This post at Economist’s View touches on a problem that bothers me. The assumption by economists and policy makers that markets are competitive and efficient. Continue reading
Economics
Free market hypocrisy: Part 2
My previous post on hypocrisy about free markets may given the impression that I am opposed to free markets. My problem is not with free markets per se, but with inconsistency and hypocrisy in advocating them, and with regarding free markets as a panacea. Continue reading
Free market hypocrisy
This change of heart on the benefits of outsourcing is, to me, just another example of both the hypocrisy of many supposed free markets advocates. Everyone seems to favour free markets, but as Adam Smith himself pointed out, no one wants free markets to apply to themselves. Everyone wants free markets their own way. Continue reading
Economics blogs
I am very keen to learn more about economics. My knowledge of economics is very much an analyst’s, rather than an economists. I do have so text books I am slowly reading through. I then decided to supplement that with some blogs that would expose me to more ideas. These are what I found. Continue reading
The unpredictability of house prices
House prices are very sensitive to comparatively small changes in supply and demand. This, together with undertainties in the long term forecasts, makes long term prospects very uncertain. Continue reading
Open source: what investors need to know
I have blogged about open source before, but not specifically from an investors point of view. Because this is not a subject that most investors are familiar with, I am going to make this a basic introduction. Continue reading
Technology drives consumers to irrationality
Technology, and the development of technological products, undermine free market mechanisms. One, of many, reasons for this is the problems consumers face in making a choice about purchases. Does this affect the assumption that consumers are able to make informed and rational decisions, which is required by the argument in favour of free markets? Continue reading
Making money by giving away
The advocates of ever stronger copyright and patent laws claim that these are the only way to give people an incentive to create new works and inventions. Here are a few examples that show otherwise, mostly of how people make money by giving away. Continue reading
What happend to increasing leisure?
Thirty or forty years ago widely expected that as technological advances made labour more productive, working hours would shorten and the biggest problem, at least in develop countries, would be educating people to enjoy leisure instead of working. This has clearly not happened, so what went wrong? Continue reading
Drug patents: inefficient R & D funding
Patents allow pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs at several times the price they would be able to get in a competitive market. Only a small proportion of the extra money spent by the public goes into research and development (R & D), despite the latter being the supposed benefit of the higher prices. Continue reading