crony capitalism

Pharmaceuticals and Multi-layered Government-granted Monopoly

Mylan’s price increase of the EpiPen in late August has caused consternation and a lot of debate about the reasons why Mylan has been able to increase the EpiPen price so dramatically above its production cost. Don’t forget that production cost includes the time and resources that comprise FDA compliance costs, even for generics like …

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Icle Letter to Gov. Christie Opposing Direct Vehicle Distribution Ban: Over 70 Economists and Law Professors

Geoff Manne of the International Center for Law and Economics has spearheaded a detailed, thorough, analytical letter to New Jersey Governor Christie examining the state’s ban on direct vehicle distribution and why it is bad for consumers. Geoff summarizes the argument in a post today at Truth on the Market: Earlier this month New Jersey …

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Rent-seeking Diary: It’s Only Tennessee Whiskey if It’s Jack Daniel’s

Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article, Jack Daniel’s Faces a Whiskey Rebellion, that highlights how politically powerful industries can use industry-protecting regulation to raise their rivals’ costs: At the company’s urging, Tennessee passed legislation last year requiring anything labeled “Tennessee Whiskey” not just to be made in the state, but also to be made …

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Rent-seeking Diary: State Dealer Franchise Laws and Tesla

By now you’ve probably heard that last week the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission passed a rule stipulating that automobile sales in the state cannot be direct-to-consumer, and must instead take place via dealer franchises. Tesla Motors was the clear target of this regulation, with its innovative electric vehicles and direct-to-consumer sales model. New Jersey …

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David Henderson on Crony Capitalism

The KP Chicago contingent is still on vacation, barely recovered from the end-of-term rush and grading, and the KP Texas contingent is still head-down-pen-moving over the aforementioned grading; thus the relative calm here. In the interim, I cannot recommend highly enough David Henderson’s recounting of his talk at Occupy Monterey. David’s notes contain substantive and …

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