This is the archive of the Knowledge Problem blog, all 4,690 posts. The search function will help you locate posts on the various topics Mike and I wrote about at KP, and the tags and tag word cloud will help too. What’s next? A while back I squatted on a Knowledge Problem Substack address. There’s …
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has been active fighting against price gouging during the pandemic emergency. Actually, she was on the case even before the governor issued a stay-at-home order on March 23, 2020. Three days prior to that AG Healey added anti-price gouging regulations to the state regulatory code under emergency powers. She has …
Consumer Complaints in Massachusetts Fell in the First Quarter of 2020 Read More »
How can an 18th-century Scottish philosopher and economist help us understand the digital economy and our modern, hyper-connected world? That’s a question I’m tackling in a series of three essays at libertarianism.org. Digital technologies have increased our connectedness in profound ways. In the first essay I examine how Smith’s ideas about specialization and exchange combine …
Adam Smith and the Digital Economy: Connectedness and Gains From Trade Read More »
Halea Walker and I have an op-ed appearing in the Dallas Morning News explaining that Texas’s anti-price gouging law comes with some unintended consequences. What I most want to say about price gouging laws is, in effect, “if you mess with price discovery, you’re going to have a bad time.” Unfortunately, that claim does not …
https://www.facebook.com/CPCMP/videos/vb.181913810273/10160362413965274/?type=3&theater Understanding the economy as a dynamic, complex system relies on the foundational work of several economists, including Adam Smith (of course) and Ronald Coase. As Coase observed in his 1991 Nobel Prize address, What I have done is to show the importance for the working of the economic system of what may be termed …
Coase’s Influence on Economics, and Adam Smith’s Influence on Coase Read More »
An article on federal oil and gas auctions by Natasha Geiling at ThinkProgress caught my eye. The ThinkProgress story mostly is concerned that quasi-anonymous companies can secure oil and gas leasing rights on federal land, and anonymity might make it harder to enforce regulatory protections and lead to environmental problems. The object of her concern is …
Is an Anonymous Energy Company Actually a Front for a Conservation Group? I Hope So! Read More »
The proposed steel tariff will benefit the steel industry. This is what is seen as a consequence of the steel tariff. What is unseen is the higher prices for goods that use steel, the lower quantity demanded of those goods, and the resulting lost jobs in industries like automobile manufacturing and construction. Bastiat’s “What Is …
Us Steel Reopening Plant and Bringing Back Jobs: Ceo on Trump Tariffs Read More »
This BBC article on big data and fisheries is fascinating. Using satellite photography, researchers have mapped all of the world’s fisheries by area, finding that fishery area is larger than arable acreage while providing less than 2% of all calories consumed. I also found the conclusion thought-provoking that the patterns reveal larger effects from politics …
BBC News: World’s Fishing Fleets Mapped from Orbit Read More »
“The Lone Star State approaches electricity policy—among other things—a bit differently,” wrote the R Street Institute’s Devin Hartman in “Testing Texas power.” That “differently” is one benefit of the quasi-independent status of the ERCOT grid. While there are benefits to harmonization of rules across regions, there are also benefits to exploring alternatives to whatever currently …
How should state and federal governments make decisions concerning offshore federal resources the development of which may affect nearby states? Two approaches: one, give the Trump administration a huge political negotiating chip, with which it can reward friendly politicians, or two, a transparent system that seeks to treat all U.S. citizens fairly. Pick one. Last …
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