Stigler on one of the two political advising roles of economists
26 Jun 2018 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, George Stigler, industrial organisation, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: deregulation, special interests
Six of the world’s seven billion people have mobile phones – but only 4.5 billion have a toilet, according to a U.N. report
06 Sep 2014 Leave a comment
Sweden’s March Towards Capitalism – Reason.com
28 Jul 2014 1 Comment
in applied price theory Tags: deregulation, privatisation, Sweden, tax cuts
Sweden is not a socialist success story but instead owes its economic growth to the lowered tax rates and deregulation of the early 1990s, which allowed innovation and investment to flourish.
Bergh also discusses how Sweden’s national voucher program revitalized the country’s educational system
So privatisation, deregulation and tax cuts in Australia were mistakes?
13 Apr 2014 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, politics - Australia Tags: deregulation, privatisation
The test of a mistake is if you can, you undo it.
The classic in Australia is Kim Beazley in the 1998 federal election:
- He was asked by a journalist that if the GST is a mistake, as he claimed, would he repeal the GST if he won office at some later time.
- Beazley waffled about you can’t unscramble an egg and so on. He could not admit the truth.
If deregulation was a mistake, campaign for a reintroducing of the two-airline policy, the bank regulation that suppressed competition, high tariffs on cars, electrical goods and clothes, and media regulation that outlawed cable TV. Campaign for a repeal of the GST and for 66% tax rates again on the middle class!
The Left must campaign for a buy back of the Commonwealth Bank, Qantas and Telecom. They will be a good buy. Public ownership is said by them to be as least as efficient as private ownership, and the cost of capital cost for state owned enterprises is allegedly less.
Go for it. It will ensure another 60 years is the wilderness for the Left. The only Left-wing government that held office in Australia since 1949 was the Whitlam Government from 1972 to 1975.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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