Last week I attended Mark Finley’s presentation in Chicago of BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy for this year. In his role as General Manager of Global Energy Markets at BP, Mark is responsible for this annual analytical survey of world energy production, consumption, and trends. He’s an outstanding economist whose presentations are a master …
Interesting news — according to this BBC article, the most recent British Geological Survey indicates that there may be twice the shale gas deposits in the UK that were previously anticipated. Such a large potential source of natural gas has substantial implications: “If the estimates are proved correct, that would still suggest recoverable reserves of …
Lynne Kiesling [vimeo 69275251 w=500 h=281] Léon Walras and General Equilibrium Theory from Lynne Kiesling on Vimeo. I knew from the first economics course I took that I loved economics — the systematic analytical framework for understanding humans and our decisions, and the implications of those decisions for individuals and in aggregate, captivated me. I …
Course Video 6: Léon Walras and General Equilibrium Read More »
Michael Giberson A range of recent news stories report on price gouging, but the wide variety of cases in which the term “price gouging” gets invoked raises the question of what actually is price gouging. About all that these cases have in common is a price for a good higher than some other price used …
Price Gouging Defined: Looking for Family Resemblences Read More »
… a question unrelated to areas of economics and policy with which I am familiar. Today the U.S. House of Representatives voted down their farm bill proposal. Brad Plumer helpfully provides a pie chart summarizing the spending that the proposed bill would have authorized: What do you notice? The proposed funding for the SNAP program …
Lynne Kiesling The Economist recently did one of their periodic debates, this time on the pace and effects of technological progress. Moderator Ryan Avent framed the debate thus: This leads some scholars to conclude that accelerating technical change is an illusion. Autonomous vehicles and 3D printers are flashy but lack the transformative power of electricity …
Michael Giberson Tornadoes and floods have led to official declarations of disasters for parts of at least four states (Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, and Texas). All four states have laws against excessive price increases after emergencies, at least for the counties covered by the disaster declaration, and three of the Attorney Generals have issued a press …
Michael Giberson Last week a show on Fox Business News ran a segment titled, “Preventing Price Gouging of Storm Victims.” Spoiler: Show host Gerri Willis and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi chat about price gouging, but nothing much about “preventing price gouging” except that if you do it in Florida, the state “will be coming …
Fox Business: Preventing Price Gouging of Storm Victims Read More »
Lynne Kiesling [vimeo 67808322 w=500 h=281] The Marginal Revolution in Economics from Lynne Kiesling on Vimeo. A fundamental question in economics is value theory — where do prices come from, what determents the value of a commodity, product, or good? The classical economists operated with a labor theory of value, but in the mid-19th century, …
Course Video 5: The Marginal Revolution and Carl Menger Read More »
Lynne Kiesling As is his wont, Mike Munger speaks vast amounts of sense in this month’s Cato Unbound, focusing on the political economy of recycling. I’ve never seen a better articulation of the various energy and economic tradeoffs associated with recycling than Mike’s presented here. For example, Mike does a great job of pointing out …
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