Companies already track your every move online. Some researchers say it is only a matter of time until retailers start using that data to set prices just for you.By Jackie Snow of The WSJ.The print edition titled this article “How to Prevent Personalized Pricing.” This sounds like a form of price discrimination, which I will…
What Is Personalized Pricing—and Why Are Lawmakers Scrambling to Ban It?
What Is Personalized Pricing—and Why Are Lawmakers Scrambling to Ban It?
07 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
The Troubled History of Government Equity in Technology
07 Jul 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, privatisation, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, Germany
Even though Germany privatized Deutsche Telekom in 1996, the federal government retained a substantial ownership stake. This partial state ownership status, which remains to this day, presents a textbook example of how this type of arrangement distorts incentives and delays the competitive dynamism necessary for technological progress. Through the late 1990s and into the 2000s, Deutsche Telekom…
The Troubled History of Government Equity in Technology
Do falling birth rates boost per capita income?
06 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: economics of fertility
The secular decline in birth rates across the globe over the past seven decades has slowed population growth, raised average ages, and reshaped labor markets and the macroeconomy. Contrary to the widespread expectation that these trends hamper economic growth, we find lower birth rates are associated with higher growth in GDP per working-age adult across…
Do falling birth rates boost per capita income?
China’s Spent Rockets Are Turning Low Earth Orbit Into a Debris Minefield
04 Jul 2026 1 Comment
in law and economics, property rights, transport economics Tags: space
China’s pattern of treating low Earth orbit like a dumping ground at the same time it is expanding potential military space capabilities should raise serious concerns for anyone relying on satellite infrastructure — which, at this point, is pretty much everyone. The post China’s Spent Rockets Are Turning Low Earth Orbit Into a Debris Minefield…
China’s Spent Rockets Are Turning Low Earth Orbit Into a Debris Minefield
One public servant we could survive without
03 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: economics of smoking
Stuff reports: A Government ministry has taken the time to threaten legal action against Stuff, all over a photo of a 45-year-old magazine used in a Stuff Quiz. On June 26, question five of the Stuff morning trivia quiz asked who appeared on the debut cover of Playboy magazine. To accompany the question, the quiz featured an archive image of a person…
One public servant we could survive without
Supreme Court upholds ban on trans-identified men participating in sports in public schools
03 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
In a decision split along ideological lines yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state bans on trans-identified boys and men competing in girl’s and women’s sports were Constitutionally legal. Although the judges were unanimous in arguing that those laws did not violate Civil Rights laws (Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education), they…
Supreme Court upholds ban on trans-identified men participating in sports in public schools
Rent Control: The Ceiling Trap
02 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, law and economics, property rights Tags: rent control
Rent control is in the news again. Check out my new website, Rent Control: The Ceiling Trap. Here is just one bit: Norway abolished its rent control in 1982, and the economist Are Oust realized the newspapers had been quietly recording the whole experiment. He collected housing classifieds from Oslo’s Aftenposten from 1970 to 2008 and watched…
Rent Control: The Ceiling Trap
A New Deal for Presidents? The Supreme Court Overturns Humphrey’s Executor and Reaffirms Executive Power
02 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
Below is my column in the New York Post on the historic ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, reinforcing the authority…
A New Deal for Presidents? The Supreme Court Overturns Humphrey’s Executor and Reaffirms Executive Power
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ the Islamophobia tsar
02 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of religion, liberalism Tags: free speech, Freedom of religion, political correctness, regressive left
Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “aspects,” came with a note: “Thankfully, that Anti-Muslim Hostility Tsar seems to be taking his time arriving.” Yes, the British Government was going to appoint a “tsar” to oversee and police anti-Muslim hostility, but the position remains unfilled. The Muslim Council of Britain is complaining (their bolding): The Muslim…
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ the Islamophobia tsar
Typewriters and fertility
01 Jul 2026 1 Comment
in discrimination, economic history, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: economics of fertility
Workplace technological changes were instrumental in creating new tasks for women over the last century. This paper studies the adoption of the typewriter into US workplaces. Exploiting exogenous variation in typist demand across sectors, I document that the typewriter increased women’s labor force participation, leading to lower rates of marriage and fertility. These developments stemmed…
Typewriters and fertility
Pre-market societies could sometimes have alot of violence
01 Jul 2026 1 Comment
in economic history, economics of crime, law and economics Tags: evolutionary anthropology
Non-capitalist or pre-capitalist societies can have quite a bit of violence. The first quote comes from The Making of Economic Society, 13e by Robert L. Heilbroner and William Milberg. “It is difficult for us to reconstruct the violent tenor of much of feudal life, but one investigator has provided a statistic that may serve to…
Pre-market societies could sometimes have alot of violence
Air Conditioning Torn From Homes Under Net Zero Clampdown
30 Jun 2026 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming
Homeowners are being forced to tear out air conditioning from their properties under Net Zero laws that prioritise “passive cooling” and only permit “active cooling” as a “last resort”. The Telegraph has the story. The post Air Conditioning Torn From Homes Under Net Zero Clampdown appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
Air Conditioning Torn From Homes Under Net Zero Clampdown
Will future biomedical advances be low marginal cost?
30 Jun 2026 1 Comment
Most pharmaceuticals involve high upfront costs, to discover and test the drug, and very low marginal costs. Another pill can be printed almost for free. That cost structure favors health systems, such as that of Britain, that try to pay lower for services. They can end up getting a relatively good deal from price discrimination. …
Will future biomedical advances be low marginal cost?
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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