William L. Anderson
Blog
Read the latest about California's high speed rail boondoggle
Despite the promises, bullet train is lesson in ‘sunk costs’
Unfortunately, California officials pay no attention to sunk costs, which are reflected in the spending for the California High Speed Rail System. If there is a classic lesson regarding “sunk costs,” the ongoing project of building a bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is the poster child. Yet, ...
Blog
Shocker from Argentina: Free Markets Work in Housing, too
Shocker from Argentina: free markets work in housing, too William L. Anderson | October 18, 2024 Rent control is in the news both in California and elsewhere. In California, voters will decide Proposition 33, which would permit local governments to impose draconian rent controls and other restrictions on property owners ...
Blog
Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely
Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely by William L. Anderson | April 26, 2024 One of the things I enjoy hearing each weekday morning living in Roseville, California, is the horn of the Capital Corridor Amtrak train that leaves the Roseville station at 7:07, give or ...
Blog
Markets and subsidies: Exposing the delusions of urbanists
To understand the “rules” regarding the role of the internal combustion engine powered by fossil fuels, Calvinball comes to mind, created in the comic strip, “Calvin and Hobbes.” Calvinball players make up the rules as they go along, and other players cannot make sense of what is happening. To hear ...
Blog
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Misusing ‘externality’ theories to bolster government power
In a recent article, economist Timothy D. Terrell pointed out problems in modern economic theory that deal with what economists call externalities, or spillover costs, noting that in a world in which value is subjective, attempts to find objective ways to allay costs are elusive and generally end in failure. ...
Blog
Read latest on state's misguided transportation priorities
‘Induced demand’ a poor excuse not to build highways
Economists are known for different worldviews from others, and the gap usually is wide between economists and urban planners. Economist Thomas Sowell famously has said, “There are no solutions, only tradeoffs,” thinking that most planners reject out of hand. One contentious issue separating economists (or at least those that believe ...
Blog
Biden’s California Economy: Calling for national rent control
When running for president, Joe Biden often praised California’s governance and promised to nationalize many of the state’s policies. While Biden mostly has promoted the state’s infamous Assembly Bill 5, which was an attempt to largely outlaw independent contracting, the president also seeks to mimic the state in another way: ...
Blog
Mass transit in America: Pipedream or possibility?
A few years ago, when I taught at a university for a term in China, we lived in Changsha, a city of 7.5 million people. Because we didn’t have a car, we depended upon public transportation to get away from our campus and shop downtown. Especially attractive was the gleaming ...
Blog
Rent control is destroying a city near you
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter stood on a vacant lot on Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, surrounded by empty, burned-out buildings, something reminiscent of Berlin at the end of World War II. The scene looked like something from a scene in “Escape from New York,” but Carter promised he ...
Read the latest about California's high speed rail boondoggle
Despite the promises, bullet train is lesson in ‘sunk costs’
Unfortunately, California officials pay no attention to sunk costs, which are reflected in the spending for the California High Speed Rail System. If there is a classic lesson regarding “sunk costs,” the ongoing project of building a bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is the poster child. Yet, ...
Shocker from Argentina: Free Markets Work in Housing, too
Shocker from Argentina: free markets work in housing, too William L. Anderson | October 18, 2024 Rent control is in the news both in California and elsewhere. In California, voters will decide Proposition 33, which would permit local governments to impose draconian rent controls and other restrictions on property owners ...
Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely
Will Amtrak be the future of intercity travel? Not likely by William L. Anderson | April 26, 2024 One of the things I enjoy hearing each weekday morning living in Roseville, California, is the horn of the Capital Corridor Amtrak train that leaves the Roseville station at 7:07, give or ...
Markets and subsidies: Exposing the delusions of urbanists
To understand the “rules” regarding the role of the internal combustion engine powered by fossil fuels, Calvinball comes to mind, created in the comic strip, “Calvin and Hobbes.” Calvinball players make up the rules as they go along, and other players cannot make sense of what is happening. To hear ...
Read latest from Free Cities Center
Misusing ‘externality’ theories to bolster government power
In a recent article, economist Timothy D. Terrell pointed out problems in modern economic theory that deal with what economists call externalities, or spillover costs, noting that in a world in which value is subjective, attempts to find objective ways to allay costs are elusive and generally end in failure. ...
Read latest on state's misguided transportation priorities
‘Induced demand’ a poor excuse not to build highways
Economists are known for different worldviews from others, and the gap usually is wide between economists and urban planners. Economist Thomas Sowell famously has said, “There are no solutions, only tradeoffs,” thinking that most planners reject out of hand. One contentious issue separating economists (or at least those that believe ...
Biden’s California Economy: Calling for national rent control
When running for president, Joe Biden often praised California’s governance and promised to nationalize many of the state’s policies. While Biden mostly has promoted the state’s infamous Assembly Bill 5, which was an attempt to largely outlaw independent contracting, the president also seeks to mimic the state in another way: ...
Mass transit in America: Pipedream or possibility?
A few years ago, when I taught at a university for a term in China, we lived in Changsha, a city of 7.5 million people. Because we didn’t have a car, we depended upon public transportation to get away from our campus and shop downtown. Especially attractive was the gleaming ...
Rent control is destroying a city near you
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter stood on a vacant lot on Charlotte Street in the South Bronx, surrounded by empty, burned-out buildings, something reminiscent of Berlin at the end of World War II. The scene looked like something from a scene in “Escape from New York,” but Carter promised he ...
