Daily Economy
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Suspiciously Pessimistic March Jobs Report
The employment report was weaker than expected for March, adding just 103,000 new jobs for the month. However, there are a number of tensions among the details of the report and with other measures of the labor market. Certainly, the BLS report could be the first of a string of weaker reports on the labor…
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Cities Offloading Public Property
The enthusiasm for imperious government impositions at the level of cities and states has waned dramatically. Governments are out of money. More importantly, they are out of ideas. All the most exciting innovations of our time come from the private sector and the brilliant process of market competition. With stretched budgets and a dearth of…
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The Cash Register: In Memoriam
There is real inspiration to be had by looking at the iterative process of innovation, how that funny little machine from 1883 gradually evolved into the tiny payment processing units we use routinely today, an epic story of improvement in machinery in which the current stage is knitted to all previous stages through an invisible…
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Land Confiscation Is South Africa’s Nail in the Coffin
South Africa is now at a critical juncture. Expropriation with a racial twist will only revive the spirit of apartheid, but this time in reverse.
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Don’t Believe Olympic-Bid Estimates
It is not just Canada; every single Olympic Games for which data was available exploded its budget, without exception. The Olympics are so grossly miscalculated that the authors concluded that they “have the highest average cost overrun of any type of mega-project.”
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No One Wins a Trade War
The results of this war are as follows. US consumers get to pay more for imports from China. American companies lose markets as Chinese consumers and importers turn to other countries to provide wines, pork, and fruit. And this is only round one. The financial markets have suffered a terrible quarter one, just as all…
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Power and the Main Threat to Liberty
It used to be a cliche to observe that libertarianism is neither left nor right. I don’t hear that much anymore, so it needs to be restated. Mostly it needs to be understood. Left and right emerged in the 19th century as a revolt against liberalism. They each favored different forms of statism to push back…
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Why Banks Should Fear Amazon
During the last two decades, Amazon has transformed from exclusively selling books online to offering products that are used by more than half of US households.
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Subsidized Daycare: Good for Campaigns, Bad for Children and Taxpayers
Quebec’s subsidized daycare program is a prime example of policies that sound good for political campaigns but are detrimental when implemented.
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To Lift Your Spirits, Fill Your Head with Economics
Economics is lovely because it unlocks the great mysteries of the material world: why we thrive, why we experience progress, how we can build prosperity and peace, the path toward making the best out of our limited time in this world, and leave something better for the next generation. Knowing and contemplating these things is…
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•
Suspiciously Pessimistic March Jobs Report
The employment report was weaker than expected for March, adding just 103,000 new jobs for the month. However, there are a number of tensions among the details of the report and with other measures of the labor market. Certainly, the BLS report could be the first of a string of weaker reports on the labor…
-
•
Cities Offloading Public Property
The enthusiasm for imperious government impositions at the level of cities and states has waned dramatically. Governments are out of money. More importantly, they are out of ideas. All the most exciting innovations of our time come from the private sector and the brilliant process of market competition. With stretched budgets and a dearth of…
-
•
The Cash Register: In Memoriam
There is real inspiration to be had by looking at the iterative process of innovation, how that funny little machine from 1883 gradually evolved into the tiny payment processing units we use routinely today, an epic story of improvement in machinery in which the current stage is knitted to all previous stages through an invisible…
-
•
Land Confiscation Is South Africa’s Nail in the Coffin
South Africa is now at a critical juncture. Expropriation with a racial twist will only revive the spirit of apartheid, but this time in reverse.
-
•
Don’t Believe Olympic-Bid Estimates
It is not just Canada; every single Olympic Games for which data was available exploded its budget, without exception. The Olympics are so grossly miscalculated that the authors concluded that they “have the highest average cost overrun of any type of mega-project.”
-
•
No One Wins a Trade War
The results of this war are as follows. US consumers get to pay more for imports from China. American companies lose markets as Chinese consumers and importers turn to other countries to provide wines, pork, and fruit. And this is only round one. The financial markets have suffered a terrible quarter one, just as all…
-
•
Power and the Main Threat to Liberty
It used to be a cliche to observe that libertarianism is neither left nor right. I don’t hear that much anymore, so it needs to be restated. Mostly it needs to be understood. Left and right emerged in the 19th century as a revolt against liberalism. They each favored different forms of statism to push back…
-
•
Why Banks Should Fear Amazon
During the last two decades, Amazon has transformed from exclusively selling books online to offering products that are used by more than half of US households.
-
•
Subsidized Daycare: Good for Campaigns, Bad for Children and Taxpayers
Quebec’s subsidized daycare program is a prime example of policies that sound good for political campaigns but are detrimental when implemented.
-
•
To Lift Your Spirits, Fill Your Head with Economics
Economics is lovely because it unlocks the great mysteries of the material world: why we thrive, why we experience progress, how we can build prosperity and peace, the path toward making the best out of our limited time in this world, and leave something better for the next generation. Knowing and contemplating these things is…