Radical Mindsets

  George Stigler devoted much of his professional career to examining market competition and the price system. In particular, he had a deep interest in trying to understand how public policy might promote competition and deal with the problem of monopoly. This led him to grapple with antitrust laws, a subject on which his views changed subtly over time. Stigler’s early views were shaped by Henry Simons, his teacher at the University of Chicago in the 1930s, when he was a graduate student. In his 1934 tract  A   Positive Program for Laissez Faire , Simons passionately argued that government should promote competition through an aggressive antitrust policy. “There must be an outright dismantling of our gigantic corporations, and persistent prosecution of producers who organize, by whatever methods, for price maintenance or output limitation,” Simons insisted. “In short, restraint of trade must be treated as a major crime.” “No doubt my memory exaggerates the influence of th...

As the nation celebrates the famous festival of Diwali, several States and Union Territories in Indi a  have announced a complete blanket ban on bursting and the sales of all forms of firecrackers due to the concerns about rising air pollution and risk of spike in COVID infections. In big states like Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal and Rajasthan bursting of fire crackers have been completely prohibited. However, some states have permitted the bursting of green crackers with certain conditions. In UP and Bihar, crackers are allowed only in cities with moderate air quality. Certain other states have allowed crackers only for certain hours. While the nation cheered for the cracker ban decision (understandably so) as the air pollution disproportionately affects citizens, but a very few section of people paid heed to and acknowledged its drastic negative economic impacts on poor households whose income is solely based upon the cracker sales and the good economic performance of cracker i...

 

Environmental Economics   Environmental Economics is a discipline within the economics which studies the economic impact of environmental policies. It applies the values and tools of mainstream macroeconomics and microeconomics to allocate environmental resources more efficiently. Environmental economists study the economics of natural resources from both sides - their extraction and use, and the waste products returned to the environment. They also study how economic incentives hurt or help the environment and how they can be used to create sustainable policies and environmental solutions. Origins of Environmental economics Environmental economics developed in its present form in the 1960s as a result of intensification of pollution and the increased awareness among the general public in Western countries about the environment and it's importance to our existence. Gradually, economists realized that to have an indefinite sustainable economic growth, the economic system needs ...

  To the obvious objection from the right that Socialism failed catastrophically in Venezuela and the Soviet Union, a quick response from the "left" is that Socialism (or democratic Socialism) works just fine in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. While it is certainly true that Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark are notable economic successes. What is false is that these countries are particularly Socialist. It is certainly wrong to assume that these countries are Socialist paradise. There are couple of things wrong with the left's romance with these countries, as Swedish analyst Nima Sanandaji notes in his monograph. It doesn't fully appreciate the sources of Nordic success or how Scandinavia had turned away from the socialism so alluring to its international admirers. Economic Success but not a Socialist Under the conventional definition of Socialism which requires government ownership and distribution of the means of production, nationalisation of all industries, ...