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
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
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
The Economics of Creative Destruction, Part II
29 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
I’ve referred to “creative destruction” as the “best and worst part of capitalism.” This short video from the Fraser Institute is a good tutorial on the topic. The core message is that entrepreneurs improve our lives by coming up with new ideas, new technologies, and new products. That’s the good news. The bad news is […]
The Economics of Creative Destruction, Part II
“We Don’t Do That Here.”: Former NY Times Editor Blasts the “Gray Lady” for Bias and Activism
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: free speech, media bias, political correctness, regressive left
Former New York Times editor Adam Rubenstein has a lengthy essay at The Atlantic that pulls back the curtain on the newspaper and its alleged bias in its coverage. The essay follows similar pieces from former editors and writers that range from Bari Weiss to Rubenstein’s former colleague James Bennet. The essay describes a similar […]
“We Don’t Do That Here.”: Former NY Times Editor Blasts the “Gray Lady” for Bias and Activism
Four Myths about Price Discrimination
26 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, industrial organisation Tags: competition and monopoly
In an earlier post, Soda Prices are Too Low for the FTC, the Biden Administration seems to be trying to turn back the clock to a time when price discrimination was viewed as bad. Lest we repeat the mistakes of the past, it is worthwhile to remember its lessons. See this 2003 talk by some middling FTC…
Four Myths about Price Discrimination
Government Intervention and Relative Prices
25 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, macroeconomics
I periodically share Mark Perry’s famous “Chart of the Century” to show that government intervention is a recipe for rising relative prices.* Since economic principles don’t change when you cross national borders, one might expect to see similar patterns in other countries. And we do. Here’s a chart from Matthew Lesh of the Institute for […]
Government Intervention and Relative Prices
On price control
25 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, income redistribution, industrial organisation, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: price controls, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences, utility regulation
@TaxpayersUnion Submission on the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill
19 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, law and economics, property rights
Ford EV Crisis: “Our Gen 2 vehicles won’t launch unless we can … profit”
16 Feb 2024 1 Comment
in energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, global warming, industrial organisation, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, transport economics Tags: electric cars
Death of the EV revolution?
Ford EV Crisis: “Our Gen 2 vehicles won’t launch unless we can … profit”
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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