Asymmetric Liability, Common Law, & Urbanization
19 Feb 2022 Leave a comment
Tort law is interesting. You can argue that someone harmed you, and you can cite almost no legislation in the process. Torte law in the US uses case law – the precedent set by previous rulings in the context of social norms. But, what cases did the early cases cite? They also cited earlier cases and social norms, though we may no longer have a record. The beauty of tort law it allows for changing relative costs in prudence and negligence.
Can you imagine a legislature attempting to codify the appropriate amount of neglect by, say, a painter? The standards would quickly go out of date. The relative cost of resources including labor, communications, materials, and the price differences among competitors of differing quality all change over time. Multiply these factors by 20 and then again by the number of occupations and regions in a country. You will quickly see…
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Jerusalem Surrenders – Bolsheviks Consolidate Control I THE GREAT WAR Week 177
19 Feb 2022 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Russian revolution, World War I
What Is “Rent Seeking”?
18 Feb 2022 Leave a comment
I’ve written columns about wonky economic concepts such as “deadweight loss” and “public goods.” Today’s topic is “rent seeking,” which is part of “public choice” and is described by Professor Alex Tabarrok of George Mason University.
To elaborate, here’s a video from Professor Michael Munger from Duke University.
The basic message of both videos is that “rent seeking” occurs when interest groups manipulate the political system to obtain undeserved riches.
And there are all sorts of examples of policies that exist solely because interest groups get politicians to tilt the playing field – including trade barriers, farm subsidies, occupational licensing, and bureaucrat salaries.
As pointed out in the videos, these rent-seeking policies reduce prosperity.
But what’s the origin of the term? In the modern era, it’s often associated with Gordon Tullock, one of the founders of public choice…
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THE GUNS AT LAST LIGHT: THE WAR IN WESTERN EUROPE, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson
18 Feb 2022 Leave a comment
In the third volume of his “liberation trilogy,” THE GUNS AT LAST LIGHT: THE WAR IN WESTERN EUROPE, 1944-1945 Rick Atkinson has written a comprehensive history of the last year of the war in the west highlighted by incisive analysis, personality portraits, and clashes beyond the battlefield pitting remarkable characters against each other as they dominated allied and axis planning implementing wartime strategy. Atkinson begins his narrative with a scene at the St. Paul School in west London on May 15, 1944, where allied strategists gathered to finalize plans for the cross channel invasion of France. In this last volume of his trilogy Atkinson continues opus from Operation Overlord, through the liberation of France, the last Nazi attempt to thwart allied plans at the Battle of the Bulge, to finally entering Berlin and ending the war in Europe. In so doing Atkinson employs…
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What went wrong in New Zealand?
18 Feb 2022 Leave a comment
in health economics Tags: economics of pandemics
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