Martin Gurri has a very good, deep-dive on the current situation in Cuba. The wreckage of the Cuban economy really can’t be exaggerated. The perpetual blackouts are an apt symbol of a country that is headed for the dark ages. For the first time since the revolution, Cuba is begging the United Nations for food aid. Nearly […]
Cuba Libre
Cuba Libre
05 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, growth disasters, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: Cuba
Productivity Syndrome and the Investment Prescription
30 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics
Economic productivity is about growing the size of the pie. I sometimes point out that no matter what your goal–spending increases, tax cuts, greater support for the poor, environmental protection–that goal is easier when the economic pie is growing. When the economic pie isn’t growing, after all, then all priorities have to pit potential winners…
Productivity Syndrome and the Investment Prescription
Will strong AI raise or lower interest rates?
29 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, energy economics, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation Tags: artificial intelligence
That is the topic of my latest Bloomberg column. Here is one excerpt: First, as a matter of practice, if there is a true AI boom, or the advent of artificial general intelligence (AGI), the demand for capital expenditures (capex) will be extremely high. Second, as a matter of theory, the productivity of capital is […]
Will strong AI raise or lower interest rates?
An Open Letter to Nobel-laureate Economist Angus Deaton
13 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, unemployment Tags: creative destruction, free trade, tariffs
TweetProf. Angus Deaton Princeton University Prof. Deaton: Over the years I’ve learned much from your writings, and I regard your 2013 The Great Escape as one of the most important books published in the past 15 years. So I was quite surprised and disappointed to read that you, as you say, are now “much more…
An Open Letter to Nobel-laureate Economist Angus Deaton
Claude 3 Opus Also Fails Steve Landsburg’s Economics Exam
13 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, industrial organisation
Almost one year ago, Steve Landsburg tried GPT-4 on one of his exams. It failed, badly. I tried out some of the same questions on Claude 3 Opus, by many accounts now the leading AI. It failed, badly. Steve’s exams are very clever. They aren’t technically difficult but they are tricky in the sense that […]
Claude 3 Opus Also Fails Steve Landsburg’s Economics Exam
‘Swiftonomics’ and the optimal number of Taylor Swift examples
11 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, economics of media and culture, history of economic thought, industrial organisation
I was interested to read this recent article on Inside Higher Education, about ‘Swiftonomics’:Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist, Nobel Prize winner and Distinguished Professor of economics at the CUNY Graduate Center, began working on the curriculum for the course last summer. Swift’s massive Eras Tour had just kicked off, creating such a frenzy…
‘Swiftonomics’ and the optimal number of Taylor Swift examples
Reading deal – rare media bouquet
11 Mar 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of media and culture, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, market efficiency, movies, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm, urban economics Tags: Wellington
Both Matt Nippert of the NZ Herald and Tom Hunt of The Post deserve a bouquet for their analyses of the truly remarkable deal between the Wellington City Council (WCC) and the troubled American Cinema company Reading. For this who don’t know, Reading owns a large (more than 14, 000 square metres or 1.4 hectares) […]
Reading deal – rare media bouquet
TV layoffs not a threat to democracy
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: media bias
A few weeks ago I joined some contemporaries by abandoning the near sixty year habit of watching nightly TV news. I dropped it because I felt it did not give me real information that I had not acquired from other media sources, including some I pay for – The Economist, the NZ Herald, The Atlantic […]
TV layoffs not a threat to democracy
Using procurement for political ends gives you worse prices.
09 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, theory of the firm, transport economics, urban economics Tags: cartels, competition and monopoly, competition law
Over 20 years ago, some middling economists (cite) estimated that the Small Business Set-Aside program reduced Forest Service Timber prices by 15%. By limiting the potential pool of available bidders to only smaller lumber mills, you get less competition and worse prices. Now San Francisco is re-learning that lesson. In 2016, it refused to do…
Using procurement for political ends gives you worse prices.
DAVID FARRAR: Meta withdraws Facebook News in Australia
09 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, market selection, media bias
David Farrar writes – Stuff reports: Facebook owner Meta has refused to continue paying for news in Australia, announcing it will end its deals with local publishers when they expire this year in a decision that news companies say blatantly ignores the value of their journalism. The government also blasted the move, describing it as “a […]
DAVID FARRAR: Meta withdraws Facebook News in Australia
What can be learned from Singaporean health care institutions?
06 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, growth miracles, health economics, industrial organisation Tags: health insurance, Singapore
Besides the usual, that is. Max Thilo of the UK has a new and excellent study on this, here is one excerpt from the foreword by Lord Warner: Second, and critical, the Singaporeans are not fixated on delivering services from acute hospitals – the most expensive part of any healthcare system because of its fixed […]
What can be learned from Singaporean health care institutions?
The Uncompetitive Urban Land Markets Theory of Everything
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
The Housing Theory of Everything has one of those wonderful self-explanatory titles. A good title matters. The recent and thorough essay explains how the anglosphere’s unnecessarily expensive housing affects, well, everything. Or at least almost everything.Zoning makes it too hard to build houses where people want to build. Urban containment policies block new subdivisions, so…
The Uncompetitive Urban Land Markets Theory of Everything
PETER WILLIAMS: RIP Newshub
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, financial economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, survivor principle Tags: media bias
Could anything have saved it? The real surprise is not that Newshub is going under but that it’s lasted this long. TV 3 started broadcasting in November 1989, almost 35 years ago. It was a different era. There was no Sky, no digital platforms and the new kid on the block was going head to head…
PETER WILLIAMS: RIP Newshub
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Economics 101 explains why Newshub Bankrupted
02 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, market efficiency, politics - New Zealand, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: creative destruction
Economics 101 explains why Newshub Bankrupted – it was the fault of its own journalists who should recognize they were the architects of their own demise. A thousand books and papers in economics and business strategy are about the topic of product differentiation – ensuring that what you sell is different from others in order…
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Economics 101 explains why Newshub Bankrupted
Europe’s Wind Industry Faces Total Oblivion & Slovakia Cans All Wind Projects
01 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: celebrity technologies, wind power
Europe’s wind industry is in its death throes. Denmark’s Ørsted share price plummeted 25% late last year, and after slashing dividends to shareholders was forced to write $billions off the projected value of its US offshore projects, and its share price is still heading south. Europe’s turbine manufacturers are bleeding cash and their shares will […]
Europe’s Wind Industry Faces Total Oblivion & Slovakia Cans All Wind Projects
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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