Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
04 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: employment law, European Union
I have a special page for humor involving Europe, but I have not added to it since sharing some Brexit humor in 2016. Let’s being the process of catching up with some amusing cartoons and memes mocking our government-loving cousins on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve made the serious point that bureaucrats […]
Mocking European Statism
02 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economic law, international economics, International law, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: 2024 presidential election, Canada, China, free trade, Mexico, tariffs
Trump’s first few weeks have been a mix of good and bad for this libertarian, all against a backdrop of horror at how Imperial the presidency has become. But as of today, perhaps the most destructive and stupid initiative has begun: Because we are all tired of those fentanyl-toting Canadians crossing the border illegally. I…
…And the Really Stupid Sh*t Begins
02 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economic history, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, unemployment Tags: creative destruction
By David J. Deming, Christopher Ong, and Lawrence H. Summers. From NPR’s Planet Money. Summers was Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001, director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010 and president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006.”Obviously, there is a big fear right now that artificial intelligence will kill…
Technological Disruption in the Labor Market
01 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, financial economics, fiscal policy, industrial organisation, International law, macroeconomics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
From the Economist: The international tax system has long suffered from two related problems: firms go to great lengths to book profits in low-tax jurisdictions, and governments thus have strong incentives to compete with each other in cutting levies so as to attract investment [only a dirigiste would consider this a problem]. Hoping to forestall…
Can President Trump break the International Corporate Tax Cartel?
29 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: top 1%
Here goes: Ex po st, the Manhattan audience swung thirty (!) points in my favor, compared to the pre-debate poll. This was a fun event for me.
My 92nd St. Y debate with Robert Kuttner on income inequality
26 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment
It would be fair to say that 2024 Nobel Prize winner Daron Acemoglu has been a bit of a sceptic about the impacts of generative AI (for example, see here). This scepticism is exemplified in a new paper forthcoming in the journal Economic Policy (ungated earlier version here). Acemoglu first notes that:Some experts believe that truly…
Daron Acemoglu expects only a tiny macroeconomic impact of AI
26 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, defence economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, war and peace Tags: patents and copyrights, World War II
One of the hardest questions in copyright policy is: “What would have happened otherwise?” When Disney lobbies for longer copyright terms or academic publishers defend high subscription fees, we struggle to evaluate their claims because we can’t observe the counterfactual. What would happen to creativity and innovation if we shortened copyright terms or lowered prices? […]
A Wartime Natural Experiment About Copyright
25 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, industrial organisation, Milton Friedman
Tweet… is from page 224 of Milton & Rose Friedman’s great 1980 book, Free To Choose: What about the claim that consumers can be led by the nose by advertising? Our answer is that they can’t – as numerous expensive advertising fiascoes testify. One of the greatest duds of all time was the Edsel automobile,…
Quotation of the Day…
22 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand
The year ahead: Oliver Hartwich reflects on nearly five decades of living through technological transformation – and finds a giant wellspring of optimism Oliver Hartwich writes – When Newsroom’s editor Jonathan Milne invited me to write one of two special pieces for the summer break, I faced quite the conundrum. My options were to either […]
A pessimist’s reasons to be optimistic in 2025
20 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, fiscal policy, global warming, industrial organisation, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: 2024 presidential election, regressive left
This is the last full day of Joe Biden’s dismal presidency, so let’s do what we did with Justin Trudeau and reflect on his pathetic legacy. I’ve already provided my own economic assessment of Biden’s record, so now let’s review how he is seen by others. We’ll start with the American people. According to a […]
Good Riddance, Joe Biden
20 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, industrial organisation, politics - USA Tags: 2008 presidential election, 2012 presidential election, 2016 US presidential election, 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election, media bias
In yesterday’s post, I noted a number of opportunities for research on the economics of social media. At least one of those opportunities intersected with the impact of traditional media. So, I was interested to read this new article by Elliott Ash, Sergio Galletta, Matteo Pinna (all ETH Zurich), and Christopher Warshaw (George Washington University), published…
The impact of Fox News on American democracy
19 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice
Several recent tweets(xeets) about tech talent re-ignited the conversation about native-born STEM workers and American policy. For the Very Online, Christmas 2024 was about the H-1B Elon tweets. Elon Musk implies that “elite” engineering talent cannot be found among Americans. Do Americans need to import talent? What would it take to home grow elite engineering […]
No Tech Workers or No Tech Jobs?
19 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of love and marriage, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, unemployment
Tweet… is from page 53 of the late, great Harold Demsetz’s excellent 2008 book, From Economic Man to Economic System: Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus differed in their forecasts of mankind’s future. Smith (1776), in his Wealth of Nations, offered an optimistic view, basing this on his understanding of the new economic system that began…
Quotation of the Day…
18 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, regulation Tags: Canada
From John Ruffalo.
Canada’s missing entrepreneurs
18 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, market efficiency, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
Lab-grown diamonds are gaining share, but they might be getting too cheap and largeBy Jinjoo Lee of The WSJ. Excerpts:”After a postpandemic surge in demand in 2021 and 2022, natural-diamond prices are down about 8% compared with the first quarter of 2020, while lab-grown diamond prices are down 75%” [if they are substitutes for each…
Natural Diamonds Had a Rough Year—Some Hope to Restore Their Shine
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
A History of the Alt-Right
Econ Prof at George Mason University, Economic Historian, Québécois
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
WORLD WAR II, MUSIC, HISTORY, HOLOCAUST
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Res ipsa loquitur - The thing itself speaks
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
The truth about the great wind power fraud - we're not here to debate the wind industry, we're here to destroy it.
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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