Global emissions are at records, while shift away from fossil fuels slows amid high costs, surging power demandSee By Ed Ballard and Amrith Ramkumar of The WSJ.Keeping the air clean is laudable goal, but the benefit of actions in this area need to outweigh the costs.Excerpts from the article:”Renewable energy is growing faster than expected.…
America’s Ambitious Climate Plan Is Faltering
America’s Ambitious Climate Plan Is Faltering
10 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: solar power, wind power
What planet are they on?
09 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, legacy media
New Zealand’s newspaper chiefs’ views on how the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill works is somewhat at odds with the text of the Bill. Google today, admirably, said they’ll stop linking to New Zealand news outlets in search if the Bill goes ahead. News Publishers’ Association’s Andrew Holden and Stuff’s Sinead Boucher aren’t happy about that. But…
What planet are they on?
Paid music makes a comeback
09 Oct 2024 1 Comment
in economic history, industrial organisation, Music, survivor principle
Friedman vs Stiglitz: Estonia and Poland vs. Argentina and Venezuela
06 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: Argentina, Chile, Poland, regressive left, Venezuela
About 10 days ago, i showed that Milton Friedman was a much better economist than Joseph Stiglitz by comparing Chile (which followed Friedman’s ideas) and Venezuela (which followed Stiglitz’s ideas). It was a slam-dunk win for Friedman. Chile started poor and has become relatively prosperous. The opposite happened in Venezuela, which started relatively prosperous and […]
Friedman vs Stiglitz: Estonia and Poland vs. Argentina and Venezuela
Creative destruction
03 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship, financial economics, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
It is wonderful to put inefficient firms out of business
31 Aug 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
The differences between the most and least productive companies can be startlingly high. By one estimate, in the US alone the most productive firms in a sector can be more than two to four times more cost-effective than the least productive ones. Given the size of those discrepancies, any expansion of trade or innovation that makes […]
It is wonderful to put inefficient firms out of business
Newspaper niches
28 Aug 2024 1 Comment
in entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle, television, TV shows Tags: media bias
The Cascade of Failures in the Biofuel Industry: A Case of Economic and Environmental Mismanagement
26 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: biofuels
…the biofuel experiment has left behind a trail of bankruptcies, environmental degradation, and unfulfilled promises.
The Cascade of Failures in the Biofuel Industry: A Case of Economic and Environmental Mismanagement
Why Top CEOs Earn Big Paychecks
22 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, managerial economics, market efficiency, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, survivor principle Tags: CEO pay, superstar wages
CEO compensation at large firms is high, especially in comparison to average worker wages, sparking debates over income inequality. Critics argue that such pay packages are unfair and disproportionate to actual company performance. Proponents contend that high pay reflects productivity and is necessary to attract scarce top talent to large firms. Let’s go to the […]
Why Top CEOs Earn Big Paychecks
Telephone Operators: The Elimination of a Job
20 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, gender, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, market efficiency, occupational choice, survivor principle, unemployment Tags: creative destruction
My tradition on this blog is to take a break (mostly!) from current events in the later part of August. Instead, I pre-schedule daily posts based on things I read during the previous year about three of my preoccupations: economics, editing/writing, and academia. With the posts pre-scheduled, I can then relax more deeply when floating…
Telephone Operators: The Elimination of a Job
The Creation of Ride-sharing and the Creativity of Markets
10 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, regulation, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: barriers to entry, creative destruction, taxi regulation
The idea behind Uber first arose, the story goes, on a snowy evening in Paris back around 2008, when Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp found themselves stuck in Paris on a snowy evening, unable to find a taxi. They wondered “What if you could request a ride simply by tapping your phone?” They co-founded Uber based…
The Creation of Ride-sharing and the Creativity of Markets
Pervasive myth of centralisation unravels in NZ
06 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, health economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealand’s government sacked the entire board of Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) last week, replacing it with a sole commissioner. The move marked more than just another shake-up in the country’s beleaguered health system. It signalled the spectacular failure of a grand experiment that has turned New Zealand into […]
Pervasive myth of centralisation unravels in NZ
28 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, industrial organisation, survivor principle, television Tags: creative destruction
Reporters Blame “Right-Wing Media” for Their Failure to Disclose Biden’s Infirmity
05 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, media bias, political correctness, regressive left
The media is sorry . . . sort of. After the shocking appearance of President Joe Biden in the presidential debate, the public has turned its attention to the press which has, again, buried a major scandal for years. According to CNN, the reporters at the White House are really, really sorry but explained that […]
Reporters Blame “Right-Wing Media” for Their Failure to Disclose Biden’s Infirmity
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments