US deaths (2013)
Tobacco 437k
Alcohol 29k
Opoids 16k
Heroin 8k
Cocaine 5k
Marijuana 0vox.com/2014/5/19/5727… http://t.co/o8yMDf7oE0—
Conrad Hackett (@conradhackett) August 04, 2015
Cannabis is pretty harmless by comparison
06 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: alcohol regulation, economics of prohibition, marijuana decriminalisation, medical marijuana decriminalisation
Two charts on Trump and a more important one on Herman Cain
06 Aug 2015 3 Comments
in economic history, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: 2012 presidential election, 2016 presidential election
via Why is Trump surging? Blame the media. – The Washington Post.
via Donald Trump and the Press: Why Coverage Matters – The New York Times.
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
Why Obama’s Climate-Change Plan Is Hopeless Without China
05 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA Tags: China, climate treaties, global warming
Gender wage gap, USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand since 1970
04 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in discrimination, gender, labour economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Australia, British economy, gender wage gap
New Zealand does much better than most on the gender wage gap for full-time workers.
Figure 1: gender wage, % of median male wage, full-time employees, USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand, 1970 – 2012
Source: Earnings and wages – Gender wage gap – OECD Data.
The gender wage gap in figure 1 is unadjusted and defined as the difference between median earnings of men and women relative to median earnings of men. Data refer to full-time employees.
I never found it terribly helpful to include part-time workers, such as in an hourly measure of the gender wage gap because of a larger trade-off between cash wages and work life balance in part-time jobs.
What difference did the Kyoto protocol make and that’s before you consider 3rd World development
04 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, growth miracles, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism clock, climate treaties, expressive voting, free-riders, Kyoto Protocol, rational ignorance, rational irrationality
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
Minimum wage scenarios across the OECD
04 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in labour economics, minimum wage, politics - USA, unemployment Tags: aggressive voting, antimarket bias, living wage, offsetting behaviour, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge, unintended consequences
Does a higher minimum wage really reduce employment? econ.st/1gp4Jbs http://t.co/WGMZGLKHmI—
The Economist (@EconBizFin) July 30, 2015
The lamps were going out all over Europe this day 1914
03 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, liberalism, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: World War I
Feuding with the Left over Left again @gtiso @helenkellyCTU
03 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - New Zealand Tags: antimarket bias, expressive voting, Leftover Left, lost decades, rational ignorance, rational irrationality, Twitter left
TPP – Trojan Horse in a global race to the bottom
03 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in international economics, International law, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: free trade agreements, ISDS, regional trade agreements, TPPA
I can’t think of a single fact that this crank got right in this clip on the Trans-Pacific partnership agreement (TPPA).
Robert Reich, a Democratic party hack, referred to the TPPA as the biggest trade deal ever. He ignored a large number of multinational trade deals under the World Trade Organisation and the GATT such as the Uruguay round and the current Doha round.
http://www.cuts-international.org/brf-97-1.gif
Reich claims the deal is negotiated in secret and later talks about its submission to the Congress for fast track.
Robert Reich claims that investor state dispute settlement allows challenges to any regulation and compensation for unfair reductions in profits. It is a far narrow criteria than that involving discrimination against foreigners.
http://images.slideplayer.com/5/1585527/slides/slide_6.jpg
Currently, about 3000 international treaties give the ability to sue governments. Some 2700 of these are Bilateral Investment Treaties. The rest are trade treaties, including NAFTA. These treaties have spread rapidly around the world since the 1990s.
The TPP draft chapter says that the point of investment protection has long been “to encourage and promote the flow of investment…as a means to promote economic growth.”
At the same time, the TPP draft chapter specifically highlights “the inherent right to regulate…to protect legitimate public welfare objectives, such as public health, safety, the environment, the conservation of living or non-living exhaustible natural resources, and public morals.”
Robert Reich talks about the Trans Pacific Partnership and its implications especially if it is signed. It would be the largest trade deal in history representing 792 million people and accounting for 40% of the world economy. Well worth a look.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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