tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62684922010-02-08T15:47:07.151-08:00A blog exploring the intersection of economic thinking and urban planning/real estate development and related big-think themes.Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1160125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-29231520882575457132010-02-08T15:23:00.000-08:002010-02-08T15:47:07.163-08:00

Today's WSJ includes "The U.S. Needs an Industrial Policy" by former Shell Oil pres John Hofmeister. Well, no. It's about the last thing anybody "needs". But special pleadings by oil execs (and others) is nothing new. Separation of church and state is a good thing, as is separation of big business and big government. Yesterday's NY Times included this story about the new Tesla electric car.

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-10160035018047414592010-02-05T14:01:00.000-08:002010-02-05T14:34:00.142-08:00

Alex Tabarrok and and Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution have been good at bringing examples of Markets in Everything to our attention (summarized here). I now see the theme popping up in various blogs. Why not Markets in Everything? Buyers and sellers have strong incentives to help each other. They even find ways to overcome legal prohibitions and taboos. Today's WSJ includes "Bucks Populi:

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-70675237113196602752010-02-04T10:25:00.000-08:002010-02-04T10:37:32.582-08:00

The LA Times calls this an "interesting experiment" and "an urban complexity." A new Hollywood high-end hotel complex with subway access -- in LA!Will more arrivals be by limo or by subway? Who cares? LA's MTA, always short of funds and always threatening to cut bus service, owns the land.Yes, you cannot make this stuff up.

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-63509162790847681482010-02-04T06:30:00.000-08:002010-02-04T06:38:40.003-08:00

Dan Klein sent this.Teaching about markets can be great fun. It is all common sense to some, but obscure or exotic (or worse) to others. The video captures this exquisitely.

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-20057835659812193972010-02-02T11:47:00.000-08:002010-02-02T11:54:57.618-08:00

The Watergate conspirators not only burgled, but they badly misjudged the size and scope of their problem. And covering up only made it worse. The rest is history. How will Climategate play out? Look at this from The Guardian. H/T The Browser.

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-41110184935096407622010-02-01T11:39:00.000-08:002010-02-01T12:00:16.276-08:00

Prof. Shiller discusses the mood swings among market participants. It is now clear that most people were too optimistic circa five years ago and it is perhaps not unreasonable that they swing to the pessimistic side today. What can be done?Wendell Cox discusses the high-speed rail boondogle ("The Runaway Subsidy Train") in today's WSJ and I cannot imagine that these investments can make anyone

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-75859644366619664292010-01-31T05:06:00.000-08:002010-01-31T05:32:59.368-08:00

Bankruptcies are no picnic, but politicized bail-outs are also unattractive. Here a couple of smart people introduce the idea of the "bail-in" alternative.How would it have worked? Regulators would be given the legal authority to dictate the terms of a recapitalisation, subject to an agreed framework. The details will vary from case to case, but for Lehman, officials could have proceeded as

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-82723409171009701412010-01-28T11:33:00.000-08:002010-01-29T14:09:04.461-08:00

Strange things happen when people put their faith in politicians. Noted economists have recently discovered the concept "jobs saved". Others have discovered the win-win two-fer of clean environment plus economic recovery from one investment. Today, it's high-speed rail in Florida. This project will save-or-create jobs. And it will save-or-create clean air and/or global warming relief.But if

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-64935958173081901762010-01-26T12:55:00.000-08:002010-01-26T13:10:20.816-08:00

Money exists to reduce the inefficiencies of barter. But barter makes a comeback where money is suspect (think Zimbabwe). It also makes a comeback when and where people experience liquidity shocks (think U.S. circa now) and where they have access to cheap information exchange opportunities (think Craig's List). Look at "Let's Make a Deal ... The growing role of barter in the marketplace" in

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-75416013391498207182010-01-25T08:57:00.000-08:002010-01-25T09:25:14.977-08:00

Karen Stabiner's piece in this morning's LA Times is the latest contribution to the LA-NYC-compared literature. Among the items compared are women's hair treatments.Blonds. Clairol's 1960s ad campaign, "Is it true blonds have more fun?," implied that being a genetic minority made life more worth living. But now a highlight and lowlight epidemic on both coasts has turned the stubborn brunet into

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-27241278994493212492010-01-21T10:12:00.001-08:002010-01-21T10:36:18.568-08:00

I was introduced to the (possible) endogeneity of market friendly institutions some years ago via John Powleson's Centuries of Economic Endeavor. Since then, the possibility of a virtuous cycle (economic freedom prompts prosperity and prosperous people demand more economic freedoms) has received increasing attention. The evidence keeps accumulating. Yesterday's WSJ included the Heritage-WSJ

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-61625358101836242542010-01-15T10:22:00.000-08:002010-01-16T12:36:00.751-08:00

As many as eighty cities can now get new streetcars. Read about it here. Where to start? One size never fits all. And there are no cost-benefit studies that suggest these modes are a good idea. That was 100 years ago. All these new streetcars would be in the service of "livability." But do we expect that livability can be scripted via Washington (or any other) politics? On the positive side,

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-78633131343299347992010-01-14T07:28:00.000-08:002010-01-14T07:48:29.134-08:00

The Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH) is a pretty good conversation starter. Equilibrium requires that we somehow get to equilibrium. No $20 bills laying around sidewalks means that some are (have been) busy snatching them up.So it is with the risk-return trade-off. It describes an equilibrium across financial markets. But very interesting things transpire as we move towards the equilibrium.

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-48216767536280721822010-01-14T07:18:00.000-08:002010-01-14T07:28:09.953-08:00

I am no fan of the War on Drugs, the 1970s, Richard Nixon or Elvis Presley. But put them all together and you get this hilarious story. You've seen the photo, now enjoy the rest of story.

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-55286661350261058222010-01-12T16:59:00.001-08:002010-01-12T17:22:21.701-08:00

The Jan 8 WSJ included "Clean Energy Sources: Sun, Wind and Subsidies ... As Governments Increase Spending and Support for Renewable ower, Even Fans Wonder If Aid Could Be More Efficient" Read it and look at the graphic that compares "the costs of producing energy before subsidies, per megawatt hour" Coal and natural gas come in at $50, wind goes as high as double that, offshore wind goes as

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-66224859227268463142010-01-07T12:18:00.000-08:002010-01-07T12:36:03.899-08:00

Back when I first took undergrad economics, there was "micro" and "macro". And since then there has been much work to try to integrate these. But the original Keynes denies the workings of the price system. Robert Higgs explains how this is so in this delightful essay. Read it and see how and why the Keynsian policies being mounted to make things better are most likely to make things worse.

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-83632955747117271442010-01-06T05:11:00.000-08:002010-01-06T09:17:00.853-08:00

Clifford Winston is not impressed with anit-trust policy (as implmeneted by Democrats or Republicans). The legally sanctioned NCAA cartel has been much discussed and derided. Even the hit movie and book The Blind Side shows the NCAA cops on their silly mission.The myth of amateur college sports is widely seen as a joke, but the hypocrisy of high-minded college athletics PR is widely accepted.

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-46200015277843692262010-01-04T03:18:00.000-08:002010-01-04T04:05:47.894-08:00

In the Feb 2010 Reason (apparently not yet online), Matt Welch writes about "More Than Zero ... Anyone who has expended energy arguing for free trade, market competition, and the open exchange of ideas has repeatedly encountered the same obstacle: zero-sum assumptions misapplied to dynamic nonlinear phenomena. ..."In California, politicians and public sector unions help each other and government

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-3662710029142599722010-01-02T05:00:00.000-08:002010-01-02T05:37:39.566-08:00

Today's WSJ, includes Nick Gillespie's "Don't Fear the 2010s" which tours the last decade's fears and phobias (Y2K, "peak oil", avian flu, etc.). Gillespie includes a reference to John Mueller's comparison of an American's odds of dying at the hands of a terrorist (outside a war zone) with the odds of dying in an auto accident. The latter is 1,000 times greater. We seem not to have things in

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-57251630853520945222009-12-31T10:48:00.000-08:002009-12-31T11:16:32.179-08:00

Markets recycle resources. This story mentions the conversion of parts of Detroit to farmland. Growing cities reallocate peripheral land from rural to urban uses, but the reverse can also be an option. Some of the older places (New York, Boston) have been able to renew themselves by adapting to new technologies and industries. But not all cities can do this, including various places in the

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-15770224917429499902009-12-30T05:02:00.000-08:002009-12-30T08:11:43.572-08:00

In today's NY Times, William Falk ("Should Old Articles Be Forgot") itemizes what he sees as major news from 2009. He dwells on Robotic Warfare (ever more drone attacks over Pakistan and other places), Car-Crazy in China (duh), Real Working Wives (wives are now "needed" as breadwinners to keep ever more families "afloat"), A New Source of Stem Cells (superb), and Teeming With Planets (yup, we are

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-29057102063336506862009-12-24T08:53:00.000-08:002009-12-24T09:10:32.793-08:00

Immigrants enrich this country in many ways. Today's NY Times includes "Taking Hold in Silicon Valley, a Ping-Pong Boom."The Economist (Dec. 19) calls is "A Ponzi scheme that works ... The greatest strength of America is that people want to live there ... No matter where an immigrant hails from, he can find a cluster of his ethnic kin in America."In a better world, those on the left who see the

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-87288541320638964952009-12-23T16:18:00.000-08:002009-12-24T08:52:57.771-08:00

The Independent Review (Winter 2010, apparently not yet online) includes "Lost Trust: The Real Cause of the Financial Meltdown" by Bruce Yandle.Yandle cites the importance of trust in financial transactions and cites three "assurance mechanisms" -- credit ratings, international accounting standards, and credit-default swaps. All three collapsed when easy credit and policy makers' push to make

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-41442285415726273342009-12-22T08:37:00.000-08:002009-12-22T09:15:12.601-08:00

The Copenhagen confab on climate change may have "failed", and we can only speculate on what "success" would have meant. The November 2009 HUD Research Works includes "Powered by the Sun". Look at Table 1. Place a $50,625 solar panel system on a New Jersey home and your outlay is $6,049 (just less than 12%). Is this a Pigouvian subsidy? But Pigouvians (as well as Keynesians and many others)

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6268492.post-80338467724797402222009-12-21T05:06:00.001-08:002009-12-21T05:14:57.980-08:00

Here is Reason's report on the nation's public roads and highways. California ranks 48th and I am not surprised. I was in Mexico last week where I found much better roads. It has been California policy for years to divert gasoline taxes to pay for public transit. It's been lose-lose all the way because transit ridership is still going nowhere but the roads are generally awful.There were 1200+

Peter Gordonnoreply@blogger.com