Historically, taxing land (rents) and trade have been the dominant income sources of rulerships not reliant on labour service (not to be confused with taxes on labour income, which have a different dynamic).* Trade was a particularly attractive source of income because it often involved taxing outsiders. But trade was also mobile–too much tax for [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Law, Middle east, Taxation
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Tagged Abbasid Caliphate, Alexander the Great, British East India Company, Caliphate, Carthaginian Empire, china, Chinese Civil War, Crusades, David Friedman, Diadochi, Eastern Roman Empire, Fatimid Caliphate, Genghis Khan, Ghaznavids, Graeco-Roman Empire, Han dynasty, Hellenistic kingdoms, history of trade, hyperinflation, Ilkhanate, India, Iran, islam, jihadi, Jin dynasty, Jurchin, Mongol Empire, Napoleon, Opium Wars, Ottoman Empire, Parthian Empire, Qing dynasty, Roman Empire, Sassanids, Seljuq Empire, Shia, Silk Road, silver, Sino-Japanese War, Song dynasty, Spanish silver peso, Sui dynasty, Sultanate of Rum, Sunni, Taiping Rebellion, Tang dynasty, Thomas the Apostle, Warlord Era, Western Roman Empire
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“Law-abiding” citizens have “nothing to fear” from the British intelligence services, the foreign secretary says. William Hague said reports that the UK’s eavesdropping centre GCHQ had circumvented the law to gather data on British citizens were “nonsense”. But he refused to confirm or deny claims GCHQ has had access to a US spy programme called [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Also posted in Britain, Defence, Funnies, Human/Civil rights, Internet, Law, Music, Personal liberty, Politics, Privacy, Technology, Terrorism
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Tagged GCHQ, integral, intelligence services, pet shop boys, prism, spying, william hague
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This post is partly prompted by this comment and this paper (pdf) (via) on the US housing price bubbles and busts and (greatly) extends this comment by myself. It is also a response to the work of mathematician-turned-historian Andrew Odlyzko. In a previous post, I argued that easy monetary policy was not to blame for the asset booms [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Technology
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Tagged Alan Greenspan, Andrew Odlyzko, APRA, asset bubbles, behavioural finance, Ben Bernanke, David Hume, EMH, Eugene Fama, expectations, externalities, FOMC, formal logic, Frank Knight, fuzzy logic, Great Moderation, Greenspan put, gullibility, information cascades, infrastructure, Irving Fisher, Jan Brueghel the Younger, positional goods, railway manias, railways, RBA, risk, Robert Shiller, Rothschilds, symbolic logic, Tulip mania, uncertainty, US Federal Reserve, Venus
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US car giant Ford Motor will shut all its Australian manufacturing plants by October 2016, after more than 85 years of making vehicles in the country. About 1,200 workers are expected to lose their jobs from the Broadmeadows and Geelong plants, in Victoria state. Ford said its Australian operations had lost A$600m ($580m; £385m) over [...]
The notion that “easy money” created asset booms is levelled (famously by Austrian school economists such as von Mises and Hayek) against the 1920s boom and by a range of commentators about the Great Moderation boom. In both cases, the Fed (dominated by Benjamin Strong as New York Fed Governor up to 1928 and by Alan Greenspan as Fed Chair 1987-2006) is held to be to [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Law, Technology
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Tagged Alan Greenspan, asset markets, Austrian business cycle, Austrian school, Bank of France, Benjamin Strong, bimetallism, bubble economy, china, ECB, expectations, FDR, Frederich Hayek, George L Harrison, GFC, gold standard, Great Depression, Great Moderation, Great Recession, housing booms, India, lost decades, milton friedman, monetary policy, natural interest rate, NIRA, permanent income effect, railway manias, Roger W. Garrison, silver standard, theory of the unsustainable boom, Time and Money, US Federal Reserve, von Mises, world war one
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The UK may not be able to afford projected levels of spending on military equipment over the next decade, MPs are warning. The Commons Public Accounts Committee said it did not “yet have confidence” the planned £159bn equipment budget between now and 2022 could be paid for. It urged the Ministry of Defence to be [...]
Smart Growth is a term of art. In the words of Wikipedia(tm), Smart Growth: is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood schools, complete streets, andmixed-use development with a range of housing choices. The term ‘smart growth’ is particularly used in North America. In Europe [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Australia, Immigration, Society
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Tagged california, Doncaster rail line, Hong Kong, infrastructure, Manhattan, power outages, public transport, Sayers Road, Smart growth, water shortages, Western Melbourne
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The Turkish government has signed a deal with a Japanese-French consortium to build a new nuclear power station. The $22bn (£14bn) contract is Japan’s first successful bid for an overseas nuclear project since a tsunami wrecked the Fukushima power station. The deal was signed by visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Turkish Prime Minister Recep [...]
April 26, 2013 – 10:30 am
The term that is. There seem to be few usages that are a greater barrier to clear thought and debate than free markets. Whether used as a term of sneering abuse to create straw-person arguments or as a slogan of the right and proper, it is ready-made to close minds and abstract away from the issues [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Law, Marriage, Middle east, Personal liberty, Racism, Religion, Sexuality, Taxation
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Tagged American Revolution, Arnold Kling, banking, barriers to entry, building design, Cato Institute, Clarence Thomas, David Boaz, Debt, discretion, discrimination, economic freedom, Equity, free markets, gains from trade, German Constitution, house design, Latin America, liability, logical fallacy, Political donations, rules v discretion, social mercantilism, time inconsistency, too big to fail, transaction costs, Wells Fargo, zoning laws
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April 17, 2013 – 10:30 am
That modernising societies experience a “demographic transition“–a change from high fertility and high death rates to low fertility and low death rates with an intermediate period of high fertility and low death rates–is well known. The likely reason is lags in adjusting to changes in death rates. The price of children Having children is a [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Marriage, Parenthood, Society, Technology, Welfare
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Tagged asset booms and busts, death rates, debt bondage, debt foregiveness, demographic transition, embedded transactions, fertility rates, gold standard, human capital, inflation targeting, manorialism, public bonds, public goods, railway mania, risk premium, serfdom
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