Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Property Rights on May 5th, 2015
In my Living Bird magazine this month comes a feature article on the predicament the Greater Sage Grouse finds itself in. These birds are quite spectacular in particular for the dance that the males put on come mating season. It’s not just that male sage grouses strut their stuff, but that the typical “winning” male […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Environment on Apr 22nd, 2015
So, this hit my inbox: Happy Earth Day! You are receiving this email as someone who has participated in the University of Rochester’s Go Green Pledge. As of April 1, 2015, you, along with 2,060 people have taken the pledge including students, faculty, staff, andRochester community friends. On this Earth Day, we invite you to […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy on Apr 10th, 2015
The minimum wage is an awful anti-poverty measure. This is not shocking. The latest research from Tom MaCurdy at Stanford illustrates pretty vividly what any Intro Econ student from my classes has understood for a long time. Even if you grant the point that increases in the minimum wage do not have much of an […]
Posted in Competition, Entrepreneurs, Environment, incentives, Politics, trade, Voluntary Society on Nov 7th, 2014
Suppose you are worried that some particular activity threatens the water that you rely upon. In many cases, since there are so many possible polluters invading “our” water resources and since there are so many people who use a water source, the idea of arranging contracts between polluters and pollutees to get an optimum amount […]
Posted in Environment, Market Failures on Nov 5th, 2014
Lucas Davis has estimated the economic cost of global fuel subsidies. It’s a short and easy to read paper and I think as valuable as any complex paper written in economics. He is estimating only a portion of the economic cost of fossil fuel policy – asking what the “dead weight loss” is due to […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Price Controls, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Sep 14th, 2014
When I first started writing here at TUW in earnest nearly a decade ago, I actually used to spend time writing up the very simple economic arguments, rooted in price theory and the empirical literature, regarding the minimum wage and many other proposed policies. There was once a time that I persuaded myself that a […]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Government Thuggery, Public Choice, Taxation on Apr 15th, 2014
Let me offer a few simple, cranky, thoughts on taxes today. (1) I like to believe I am not the dumbest person on the planet. I also happen to be a professional economist. And I have absolutely NO IDEA going into the year how much in tax obligations I owe to the government at all […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Environment, Resources on Mar 20th, 2014
I follow environmental news quite closely, and picked up this one today: Saving dying lake is priority for Iranian leader So read just a few sentences into the story and you see this: Lake Oroumieh, one of the biggest saltwater lakes on Earth, has shrunk more than 80 percent to 1,000 square kilometers (nearly 400 […]
Posted in Environment, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 4th, 2014
Because they are all evil and want to harm children, the poor and Mother Earth. Here is yet another finding about the energy “efficiency” of “green” buildings: Washington, D.C. may have the highest number of certified green buildings in the country, but research by Environmental Policy Alliance suggests it might not be doing much good. […]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on Jan 27th, 2014
From this morning’s perusal of the fresh academic literature (the papers are gated, but worth perusing should you track down a free version). In my less bloggy retired days I’d pull out excerpts for you. Poverty in the developing world is very likely falling much faster than previously thought (and it was falling fast already). […]