Tino Sanandaji in an interview with the American Enterprise Institute: What you completely get wrong — progressives, and maybe libertarians as well — is this idea that outcomes in a country in a society are entirely determined by short-term impact government policies.
Scandinavia’s egalitarianism is a known fact and it goes back thousands of years … In the 1930s, Sweden had a lower poverty rate than the U.S. did, and has a lower poverty rate than the U.S. does now. Sweden had a higher life expectancy than most other countries in the 1800s, and I’ve written, and my brother Nima Sanandaji has written a book Scandinavian Unexceptionalism exactly on this topic, which is conflating outcomes due to very unique social capital, homogenous population, culture, hundreds of years of development and just saying, “They have a higher tax rate and lower poverty, therefore if we raise our tax rate, we will become Sweden.” This is such an important argument.
One is, why just cherry pick Scandinavia? A lot of countries in Europe have high tax rates, and today it’s no longer the case that northern Europe has a systematically bigger welfare state than southern Europe. They have much better outcomes but not a bigger share of the government than France or even Italy.
So it’s interesting that Bernie Sanders uses Denmark more than Sweden, because Sweden has just cut taxes and so is not the perfect example anymore.
Beer drinkers fear not
Kevin Kosar for the R Street Institute: Last month, AB InBev and SABMiller announced they had agreed to join forces. The proposed $106 billion deal would unite the makers of two of the best-known American lagers, Budweiser and Miller. Together, the two companies would account for a third of the world’s beer output and half the beer industry’s profits. …
The AB InBev-SABMiller deal has made some beer drinkers anxious. Lovers of Miller and Miller Light may wonder, “Will Bud kill off these competitors to Bud and Bud Light?” Other observers fret the merger will produce a big beer monopoly.
Neither of these outcomes will occur. AB InBev is jettisoning Miller in the process. The agreement requires SABMiller plc, a London-based beer conglomerate, to sell its stake in MillerCoors. The beneficiary of this divestiture is Molson Coors Brewing Co., which would become the outright owner of the U.S. breweries that make Miller beers. AB InBev’s portion of the U.S. market will not increase.
The objective of this deal is not to increase its domestic market share. Per-capita North American and European demand for alcoholic beverages has declined generally since 1980, and wine and spirits have nibbled at beer’s control of the cup. Beer now accounts for less than 50 percent of alcoholic beverages purchased domestically. Craft brews, which are growing by leaps and bounds, also have eaten into big beer’s market share. Last year, Bud’s chunk of the U.S. beer market slid 10 percent, from 50 percent to 45 percent. Some 4,000 breweries are operating in America today.
Instead, the merger’s aim is to expand AB InBev’s business in markets outside America. Emerging markets are where the profits are. SABMiller earns 72 percent of its profits in places such as Africa and South America. Thus, it is the SAB portion of MillerSAB that is of real interest to AB InBev, as owning it gives the company access to the growing African market.
Bad news regarding homelessness
Ehren Dohler for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: The number of people who spent at least one night in a homeless shelter rose last year for the first time since 2010, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports. It’s sobering news … and an important reminder for policymakers that helping low-income families find decent housing deserves high priority.
Nearly 1.5 million people spent at least one night in a shelter in 2014, about 66,000 more than in 2013, the report found. Most were single adults but over 500,000 were family members, including almost 315,000 children.
Compiled by Joseph Lawler from reports published by the various think tanks.
