TweetIn this video, GMU Econ alum – and my Mercatus Center colleague – Liya Palagashvili talks with John Stossel about the economic destructiveness of labor unions. The post Palagashvili and Stossel on How Vile Labor Unions Can Be appeared first on Cafe Hayek.
Palagashvili and Stossel on How Vile Labor Unions Can Be
Palagashvili and Stossel on How Vile Labor Unions Can Be
20 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, survivor principle, unions
Some Simple Economics of the Google Antitrust Case
17 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: competition law
The case is straightforward: Google pays firms like Apple billions of dollars to make its search engine the default. (N.B. I would rephrase this as Apple charges Google billions of dollars to make its search engine the default–a phrasing which matters if you want to understand what is really going on. But set that aside […]
Some Simple Economics of the Google Antitrust Case
Health insurance companies are not the main villain
16 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, health economics, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: health insurance
First of all, insurance companies just don’t make that much profit. UnitedHealth Group, the company of which Brian Thompson’s UnitedHealthcare is a subsidiary, is the most valuable private health insurer in the country in terms of market capitalization, and the one with the largest market share. Its net profit margin is just 6.11%… That’s only about half of […]
Health insurance companies are not the main villain
#OTD a monopoly was born!?
15 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: competition law, creative destruction, merger law enforcement

“This is Not the Time for Balance”: LA Times Columnist Resigns in Protest . . . Over Balanced Commentary
13 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, financial economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, survivor principle Tags: media bias

When now President-Elect Donald Trump was convicted, the thrill-kill atmosphere around the courthouse and the country was explosive, but no one was more ecstatic than liberal columnist and former prosecutor Harry Litman. The then L.A. Times columnist told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace that it was a “majestic day” and “a day to celebrate.” A lawfare advocate, […]
“This is Not the Time for Balance”: LA Times Columnist Resigns in Protest . . . Over Balanced Commentary
More on Business Dynamism
11 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, financial economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: creative destruction, employment law

Over at the Geek Way, Andrew McAfee has created a startling visualization related to entrepreneurship in the US and EU. The Draghi Report on EU competitiveness is generating a small buzz among economists. One startling claim is thatthere is no EU company with a market capitalisation over EUR 100 billion that has been set up…
More on Business Dynamism
Nobody Wants To Build Wind Farms In The North Sea
10 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, industrial organisation, resource economics, survivor principle Tags: wind power

By Paul Homewood h/t Hugh Sharman If wind power was so cheap, you would think they would be queuing up to build them: The Danish Energy Agency has not received a single bid for any of the three offshore wind farms in the North Sea, the agency said in a […]
Nobody Wants To Build Wind Farms In The North Sea
The Kiwirail black hole
06 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, financial economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, survivor principle

Bronwyn Howell writes: KiwiRail is a state-owned enterprise, and so by law its principal objective is “to operate as a successful business”.1 Success in the business world means that you provide something that your customers are willing to pay for, at a price for that exceeds your cost of production, leaving something to reward your owners/investors…
The Kiwirail black hole
Another corporate welfare failure
02 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, global warming, income redistribution, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: climate alarmism
The Herald reported: The Government has $115 million at risk from the collapse of SolarZero. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she was seeking urgent advice on the SolarZero situation. She had no further comment. NZ Green Investment Finance – a “green investment bank” created by the previous Government to fund environmentally-friendly businesses – made a $145m…
Another corporate welfare failure
Electric Vehicles: A Tale of Woe in the Absence of the Market Process
09 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle, transport economics, urban economics Tags: electric cars
There is a market for electric vehicles, but government mandates and subsidies—regulators predicting winners and losers—cause more harm than good. By forcing technology into widespread use before it is ready for primetime, governments are causing consumers to resist EVs. Instead, government regulators should allow consumer demand, competition, and the “market process” to guide EV adoption.
Electric Vehicles: A Tale of Woe in the Absence of the Market Process
Creative destruction
04 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, industrial organisation, macroeconomics, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, The Great Enrichment

Bezos on endorsements
01 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, survivor principle Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, Freedom of the press, political correctness, regressive left
Jeff Bezos writes: In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not […]
Bezos on endorsements
The Shinkansen and Japan’s Lost Decades
30 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle, transport economics, urban economics Tags: Japan
Japan is known for many things, but two of them are the Shinkansen high-speed trains and the nation’s three Lost Decades of slow economic growth. Unfortunately, most tourists who go to Japan see the former and don’t see the latter and especially don’t see the connection between the two. The … Continue reading →
The Shinkansen and Japan’s Lost Decades
WSJ Video on Trump-Biden-Trump Tariffs
22 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: 2024 presidential election, tarrifs
TweetI can pick a few nits with this eight-minute-long video from the Wall Street Journal on tariffs – for example, for all of their many problems, tariffs do not (contrary to what’s reported in the video) cause any net, economy-wide loss of jobs. Nevertheless, this video is quite good, not least because it features the…
WSJ Video on Trump-Biden-Trump Tariffs
Industrial Policy: The Triumph of Hope over Experience
13 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, income redistribution, industrial organisation, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle

Industrial policy is when politicians and bureaucrats use various combinations of tax, spending, and regulatory policies to steer the economy. In other words, they are putting their thumbs on the scale to pick winners and losers. It means replacing the “invisible hand” of the market with the “grabbing hand” of politics. I’m motivated to write […]
Industrial Policy: The Triumph of Hope over Experience
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