Mar 1The “corporate greed” theory of inflationSince the world emerged from the COVID shutdowns in 2020, developed economies — including the United States — have been experiencing high inflation. Currently, the inflation rate sits at 6.4% in the United States, and is even larger for staple items like food (10.1%) and energy (8.7%). …Inflation4 min readInflation4 min read
Feb 24The 15-minute city: A modern twist on an old Soviet idealThe latest fad in urbanist and urban planning circles is the “15-minute city” — the idea that all of one’s needs should be within a 15-minute walk or bicycle ride from home. The implicit assumption is that one shouldn’t — and won’t — need a car to navigate this city…Urban Planning7 min readUrban Planning7 min read
Jan 11You can get there from hereWednesday morning, a computer glitch in the Federal Aviation Authority’s system ground commercial air travel to a halt in the United States for several hours. Meanwhile, an Amtrak train had been stranded for 29 hours in rural South Carolina. The FAA’s computer glitch shut down its Notice to Air Missions…Economics5 min readEconomics5 min read
Jan 9An ode to the suburbThey’re considered the ugly stepchild of American urban design. They’re generally despised, considered bastions of conformity, derided as “cookie-cutter vinyl villages,” considered eyesores and blamed for virtually every malady that has affected urban America. But if they’re so awful, why are they so popular? More than half the U.S. population…Economics8 min readEconomics8 min read
Jan 3Growth boundaries only limit choices while bringing higher pricesOver the last century, urban planners have wrestled with how to lay out communities to serve multiple constituencies — those of residents, workers and commuters — and using planning and zoning to respond to those constituencies. An unintended consequence of planning and zoning decisions can be the impact on housing…Economics6 min readEconomics6 min read
Dec 24, 2022Stop mandating and let markets do their jobsIn 2026, Canada plans to require 20% of all cars sold in the country be electric vehicles. By 2035, the mandate will be 100% — essentially, gas-powered cars will be illegal to produce and sell north of the border. That follows on a similar mandate pushed by California, and being…Economics5 min readEconomics5 min read
Dec 8, 2022Price controls don’t work … againWhen prices soar, those in government often look everywhere for blame — except the mirror. Inflation causes prices to rise, which in turn causes citizens to become angry about those rising prices. Those citizens, in turn, look to their government to diagnose the problem and come up with a solution. …Economics3 min readEconomics3 min read
Aug 7, 2022Businesses don’t pay taxesLawmakers love to raise taxes on “other” people — which is why hotel and ticket taxes are so popular at the local level. The people paying them, often, are from outside the jurisdiction and can’t vote you out. And so, we hear a lot from Washington about “taxing the rich”…Economics4 min readEconomics4 min read
Jul 9, 2022Keep government out of my charger portI remember the first cell phones we bought — Nokia flip phones with very strange charger hookups. The phones are long gone, but I discovered the charge cables in a slew of others in a drawer a few days back. I’ve been a certifiable member of the Cult of Apple…Cell Phones5 min readCell Phones5 min read
Jun 30, 2022A beginning libertarian reading listI grew up a political junkie — probably starting when my kindergarten teacher held a “vote” in the fall of 1980 in our class (it was a small private, evangelical Christian school, so not surprisingly, the results were a landslide). I’d listen to talk radio and devour the opinion pages…Libertarianism11 min readLibertarianism11 min read
