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Nanny state
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, public economics Tags: economics of smoking
The Rise and Decline and Rise Again of Mancur Olson
09 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking
Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations is one of my favorite books and a classic of public choice. Olson may well have won the Nobel prize had he not died young. He summarized his book in nine implications of which I will present four: 2. Stable societies with unchanged boundaries tend to accumulate […]
The Rise and Decline and Rise Again of Mancur Olson
Dishonest Pimping for a Global Wealth-Tax Cartel
07 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, wealth tax
Everything you need to know about wealth taxation can be summarized in two sentences. The biggest problem with most tax systems is the pervasive tax bias against income that is saved and invested, which discourages the accumulation of capital that helps to finance future growth. Wealth taxes would dramatically increase the tax bias against saving […]
Dishonest Pimping for a Global Wealth-Tax Cartel
Electricity barrier: net zero climate policy means the UK housing crisis is getting worse
05 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, Public Choice, public economics, transport economics, urban economics Tags: land supply
If there isn’t enough power for the new homes, where’s the power for all the soon-to-be mandatory electric vehicles supposed to come from? Net zero policy by climate obsessives is busy degrading the entire power grid to an increasingly part-time system. This is just one of the knock-on effects. – – – Our inadequate electricity […]
Electricity barrier: net zero climate policy means the UK housing crisis is getting worse
The Peltzman Effect at Sea
04 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, Economics of international refugee law, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of migration, offsetting behavior, unintended consequences
Deiana, Maheshr,and Mastrobuoniand have recently published an analysis of the effects of Search and Rescue operations on migration from Africa to Europe.Nearly half a century ago, Sam Peltzman showed that, because mandatory seat-belts made driving safer, drivers tended to drive more recklessly, partially offsetting the increased safety. Similar effects occurred in the search and rescue…
The Peltzman Effect at Sea
The War On Cars
24 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, Public Choice, public economics, transport economics, urban economics Tags: electric cars
In a fit of self-loathing, the European Union has begun to destroy the economic engine that pays its bills. Some of this is well known, but some is not, and it will astonish you.
The War On Cars
A Look at the Wacky Transit Industry
24 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, Public Choice, public economics, theory of the firm, transport economics, urban economics
Today is Earth Day, a day in which we are supposed to celebrate environmentally friendly ideas such as public transit, high-density development, and electric vehicles. My report published last week revealed that the transit lobby has hijacked affordable housing funds so that, in many cities, most of those funds are … Continue reading →
A Look at the Wacky Transit Industry
Why the Global Free Market Will Save the World
23 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth disasters, growth miracles, health economics, history of economic thought, income redistribution, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: anticapitalist mentality, capitalism and freedom
MICHAEL BASSETT: MAORI PUSH FOR PARALLEL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES
21 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: constitutional law
If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have seen calls from one or two Iwi for prior consultation with…
MICHAEL BASSETT: MAORI PUSH FOR PARALLEL GOVERNMENT STRUCTURES
The Pandemic and Swedish Fiscal Policy
21 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, fiscal policy, health economics, macroeconomics, public economics Tags: economics of pandemics, Sweden
When I wrote about long-run policy lessons from the pandemic, I mostly focused on the incompetence of the bureaucrats at the FDA and CDC. I also wrote that Sweden had a very sensible approach. Politicians did not panic. They advised prudence, but kept schools open and did not mandate lockdowns. Interestingly, Sweden also had better […]
The Pandemic and Swedish Fiscal Policy
The US debt is worse than it was after WWII
17 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, defence economics, economic history, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of pandemics, World War II
Over the last few years I’ve made a number of posts about the ever growing US government spending, deficits and debt, which has reached the point where US Debt is now rising $1 trillion every 100 days. But there are many people who look at the debt as 120% of GDP and shrug their shoulders that […]
The US debt is worse than it was after WWII
NIMBYism explained
16 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights, public economics, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
No Knife But A Bloodletting Nevertheless.
15 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle Tags: media bias
Hosking went after Radio New Zealand this morning and it was bad.The Mike Hosking Breakfast, 0600 till 0900 has three producer/support staff, Radio NZ Morning report has 16 production staff to cover the same five day time slot, yet the state run highly subsidised show falls way behind in ratings.. That 16 figure for production […]
No Knife But A Bloodletting Nevertheless.
A Socialist Explains Why Socialism Can’t Work
13 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: economics of socialism, regressive left
Not that the socialist in question, Professor Richard D. Wolff, realises that’s what he’s doing in the Q&A video below – and he’s not talking about traditional Communist Command and Controlled Economies. What he’s actually describing is a very pure form of socialism, the sort only vaguely imagined by Marx, Engels and other communists when […]
A Socialist Explains Why Socialism Can’t Work
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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