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
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
Congress and Courts enable Energy and Climate Fantasy and Tyranny
15 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
Supreme Court should end “Chevron deference” to restore checks, balances and reality
Congress and Courts enable Energy and Climate Fantasy and Tyranny
The California Energy Scam: Newsom’s Actions Of “Leaking” Emissions To Poorer Developing Countries.
14 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA Tags: California, climate alarmism
By “leaking” emissions to other countries, California successfully reduces its in-state emissions, but effectively induces net increases to the world’s emissions!
The California Energy Scam: Newsom’s Actions Of “Leaking” Emissions To Poorer Developing Countries.
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
Flying in America Has Actually Never Been Safer
05 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health and safety, transport economics Tags: air accidents, air crash investigations
U.S. airlines have gone nearly 15 years without a fatal crash—and it’s not just luck. The revolution in the skies began with an innovative program that has become a model for the rest of the world.By Ben Cohen of The WSJ. I used the book The Economics of Public Issues in my micro classes. It had…
Flying in America Has Actually Never Been Safer
Environmental Laws That Impeded Pipelines For Years Could Trip Up Biden’s Sprint Toward Offshore Wind
04 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: celebrity technologies, wind power
Environmental rules and regulations that activists have used for years to drown disfavored infrastructure projects in litigation are now threatening a key pillar of President Joe Biden’s massive climate agenda.
Environmental Laws That Impeded Pipelines For Years Could Trip Up Biden’s Sprint Toward Offshore Wind
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
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?
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
17 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, economics of information, economics of regulation, health and safety, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, minimum wage, occupational choice, occupational regulation, poverty and inequality, unemployment, unions
A quarter century ago, economist Price Fishback published “Operations of ‘Unfettered’ Labor Markets: Exit and Voice in American Labor Markets at the Turn of the Century” in the prestigious Journal of Economic Literature. Fishback’s article is packed with insight… and understatement. But let’s back up. Virtually every standard history textbook describes U.S. labor markets before…
Unfettered: Fishback 25 Years Later
Even More Evidence Against Minimum Wage Laws
13 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: minimum wage
As explained by public intellectuals such as Milton Friedman, Johan Norberg, John Stossel, and Orphe Divougny, the argument against minimum wage requirements is very simple. If politicians dictate that people can’t be employed unless they receive, say, $15 per hour, then workers who are worth less than than amount (because of low skills, no experience, […]
Even More Evidence Against Minimum Wage Laws
Why Britain’s economy is failing
04 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: British politics, land supply, zoning
In the past five years, the number of applications to connect to the electricity grid — many of them for solar energy generation and storage — has increased tenfold, with waits of up to 15 years. The underinvestment is restricting the flow of cheap energy from Scottish wind farms to population centers in England and adding to […]
Why Britain’s economy is failing
Are cities for tourists or residents?
03 Jan 2024 1 Comment
in economics of regulation, industrial organisation, transport economics, urban economics
And at what margin? A new ideological struggle is brewing, yet we have not yet recognized it as such. The question is to what extent cities are for tourists, or for their current residents. Here is a report from Vermont: A Vermont town known for its autumn foliage has closed its roads to the public […]
Are cities for tourists or residents?
Solow on Market Advantages and Market Failures
31 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, business cycles, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, labour economics, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics, unemployment
Robert Solow (1924-2023) died last week. As a starting point for understanding his life and his work on growth theory, the Nobel prize website, since he won the award in 1987, includes an overall description, a biographical essay, and his Nobel lecture. I can also strongly recommend an interview that Steven Levitt carried out with…
Solow on Market Advantages and Market Failures
Argentina Milei reform impressions
23 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, business cycles, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, history of economic thought, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, monetary economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, unemployment Tags: Argentina
I didn’t have much time in Argentina, but I can pass along a few impressions about how Milei is doing, noting I hold these with “weak belief”: 1. He is pretty popular with the general population. He is also popular in B.A. in particular. People are fed up with what they have been experiencing. It […]
Argentina Milei reform impressions
Finn E. Kydland Nobel Lecture at CERGE-EI
22 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, business cycles, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), great depression, great recession, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, monetary economics, Public Choice, public economics
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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