, social insurance, Sweden, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply, welfare state
The Washington Centre for Equitable Growth recently tweeted that inequality harms growth in the USA as compared to Sweden, France, Germany and the UK. It was relying on some dodgy OECD research.
.@OECD sees continued rise in growth-harming inequality, reports @PaulHannon29 on.wsj.com/1EZpq1S http://t.co/xt4heZysXT—
Equitable Growth (@equitablegrowth) May 21, 2015
The Washington Centre for Equitable Growth did not check their inequality ratios they tweeted against trends in economic growth and economic policy since 1970, which I have reproduced in figure 1. Germany is not included in figure 1 because German data on growth is thrown askew by German unification.
Figure 1: Real GDP per British, French and Swede aged 15-64, 2014 US$ (converted to 2014 price level with updated 2011 PPPs), 1.9 per cent detrended, 1970-2013
Source: Computed from OECD Stat Extract and The Conference Board. 2015. The Conference Board Total Economy Database™, May 2015, http://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase/
Figure 1 shows that France has been in a long-term decline since the late 1970s despite the blessings of a more equal society than the USA as championed by the Washington Centre for Equitable Growth. In figure 1, a flat line is growth in real GDP per working age person, PPP, at the same rate as the USA for the 20th century, which was 1.9% per year. A falling line in figure 1 indicates growth of less than 1.9% while a rising line indicates growth in real GDP per working age person, PPP, in excess of 1.9%. In figure 1, France hardly ever grew at the trend rate of growth for the USA of 1.9% per year and was frequently well below that rate.
Sweden tells a slightly different story in figure 1 because of regime change in the early 1990s when Sweden adopted more liberal economic policies where taxes and government spending were reduced:
The rapid growth of the state in the late 1960s and 1970s led to a large decline in Sweden’s relative economic performance. In 1975, Sweden was the 4th richest industrialised country in terms of GDP per head. By 1993, it had fallen to 14th.
@alexvoronov använda smygfinansiering av Generell Välfärd är alltid av ondo. @NimaSanandaji: bit.ly/1Nar2eV http://t.co/wD0YEgncIE—
Old Whig (@aClassicLiberal) August 05, 2015
That regime change reversed a long economic decline since 1970 under the egalitarian policies of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Under the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Sweden was almost always growing at less than the trend rate of growth of the USA, which was 1.9%. That position reversed only when there was a turn away from big government and high taxes.
Figure 1 tells a similar story for the British economy: a long economic decline in the 1970s when Britain was the sick man of Europe. Under Thatchernomics, Europe had a long economic boom for 20 years or more – see figure 1.
In the 1970s, under the high taxes of the Heath, Callaghan and Wilson administrations, as figure 1 shows, Britain was the sick man of Europe. With the election of the Thatcher Government, Britain soon grew at better than the US trend growth rate for nearly 20 years through few exceptions.
Graph of the Day: The UK has among the lowest total tax rates on businesses in the G7 http://t.co/l6mMhN9yLD—
CPS Think Tank (@CPSThinkTank) August 04, 2015
Swedosclerosis and Eurosclerosis compared
10 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, survivor principle Tags: Eurosclerosis, Sweden, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply, welfare state
@GreenpeaceNZ is the zenith of the Anti-science Left in New Zealand
09 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, health economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: antiscience left, expressive voting, GMOs, green rent seeking, Greenpeace, Left-wing hypocrisy, precautionary principle, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
US researchers: the idea that global warming has slowed is "no longer valid" grnpc.org/IgDMn via @BBCWorld http://t.co/bIDhaWPV3r—
(@Greenpeace) June 05, 2015
Brace yourself. Global warming is 'set to speed up to rates not seen for 1,000 years.' bit.ly/1x8TnKd http://t.co/pLTprLEiIm—
Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) March 09, 2015
Are we doomed? Global temperatures hit critical point, scientists warn. bit.ly/1DWkJq7 via @EcoWatch http://t.co/VRT7DH3stN—
Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) August 01, 2015
Adam Smith on entrepreneurial alertness
08 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation Tags: creative destruction, entrepreneurial alertness, offsetting behaviour, The meaning of competition
Cannabis is pretty harmless by comparison
06 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: alcohol regulation, economics of prohibition, marijuana decriminalisation, medical marijuana decriminalisation
US deaths (2013)
Tobacco 437k
Alcohol 29k
Opoids 16k
Heroin 8k
Cocaine 5k
Marijuana 0vox.com/2014/5/19/5727… http://t.co/o8yMDf7oE0—
Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) August 04, 2015
I’m worried! I’m sympathising with organic farmers over a land use conflict!
06 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, Richard Epstein, survivor principle Tags: common law, economics of agriculture, food snobs, green rent seeking, land use conflicts, land use planning, law of nuisance, noise pollution, nuisance, old common law, organic farming, Richard Epstein, William Blackstone, zoning
Writing this blog of sound mind and sober disposition, I still have considerable sympathy with two organic farmers over a land use conflict they have with the neighbouring gun range.
Local land use regulations allows a gun club to set up 600 m away with competitive shooting days all day for 88 days a year. That is a voluntary self restraint. They could hold shooting competitions every day of the year. The local land use regulations allow the use of guns on rural land. The gun club used this absence of a prohibition on the use of guns in the frequency of use to set up a gun range to fire guns all day long on rural land.
Now here is the rub. There something wrong with the concept of quiet enjoyment of your land if a neighbour can fire off a large amount of noises continuously. The occasional noise, the occasional gunshot yes, but all day? I live near the airport, but I knew it was there when we bought the property and the lands was a little cheaper because of that.
The organic farmers are unusually pristine and prissy about what they want by neighbours to protect the sacredness of their more expensive snob food. I’m not too sure whether they would want to grant their neighbours an equal right to unusual land uses such as opening a gun range. That said, the organic farmers do have a point about a very noisy neighbouring land use that can be heard some distance away.
The organic farmers, of course, could have negotiated with their neighbours for covenants to restrict land use that undermine there are unusually pristine requirements for quiet enjoyment of their land and their neighbours land too. Easy to do when the land is first unused, but once economic activity accumulates, not so easy in terms of transaction costs and hold-outs.
Uber is most valuable start-up
06 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle, transport economics Tags: creative destruction, Uber
Swedosclerosis, Eurosclerosis and the British disease compared
05 Aug 2015 2 Comments
in currency unions, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, Euro crisis, fiscal policy Tags: British disease, British economy, Eurosclerosis, France, Germany, Italy, sick man of Europe, Sweden, Swedosclerosis
Figure 1 shows stark differences between Sweden, France, Italy and the UK since 1970 in departures from trend growth rates of 1.9% in real GDP per working age person, PPP. Italy did quite OK until 2000 growing at about the trend growth rate of 1.9% after which it fell into a hole so deep that it barely notice the onset of the global financial crisis. Sweden really had been the sick man of Europe until it turned its back on high taxing, welfare state socialism in the early 1990s. France has been in a long decline so much so that the global financial crisis is hard to pick up in the acceleration in its long decline in the mid-1990s. Figure 1 also shows Britain did very well, both under the neoliberal horrors of Thatcherism and the betrayals by Tony Blair of a true Labour Party platform. The UK grew at above the trend annual growth to 1.9% for most of the period from the early 1980s to 2007. The UK has done not so well since the onset of the global financial crisis.
Figure 1: Real GDP per Swede, French, British and Italian aged 15-64, 2014 US$ (converted to 2014 price level with updated 2011 PPPs), 1.9 per cent detrended, 1970-2013
Source: Computed from OECD StatExtract and The Conference Board. 2015. The Conference Board Total Economy Database™, May 2015, http://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase/
Note: When the line is flat, the economy is growing at its trend annual growth rate. A falling line means below trend annual growth; a rising line means of above trend annual growth. Detrended with values used by Edward Prescott.
German data was not in figure 1 because German unification threw all of its data into disarray for long-term comparison purposes.
The Left opposed airline deregulation
05 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, industrial organisation, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: airline deregulation, antimarket bias, bootleggers and baptists, expressive voting, Leftover Left, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
CHART: US average airfares 1979 to 2014 measured in number of hours work at the average wage. @chartoftheday http://t.co/q7Phz3VkU0—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) August 02, 2015
The economics of trophy hunting
03 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, environmental economics, law and economics, property rights Tags: Africa, antimarket bias, conservation, economics of conservation, endangered species, expressive voting, offsetting behaviour, rational irrationality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, uninte
The fates of two islands under constant threat from a neighbouring military colossus
01 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: anticapitalist mentality, antimarket bias, capitalism and freedom, China, Cuba, expressive voting, Hong Kong, Leftover Left, public intellectuals, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, Twitter left
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