“Do Central Banks Intend to Launch Central Bank Digital Currencies?” By Gordon Kerr, Cavin O’Driscoll and Enrico Colombatto, courtesy of IREF A substantial and growing amount of press attention has been devoted to the subject of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) since last year’s announcement of Libra which spooked regulators at central banks who are […]
Tag: market
Are Solar Panel Mandates Helping Consumers Save Money?
By Krisztina Pusok and Ana Diaz, American Consumer Institute California’s solar energy mandate was officially implemented at the beginning of this year, making the Golden state the first in the nation to implement a law that obligates all newly constructed houses to have solar panels. Hawaii, Arizona, Maryland, and other states have announced they will follow suit. While […]
Rent control failed in Sweden, like everywhere else
“Rent Control Has Failed in Sweden” Courtesy of Austrian Economics Center Governments, both nationally as well as on the local level, around the world are considering introducing rent control – or some, like the city of Berlin, even simply expropriating private property from landowners. However, these very governments should take a close […]
A European Minimum Wage Is the Next Bad Idea from Brussels
By Bill Wirtz, courtesy of the Austrian Economics Center The incoming European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs has only about one thing in common with yours truly: he’s Luxembourgish. Nicolas Schmit is a lifelong socialist and has been Minister of Labor in Luxembourg for as far as I can remember. Bureaucrat-made-politician, Schmit […]
Fate of UK manufacturing hangs on minimizing trade friction with EU
“Minimum trade frictions will be vital for the UK automotive industry” By Prof. David Bailey, courtesy of UK In a Changing Europe The UK manufacturing and especially the automotive industry has faced a turbulent period since the referendum. By 2018-19 something of a perfect storm had hit. The auto industry faced a triple […]
Why are Canadian consumers subsidizing renewable energy for Americans?
“Sub-metering Hydro’s Excess Electricity” By Randy Boldt, courtesy of Frontier Center for Public Policy The world’s economy continues to grow every year by between 2 and 4%. From when civilization began, 5,000 years ago, the production of energy remains an important factor to continued growth. In these environmentally conscious times, efforts are […]
The debate over industrial policy ended… 35 years ago
By Erik Sass, TES Editor-in-Chief The rise of populism has brought with it the return of statism in the economic sphere, especially regarding international trade, where previous moves towards freer trade have been roundly rejected in favor of old-fashioned mercantilism and bilateral brinksmanship. Another aspect of the economic déjà vu is […]
Deregulating teacher labor benefits UK students
Courtesy of IZA Teacher markets, like most public sector labor markets, are often characterized by a large bureaucracy and lack of flexibility. Teacher pay typically follows schedules tied to tenure and does not reward teaching performance. What happens when such heavily regulated labor markets […]
Greater price transparency will reduce medical costs
Price transparency is an obvious driver of effective market dynamics: the more buyers and sellers know about the actual cost factors underlying the prices of competing products and services, the better equipped they will be to compare their relative value (or lack thereof) and make […]