Category Archives: regulation

Hidden Unpersuaders: How we mistook the digital giants for all-powerful manipulators

Posted on January 4, 2022 by David Walker

The twin threats of “hidden persuasion” and artificial intelligence have now convinced most of us that Google and its ilk are almost uniquely powerful. These threats are overrated. The digital giants can do less than we fear – and we … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Information, IT and Internet, Media, regulation, Society | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Do lockdowns work in Europe?

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Paul Frijters

Let us divide the countries in Europe that have at least 1 million inhabitants into three groups: the ones that had high movement restrictions in 2020, the ones with almost no restrictions, and the ones in between. The graph below … Continue reading →

Posted in Coronavirus crisis, Dance, Death and taxes, Health, Medical, regulation, Science, Social | 67 Comments

Your new barons. When and how did the super-rich escaped taxation?

Posted on March 3, 2021 by Paul Frijters

Together with Benno Torgler and Katharina Gangl, I published a piece recently on how to tax the powerful and sophisticated. Our substantive argument on what one should do becomes relatively simple once you understand what happened in the world of Western … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, History, Law, Politics - international, Politics - national, regulation, Society | 32 Comments

Cracking the code: How to tell what News Corp really thinks about the price of links

Posted on February 21, 2021 by David Walker

News Corp is telling us what Google should really pay for linking to its sites. It’s telling us in code – HTML code. And the answer is … $0.00. What is an Internet link worth? For most of the Internet’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Bullshit, Business, Economics and public policy, Information, Intellectual Property, IT and Internet, Media, Politics - national, regulation, Web and Government 2.0 | 19 Comments

What stock markets tell us about the covid-mania.

Posted on December 10, 2020 by Paul Frijters

Stock markets give us a glimpse what people with money have deduced about world events before they happen. Investors can make mistakes, sometimes terrible mistakes, but they are honest mistakes: you don’t buy a stock at a 100 if you … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Coronavirus crisis, IT and Internet, Politics - international, regulation, Society | 15 Comments

Orwell that ends well: Can evaluation save us from ourselves?

Posted on September 1, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

When I first saw the Productivity Commission’s Draft Indigenous Evaluation Strategy, my heart sank. I’d had had several quite extensive meetings with Romlie Mokak, the Indigenous Commissioner at the PC who struck me as a person of great intelligence, straightforwardness … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Critique, Economics and public policy, Ethics, History, Innovation, Political theory, Politics - national, Politics - Northern Territory, regulation | 19 Comments

What things shouldn’t we be wasting this crisis on?

Posted on March 27, 2020 by Nicholas Gruen

The subject of this post has been a theme of some conversations I’ve had with some people in Canberra. What things should we have been doing before the crisis that the crisis concentrates the mind sufficiently to try to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Democracy, Economics and public policy, regulation, Sortition and citizens’ juries | 6 Comments