We received this text from our reader, who asked to remain anonymous. The important question he asks is - how is taxpayer money spent in such disasters? Watching a TV report this week about the landslide of rocks and earth on the Asenovgrad - Smolyan road, I was definitely provoked by the statement ...
More »Piketty backs down on his inequality thesis
When the French economist Thomas Piketty published his massive paper arguing that the steady rise in economic inequality was inevitable under capitalism, his thesis and its supposed and empirical basis quickly gained support among leftists, who echoed Piketty’s call for greater redistributive taxation. Other economists spent a lot of time …
More »Let's legalize ecstasy
Edward Hess In early January, four people in the UK died[i] as a result of using something that looked like ecstasy (MDMA). Before we understand why the war on drugs contributed to, rather than prevented, the deaths of these four people, let’s look at ecstasy itself. MDMA is …
More »The dreaded deflation
In early January, Eurostat data was released showing the first annual deflationary episode in the Eurozone since 2009 – the overall price level fell by 0.2% between December 2013 and the same month in 2014. This sent the European Central Bank and a large number of Keynesian economists into a panic. From …
More »Debate on the welfare state - Volgin vs. Ganev
The following text is a continuation of the debate between Petar Volgin and Petar Ganev "FOR and AGAINST the social state", organized by the Bulgarian Libertarian Society. The audience at the Studio 5 club, where the clash of ideas took place, had many more questions than time allowed, so both participants agreed to …
More »How a Greek bankruptcy could still lead to the collapse of the EU
Frank Hollenbeck Greece is back in the headlines. This should come as no surprise to anyone. It would be naive to think that the Greeks would accept to remain in debt forever. Despite all the rumors that Greece will be forced to leave the eurozone, there is actually no such mechanism through which the member states of the European Union (EU) …
More »Guest Essay: A Brief History of the World
Boyan Rashev Once upon a time there were two tribes that lived far from each other, and between them was the Great Water. Quite by chance, on the same day, smart people from both tribes invented the wheel while trying to drag a pile of cut wood to their villages. A historic moment! The smart ones who lived west …
More »Guest article: Misunderstood tax fairness
Ivelina Petrova Often in the public sphere, elected politicians become the center of attention, talking about the “fairness” of taxation. But is there justice when the net benefits for certain groups of individuals are created as a result of the forcible seizure of property from other members of society? When support for poorer citizens goes through …
More »The minimum wage and its effects on the labor market
The time has come for the drafting and adoption of the state budget, and, as we have become accustomed to every year, there has been talk of increasing the minimum wage (MW). Along with its other social measures, the so-called “right-wing” government has decided to increase the MW twice next year – at the beginning and in the middle …
More »Nineteen overlooked effects of income redistribution. Part One
It is often argued that income inequality is bad for society and that the state should intervene and transfer income - supposedly from the rich to the poor - to restore a healthy balance. This is a topic that was also present in the recent public debate between Peter Volgin and …
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EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion