The latest edition of the Simon Abundance Index 2024 reveals how global resources are growing faster than population, disproving common concerns about the depletion of natural resources due to population growth. The fact that we live in a time of greatest abundance is only a consequence of simple market principles.
After joining the European Union, the Czech economy experienced rapid growth. Exports to EU countries soared from 25 billion euros to 188 billion euros in 2022. The growth rate of foreign direct investment increased fourfold after the Czech Republic joined the EU. GDP per capita rose by an impressive 46%. These figures speak clearly: being part of the European Single Market has become essentially vital for the Czech Republic.
In the Czech Republic, there has been a long-standing discussion about the possibility of taxing still wine. This issue is particularly relevant during times of economic crisis when the state is looking for ways to increase tax revenues. However, the introduction of new taxes should be based on a thorough analysis of impacts and should consider the insights and interests of all stakeholders involved to ensure that the tax is neither unnecessarily costly nor ineffective.
It is telling that the public almost unquestioningly believes that the minimum wage helps low-income people in particular. But as the prominent Czech economist Robert Holman writes in his textbook on microeconomics, “If economists agree on anything, it is that legislating a minimum wage increases unemployment.”
Advertisements are generally regarded as a socially undesirable phenomenon. At best, they are seen as a poor source of information about a company’s products in an attempt to raise awareness of their existence and thereby win new customers, but more often as a despicable practice aimed at manipulating consumer preferences.
Why are expectations about the impact of government regulation so often not met? Why do the actual consequences of government interventions diverge countless times from the intentions of the politicians who promote them? Economics has elegant answers to these stimulating questions. One of them will be illustrated and explained in this article.
Liberalism is a political philosophy based on the principles of peace. However, this fact has been very often generously interpreted by detaching liberalism from events beyond the borders of liberal states, no matter how anti-liberal, and thus threatening to freedom they might be.
It is increasingly clear that free trade, in all its forms is good for everyone. Ever since David Ricardo introduced the concept of comparative advantage as the ultimate argument against the mercantilist policies that had dominated until then. Simply put, in cases where one party has an absolute advantage in the production of a particular good, both parties should produce what they are best at and then trade with each other.
In the current situation of high inflation and large budget deficits, salary increases for politicians and central bankers alike are rightly criticised. While, because of the poor economic situation, the wages of most citizens are falling in real terms due to inflation, these high-ranking civil servants are not feeling any of the pinch.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about several socio-economic changes. However, one of them is undoubtedly the change in alcohol consumption among Czech consumers. Despite the fact that the aggregated data from the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) showed overall decline in average alcohol consumption in the Czech Republic during 2021, for some most-risky groups of consumers the situation has worsened.
