CHART: Medallion Financial Corp. (originates and services taxicab medallion loans) Has Been "Uber'd" @chartoftheday pic.twitter.com/wedQNGJhoH
— Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) August 12, 2015
Creative destruction in taxi rent capitalisation
13 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction, Uber
Australia announces its futile carbon emissions target
12 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Australia, China, climate alarmism, climate change treaties, free-riders, game theory, global warming, international free riders, international public goods, public goods
Liberal voting cities markets have higher income inequality and worse affordability
12 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: Director's Law, expressive boating, green rent seeking, housing affordability, land supply, land use planning, Left-wing hypocrisy, NIMBYs, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, zoning
All homeowners have an incentive to stop new housing because if developers build too many homes, prices fall, and housing is many families’ main asset. But in cities with many Democrats and Green Party members, environmental concerns might also be a factor. The movement might be too eager to preserve the past.
via Why Middle-Class Americans Can’t Afford to Live in Liberal Cities – The Atlantic.
How @equitablegrowth showed inequality helps growth when arguing inequality harms growth
10 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, currency unions, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, Euro crisis, fiscal policy, global financial crisis (GFC), income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: British disease, entrepreneurial alertness, Eurosclerosis, France, German unification, Germany, growth of government, sick man of Europe, social insurance, Sweden, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply, welfare state
The Washington Centre for Equitable Growth recently tweeted that inequality harms growth in the USA as compared to Sweden, France, Germany and the UK. It was relying on some dodgy OECD research.
.@OECD sees continued rise in growth-harming inequality, reports @PaulHannon29 on.wsj.com/1EZpq1S http://t.co/xt4heZysXT—
Equitable Growth (@equitablegrowth) May 21, 2015
The Washington Centre for Equitable Growth did not check their inequality ratios they tweeted against trends in economic growth and economic policy since 1970, which I have reproduced in figure 1. Germany is not included in figure 1 because German data on growth is thrown askew by German unification.
Figure 1: Real GDP per British, French and Swede aged 15-64, 2014 US$ (converted to 2014 price level with updated 2011 PPPs), 1.9 per cent detrended, 1970-2013
Source: Computed from OECD Stat Extract and The Conference Board. 2015. The Conference Board Total Economy Database™, May 2015, http://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase/
Figure 1 shows that France has been in a long-term decline since the late 1970s despite the blessings of a more equal society than the USA as championed by the Washington Centre for Equitable Growth. In figure 1, a flat line is growth in real GDP per working age person, PPP, at the same rate as the USA for the 20th century, which was 1.9% per year. A falling line in figure 1 indicates growth of less than 1.9% while a rising line indicates growth in real GDP per working age person, PPP, in excess of 1.9%. In figure 1, France hardly ever grew at the trend rate of growth for the USA of 1.9% per year and was frequently well below that rate.
Sweden tells a slightly different story in figure 1 because of regime change in the early 1990s when Sweden adopted more liberal economic policies where taxes and government spending were reduced:
The rapid growth of the state in the late 1960s and 1970s led to a large decline in Sweden’s relative economic performance. In 1975, Sweden was the 4th richest industrialised country in terms of GDP per head. By 1993, it had fallen to 14th.
@alexvoronov använda smygfinansiering av Generell Välfärd är alltid av ondo. @NimaSanandaji: bit.ly/1Nar2eV http://t.co/wD0YEgncIE—
Old Whig (@aClassicLiberal) August 05, 2015
That regime change reversed a long economic decline since 1970 under the egalitarian policies of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Under the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Sweden was almost always growing at less than the trend rate of growth of the USA, which was 1.9%. That position reversed only when there was a turn away from big government and high taxes.
Figure 1 tells a similar story for the British economy: a long economic decline in the 1970s when Britain was the sick man of Europe. Under Thatchernomics, Europe had a long economic boom for 20 years or more – see figure 1.
In the 1970s, under the high taxes of the Heath, Callaghan and Wilson administrations, as figure 1 shows, Britain was the sick man of Europe. With the election of the Thatcher Government, Britain soon grew at better than the US trend growth rate for nearly 20 years through few exceptions.
Graph of the Day: The UK has among the lowest total tax rates on businesses in the G7 http://t.co/l6mMhN9yLD—
CPS Think Tank (@CPSThinkTank) August 04, 2015
@GreenpeaceNZ is the zenith of the Anti-science Left in New Zealand
09 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, health economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: antiscience left, expressive voting, GMOs, green rent seeking, Greenpeace, Left-wing hypocrisy, precautionary principle, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
US researchers: the idea that global warming has slowed is "no longer valid" grnpc.org/IgDMn via @BBCWorld http://t.co/bIDhaWPV3r—
(@Greenpeace) June 05, 2015
Brace yourself. Global warming is 'set to speed up to rates not seen for 1,000 years.' bit.ly/1x8TnKd http://t.co/pLTprLEiIm—
Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) March 09, 2015
Are we doomed? Global temperatures hit critical point, scientists warn. bit.ly/1DWkJq7 via @EcoWatch http://t.co/VRT7DH3stN—
Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) August 01, 2015
Analysing environmental benefits from driving electric vehicles
09 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: coal power, electric cars, green rent seeking, hydroelectric power, nuclear energy, nuclear power, offsetting behaviour, The fatal conceit, The pretense to knowledge, unintended consequences
- The benefit is large and positive in many places in the west because the western electricity grid is relatively clean – primarily a mix of hydro, nuclear, and natural gas.
- The benefit is large and negative in many places in the east because the eastern electricity grid primarily relies more heavily on coal and natural gas.
via Economist’s View.
What happened the last time a Labour PM was elected before Blair
08 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, income redistribution, macroeconomics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: British economy, British Labour Party, British politics, Tony Blair Blair
Quarters following general elections tend to see decent growth – especially 1979 http://t.co/bJarqD8Etj—
RBS Economics (@RBS_Economics) July 28, 2015
Trump would also do well in the Democratic Party primaries
07 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2016 presidential election, expressive voting, traditional working class
Labour Party misunderstands why a Tory MP tried to join to vote @jeremycorbyn
06 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, Marxist economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: British Labour Party, British politics, expressive voting, Leftover Left, preference formation, rational irrationality, shy Labour voters, working class Torys
I’m worried! I’m sympathising with organic farmers over a land use conflict!
06 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, Richard Epstein, survivor principle Tags: common law, economics of agriculture, food snobs, green rent seeking, land use conflicts, land use planning, law of nuisance, noise pollution, nuisance, old common law, organic farming, Richard Epstein, William Blackstone, zoning
Writing this blog of sound mind and sober disposition, I still have considerable sympathy with two organic farmers over a land use conflict they have with the neighbouring gun range.
Local land use regulations allows a gun club to set up 600 m away with competitive shooting days all day for 88 days a year. That is a voluntary self restraint. They could hold shooting competitions every day of the year. The local land use regulations allow the use of guns on rural land. The gun club used this absence of a prohibition on the use of guns in the frequency of use to set up a gun range to fire guns all day long on rural land.
Now here is the rub. There something wrong with the concept of quiet enjoyment of your land if a neighbour can fire off a large amount of noises continuously. The occasional noise, the occasional gunshot yes, but all day? I live near the airport, but I knew it was there when we bought the property and the lands was a little cheaper because of that.
The organic farmers are unusually pristine and prissy about what they want by neighbours to protect the sacredness of their more expensive snob food. I’m not too sure whether they would want to grant their neighbours an equal right to unusual land uses such as opening a gun range. That said, the organic farmers do have a point about a very noisy neighbouring land use that can be heard some distance away.
The organic farmers, of course, could have negotiated with their neighbours for covenants to restrict land use that undermine there are unusually pristine requirements for quiet enjoyment of their land and their neighbours land too. Easy to do when the land is first unused, but once economic activity accumulates, not so easy in terms of transaction costs and hold-outs.
The Left opposed airline deregulation
05 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, income redistribution, industrial organisation, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: airline deregulation, antimarket bias, bootleggers and baptists, expressive voting, Leftover Left, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
CHART: US average airfares 1979 to 2014 measured in number of hours work at the average wage. @chartoftheday http://t.co/q7Phz3VkU0—
Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) August 02, 2015
An internal inconsistency in certain leading conspiracy theories
05 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of media and culture, health economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: antiscience left, climate alarmism, conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorists, GMOs, political psychology
The tax rates of the top 1%
04 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, entrepreneurship, fisheries economics, income redistribution, politics - USA, rentseeking Tags: entrepreneurial alertness, envy, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and the labour supply, top 1%
Historical Tax Rates of Top 0.01% (15,000 returns reporting more than $8 million in 2010) visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2013/8/14… http://t.co/XygW0t0npu—
Catherine Mulbrandon (@VisualEcon) August 15, 2013
North and South Korea in the 20th century
03 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, Marxist economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: central planning, North Korea, South Korea
Has Africa Outgrown Development Aid?
03 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Africa, capitalism and democracy, capitalism and freedom, rule of law, The Great Fact
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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