Tag Archives: rent-seeking

Alex Tabarrok had a great interview on Ezra Klein’s podcast. A lot of it is on what we learn from Mancur Olson about the current capture of US politics by interest groups. Whether it’s property developers or wealthy homeowners or poor renters or big oil, or whatever—these are groups that would trade off $100 of societal benefits for $1 to themselves. What struck me is how, afterwards, Tabarrok reflected on the moral economy, not the political economy, of this rent-seeking: I was especially...

Capitalism is about capitalizing whatever can be capitalized into an asset on a balance sheet. And it can be said that the creation of these 'assets' is now the focus of modern capitalism. This then defines modern capitalism as a mechanism for rent extraction, and not profit-making. And what that means is that value creation has ceased to be what markets are about. No wonder we are in the end-times for neoliberalism. Tax Research UK Assetisation and the end times of neoliberalismRichard...

I think there are three reasons: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions @Asymptosis asks a good question – why isn’t #LVT Everywhere?Andrew Lainton

Much government regulation does not fit the logic of Stigler’s theory of anti-competitive regulatory capture. In a new book, Steven Vogel of Berkeley argues that the theory of regulation needs to account for the phenomenon of captured regulators bent on deregulating—and that the critical consideration facing regulators is no longer how to enhance competition, but how different governance models favor different actors. Rent capture.ProMarket — The blog of the Stigler Center at the University...

President Trump presented his infrastructure plan last week. If you’re keen on the idea of out-of-control privatized utilities gouging customers and manipulating energy markets, or consortia building overpriced, expensive toll roads (until they go bust), then you’ll love the president’s proposals. His mooted public-private partnerships are another variant of socialism for the rich and free market discipline for the rest of us. PPPs are like a religion that offers its adherents the promise...

In an interview with ProMarket, Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton talks about the connection of rent-seeking and monopolization to rising inequality. ProMarket — The blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of BusinessAngus Deaton on the Under-Discussed Driver of Inequality in America: “It’s Easier for Rent-Seekers to Affect Policy Here Than In Much of Europe” Asher Schechter

Good article about economics, power and ethics, with which I would substantially agree as a philosopher.  However, Professor Ruccio passes over the economic aspect of power, which bestows the ability to extract economic rent.  Power results in asymmetries that vitiate perfect competition and generate imperfect markets. This allows for rent extraction. Rent goes to the powerful, that is, the owners of real and financial capital, to the disadvantage of those lacking power, basically...

… as the authors of the new report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development have explained, there is a growing concern that increasing market concentration in leading sectors of the global economy and the growing market and lobbying powers of dominant corporations are creating a new form of global rentier capitalism to the detriment of balanced and inclusive growth for the many. And they’re not just talking about financial rentier incomes, which has been the focus of...

Theresa May’s speech this morning was trailed as a defence of free market capitalism. If that’s what it was, it failed because she failed to answer the big questions.... Stumbling and MumblingDucking questions about capitalism Chris Dillow | Investors Chronicle

Bibliography.Medium — Matt StollerHow to Educate Yourself on Monopoly Power Matt Stoller ht Lambert Strether at Naked Capitalism