Joe Walker interviews Eugene Fama (Nobel ’13) with the title “For Whom is the Market Efficient?” (The Joe Walker podcast, December 31, 2024). Here are some bits and pieces of their exchange that caught my eye. Are financial markets efficient? WALKER: Gene, I was talking with a few friends who work in high finance in preparation…
Interview with Eugene Fama: For Whom are Financial Markets Efficient?
Interview with Eugene Fama: For Whom are Financial Markets Efficient?
28 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, entrepreneurship, financial economics Tags: efficient markets hypothesis, Internet
The Tennessee-BlackRock Settlement: A Win for Transparency and Investor Interests
24 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: active investing, climate activists, climate alarmism, efficient markets hypothesis
While no settlement is perfect, this agreement represents a significant victory for transparency, accountability, and the integrity of financial markets. For Tennessee investors—and indeed, all investors across the country—it’s a step in the right direction.
The Tennessee-BlackRock Settlement: A Win for Transparency and Investor Interests
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
24 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, financial economics Tags: active investing, efficient markets hypothesis, passive investing

John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, wrote a short book in 2006 that explains his investment philosophy. I can sum it up at much less than book length: the best investment advice for almost everyone is to buy and hold a diversified, low-fee fund that tracks an index like the S&P 500. Of course, a […]
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
Margaret Thatcher, Michael Curley, and the 19th Theorem of Government
16 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, financial economics, fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, regulation, rentseeking
In this 12-second video, Margaret Thatcher is talking about the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, but her warning has universal application. And when I say her warning has universal application, I’m not joking. Politicians generally can’t resist the temptation to buy votes. And I fear that this can and will happen at all levels […]
Margaret Thatcher, Michael Curley, and the 19th Theorem of Government
Will Australia’s Mandatory Climate Reporting make Greenwashing Illegal?
13 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of information, economics of regulation, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, politics - Australia Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism

Legal penalties for greenwashing could force Aussie companies to declare their total lack of interest in climate action.
Will Australia’s Mandatory Climate Reporting make Greenwashing Illegal?
Is ESG investing illegal? In TX it is.
13 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in financial economics, politics - USA Tags: efficient markets hypothesis, regressive left
Breaking: …US District Judge Reed O’Connor found that the airline breached its fiduciary duty … by prioritizing ESG considerations over the financial interests of participants. … The court criticized American Airlines for allowing its asset manager, BlackRock, to advance goals unrelated to maximizing returns for plan participants. “ERISA does not permit a fiduciary to pursue…
Is ESG investing illegal? In TX it is.
‘A Huge Win’: Woke ‘Cartel’ Of Financial Giants Dealt Death Blow 11 Days Before Trump Takes Office
13 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of climate change, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: efficient markets hypothesis
“The news of BlackRock’s departure from NZAM should be music to the ears of every American consumer,” Will Hild, executive director of conservative nonprofit Consumers’ Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “NZAM is an illegitimate cartel of asset managers pushing harmful and costly net zero policies across the entire economy. The activities of NZAM and its members raise prices on Americans everywhere from the gas pump to the grocery store.”
‘A Huge Win’: Woke ‘Cartel’ Of Financial Giants Dealt Death Blow 11 Days Before Trump Takes Office
Debanking: Oil companies and the “far right” watch out
12 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism, competition law enforcement
The decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of BNZ v Gloriavale is here if you want to read it. Gravedodger wrote his views on the topic here. I want to focus on a particular comment in the decision at paragraph [139]. That comment was this one: [139] In particular, we do not […]
Debanking: Oil companies and the “far right” watch out
Price controls destroy wealth: California Fire Insurance
11 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, environmentalism, financial economics, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: price controls
Noah Smith via Marginal Revolution, and Kim Mai Cutler. The CA insurance regulator is elected, and is reluctant to allow higher rates for fire insurance, despite the big risks, lest she be voted out of office. As a consequence, expected profits are low, so a majority of top insurers have stopped issuing fire insurance in CA.…
Price controls destroy wealth: California Fire Insurance
Left-Wing Economists Were Wildly Wrong about Javier Milei and his Libertarian Agenda for Argentina
10 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, budget deficits, business cycles, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economics of regulation, financial economics, fiscal policy, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, monetarism, monetary economics, political change, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, unemployment Tags: Argentina

It’s easy to mock economists. Consider the supposedly prestigious left-leaning academics who asserted in 2021 that Biden’s agenda was not inflationary. At the risk of understatement, they wound up with egg on their faces.* Today, we’re going to look at another example of leftist economists making fools of themselves. It involves Argentina, where President Javier […]
Left-Wing Economists Were Wildly Wrong about Javier Milei and his Libertarian Agenda for Argentina
ESG ‘vibe’ check: ‘Stock market investors are pulling a record amount of cash out of climate funds’ – ‘The main driver of the exodus is bad vibes’
31 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, global warming Tags: climate activists
Stock market investors are pulling a record amount of cash out of climate funds, even though many have not underperformed.
ESG ‘vibe’ check: ‘Stock market investors are pulling a record amount of cash out of climate funds’ – ‘The main driver of the exodus is bad vibes’
Argentina facts of the day
29 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, F.A. Hayek, financial economics, fiscal policy, growth disasters, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, unemployment Tags: Argentina
Argentina’s bonds have already rallied dramatically. One gauge of the nation’s hard-currency debt, the ICE BofA US Dollar Argentina Sovereign Index, has generated a total return of about 90% this year. Meanwhile, the S&P Merval Index has risen more than 160% this year through Monday, far outpacing stock benchmarks in developed, emerging and frontier markets […]
Argentina facts of the day
Bye and Bye: Washington State Moves To Toward a “Wealth Tax” As the Wealthy Move to Leave the State
26 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, financial economics, fiscal policy, income redistribution, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: regressive left, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and savings, wealth tax

Washington State’s unofficial state motto has long been “Al-ki” which means either “bye and bye” or “by and by” in Chinook. The former meaning now seems official as Gov. Jay Inslee pushed for a “wealth tax.” Wealthy citizens are already saying bye to the state in anticipation of what one Democratic billionaire recently called a […]
Bye and Bye: Washington State Moves To Toward a “Wealth Tax” As the Wealthy Move to Leave the State
Miliband bails out wind turbine factory
15 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming Tags: British politics, climate activists, wind power

By Paul Homewood h/t Paul Kolk Why does Miliband think he has the right to spend our money as he sees fit? Ministers have been forced to step in and rescue a wind turbine factory after collapsing demand for blades pushed it to near collapse. Wind turbine maker Vestas on Wednesday said […]
Miliband bails out wind turbine factory
OWEN JENNINGS: Banks Flout their Social Contract
14 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, financial economics, global warming, politics - New Zealand
For a civil society to work smoothly and effectively certain ‘social contracts’ need to have broad acceptance and be honoured by all individuals and groups. They are unwritten rules we tacitly observe. They provide a framework of understandings that allow us to live harmoniously. Some of these ‘rules’ or social contracts get defined or backed…
OWEN JENNINGS: Banks Flout their Social Contract
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