Why college costs so much

In this interview Richard Vedder discusses what he sees as the reason that the cost of college has increased so much - government subsidies. Who can't like an explanation  that includes a reference to moral hazard?

What would Coase do?

Here is an excerpt from a story Real Sports recently ran about Donald Trump's lawsuit against Scotland. He wants to block the construction of windmills in the North Sea just off the coast of a golf resort he is building. He worries that the windmills will ruin the view from the course he has already build, and from the luxury homes and hotel he plans to build.

The ruling may hinge on who owns the property rights to the view. To explore the Coase Theory, an instructor could ask students what market transactions would be mutually beneficial in each case if transactions costs are low.  

An interesting sidebar is that the residents near the golf course initially opposed Trump's plans because the course would destroy the pristine beauty of the area.

Perverse effects

This article from the WSJ shows that government policies often have unintended consequences and that predicting the effect of a policy is difficult and may be impossible for a set of policies.

Open all night

This article from the WSJ is a nice example showing why short-run marginal cost increases with output. It also is a good introduction for a discussion of what the firm considers when choosing its scale and the trade-off between reducing short-run marginal cost and risk.

Will young healthy adults be willing to subsidize old sick adults?

This article from the WSJ points out that a key to the success of the ACA is for young, healthy adults to purchase health insurance, thereby subsidizing older, sicker adults.

Can the government do anything well?

John Stossel says no in this article. I suspect he recognizes that the government does some things well but thinks that it has entered too many areas that it does badly, at least relative to free markets. He does present an alternative - free markets - and does a nice job describing their benefits for both economic activity and liberty.

Is solar power efficient?

This article says NO!