In the early 90s, I resisted any thoughts of Alberta separating from Canada. I had thought about separatism and found the ideas attractive. The economics and political implications seemed attractive. Though difficult, separation also seemed practicable. Easier achieved than Czech…
The Law of Unexpected Consequences for Governments
Any law, rule or regulation will always, by virtue of its universal application, have consequences that are unexpected. This might be the most ignored law in the political universe. Governments think that the consequences of their laws will be limited…
Big Government Planning; Why Does it Persist?
I would have thought that we had more than enough recorded experience to disabuse even the most stubborn of us that big government planning is effective or useful. But still we persist in applying this solution to all manner of…
The Lurking Danger of a Grand Market Regulator
Jeffrey MacIntosh (TSE Chair in Capital Markets Law at U of T) is doing a series of articles at the National Post regarding the proposed ‘single national regulator’ that are a must read: National Regulator 1: The Grand Market Regulator:…
New Tax Authority
Our mayor wants taxing powers. And our political masters in Edmonton seem to be moving to agreement. I know that this is a good idea on a policy level. It would allow a more rational and flexible taxing regime to…
Can technology defeat a regulated oligopoly?
Chris Nelson recently wrote for the Calgary Herald: The head of Canada Post recently came up with the head-scratching excuse for stopping home delivery of mail by claiming he was just responding to old folks who crave more exercise by…
Diversity Compression
The Calgary Taxi Commission has another impact on the market and the market participants – diversity compression. They guarantee of one type of service, one charge rate, and one delivery mechanism. With all the sensitivity of a Moscow apparatchik in…
Destruction of Wealth
Here is a thought. This small little regulatory agency may pack a much larger punch than its size and lack of apparent influence suggest. It may be that the worst, or perhaps best, example of wealth destruction, service reduction, and…
Cab fair
Other Parts of this blog: Part 1, Life without Part 2, Into the free market Part 3, Protection racket Part 5, Destruction of wealth Part 6, Diversity compression What are the benefits of a free and open taxi market to anyone with a safe vehicle…
Protection racket
Would the consumer want a limit on the number of cab licences? This cap on service and cab availability can have no consumer foundation. What Calgarian, waiting in a rainstorm for a cab, could be heard to say “damn it,…