An excerpt from the Introduction of *Unbeatable*
Capitalism, Socialism, and Social Desirability Bias
Capitalism, Socialism, and Social Desirability Bias
01 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation Tags: capitalism and freedom
Can Trump’s Tariff Offensive Deliver New American Jobs?
28 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tariffs
By Lauren Weber of The WSJ. Excerpts:”Most economists and other experts are skeptical that job creation will happen on a large scale because planning and building new factories is an incredibly complex and lengthy process. Businesses will be reluctant to do that unless they’re sure the investment is worth it over the long term. A fairly…
Can Trump’s Tariff Offensive Deliver New American Jobs?
Smith Reviews Stiglitz
24 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, experimental economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation
Vernon Smith reviews Joe Stiglitz’s book The Road to Freedom: Stiglitz did work in the abstract intellectual theoretical tradition of neoclassical economics showing how the standard results were changed by asymmetric or imperfect information. He is oblivious, however, to the experimental lab and field empirical research showing that agent knowledge of all such information is […]
Smith Reviews Stiglitz
Long-Run Effects of Trade Wars
24 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, econometerics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, unemployment Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tariffs, unintended consequences
This short note shows that accounting for capital adjustment is critical when analyzing the long-run effects of trade wars on real wages and consumption. The reason is that trade wars increase the relative price between investment goods and labor by taxing imported investment goods and their inputs. This price shift depresses capital demand, shrinks the […]
Long-Run Effects of Trade Wars
My debate with Dani Rodrik about tariffs and free trade
22 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economic law, international economics, labour economics, politics - USA, unemployment Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tariffs
This occurred in Knoxville, you can watch it here. Lots of fun, and p.s. I am more of a free trader than he is. We did have some disagreements.
My debate with Dani Rodrik about tariffs and free trade
From Refineries to Fiefdoms: Is Newsom Orchestrating a State Takeover of California’s Oil Industry?
22 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle Tags: California, climate activists, regressive left
California’s refining capacity is collapsing—not because demand has disappeared, but because it is being deliberately dismantled by regulatory fiat. The recent announcement that Valero Energy will idle or shutter its Benicia refinery by 2026 isn’t just a business decision. It’s the calculated result of a hostile policy environment designed to punish traditional energy producers until they either leave the state or fall into government hands.
From Refineries to Fiefdoms: Is Newsom Orchestrating a State Takeover of California’s Oil Industry?
Ronald Reagan in 1982 on Free Trade
20 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economic law, international economics, liberalism, libertarianism, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: free trade, tariffs
TweetWhen President Ronald Reagan delivered this address in November 1982, I was a 24-year-old graduate student. Radically libertarian at that point for almost six years, I was sufficiently astute enough to know that Reagan wasn’t terrible on most of the issues that I cared about, but I was nevertheless insufficiently mature and astute enough to…
Ronald Reagan in 1982 on Free Trade
Victor Davis Hanson Should Stick to the Classics
18 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tarrifs
TweetHere’s a letter to The Daily Signal. Editor: Suppose I submitted to you an essay in which Thucydides is described as a first-century Roman senator who wrote a biography of Charlemagne – would you publish it? Of course not. The ignorance of such an essay would be palpable. But I would never write such a…
Victor Davis Hanson Should Stick to the Classics
Car Leasing Association Wants Govt Support As EV Second Hand Prices Plummet!
18 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: electric cars
Leasing companies have gambled that second hand values for EVs would be as strong as for conventional cars. It is a gamble that could cost them billions.
Car Leasing Association Wants Govt Support As EV Second Hand Prices Plummet!
Some Links
14 Apr 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tarrifs
TweetBob Graboyes masterfully exposes many of the fallacies that fuel Trump’s destructive trade ‘policy.’ Three slices: In 2016, Donald Trump promised, “We’re gonna win so much that you may get tired of winning.” His advisors must have reached that point, as evidenced by the bizarre, incoherent “Liberation Day” tariff policy they helped craft. Trump supporters have…
Some Links
Some Links
13 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, international economics Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tarrifs
TweetTunku Varadarajan’s “Weekend Interview” in the Wall Street Journal is with the great Dartmouth trade economist and economic historian Doug Irwin. Three slices: In effect, Mr. Trump also slapped tariffs on 10005, Wall Street’s ZIP Code, for America’s markets cowered in horror. Dollar assets experienced such a rout that Mr. Trump himself took notice of…
Some Links
Why Tariffs Don’t Cause and Won’t Fix Trade Deficits
12 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: free trade, tarrifs, unintended consequences
There’s a fundamental misconception at the root of President Trump’s tariff policies, which is the mistaken claim that the existence of a US trade deficit proves that trade is unfair. There are two related mistaken claims. One is a claim that if tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade were removed, then trade would be balanced.…
Why Tariffs Don’t Cause and Won’t Fix Trade Deficits
When Genius Failed
10 Apr 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, business cycles, economic growth, economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, financial economics, global financial crisis (GFC), history of economic thought, industrial organisation, macroeconomics, politics - USA
Myron Scholes was on top of the world in 1997, having won the Nobel Prize in economics that year for his work in financial economics, work that he had applied in the real world in a wildly successful hedge fund, Long Term Capital Management. But just one year later, LTCM was saved from collapse only […]
When Genius Failed
Resource Management and Property Rights
08 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: housing affordability, land supply
Brian Easton writes – While there have been decades of complaints – from all sides – about the workings of the Resource Management Act (RMA), replacing is proving difficult. The Coalition Government is making another attempt. To help answer the question, I am going to use the economic lens of the Coase Theorem, set out […]
Resource Management and Property Rights
Breaking up is hard to do
07 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle Tags: competition law
Eric Crampton writes – The pendulum theory of politics suggests that policies often swing from one extreme to another without finding a balanced middle ground. Consider New Zealand’s supermarkets. Current regulations have made it near-impossible for new large-scale grocers to enter the New Zealand market.
Breaking up is hard to do
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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