Pakistan has a remarkable political history. Prime ministers and presidents do not merely lose elections or retire from public life. They have repeatedly been arrested, imprisoned, disqualified from office, forced into exile or, in the most extreme case, executed. The temptation is to conclude that Pakistani politicians must simply be unusually corrupt. Corruption is certainly […]
Why Pakistani Politicians End Up in Jail
Why Pakistani Politicians End Up in Jail
04 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of crime, growth disasters, law and economics Tags: Pakistan
After US Defeat: Vietnam and Afghanistan
04 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, industrial organisation, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Afghanistan, Vietnam
The American defeats in Vietnam and Afghanistan are often compared as military and foreign-policy failures. But there is another comparison that matters at least as much: what happened to the people left behind after the Americans departed? If we put aside the destruction caused during the wars themselves and concentrate on their aftermaths, an important difference […]
After US Defeat: Vietnam and Afghanistan
Gloria Steinem died
04 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, politics - USA
I guess I’m at the time of life when all my heroes are dying off, because of course they were older than I and I’m no spring chicken. The latest to leave the planet is Gloria Steinem, who died yesterday at 92. Activist, feminist, one of the big figures of “second wave feminism” that promoted…
Gloria Steinem died
Excellent constitutional ideas from ACT
03 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: 2026 general election, constitutional law
ACT have proposed a number of good constitutional ideas. They are: Add to the Constitution Act 1986: The Constitution Act is not supreme law. So putting these principles in there doesn’t impact any particular court decisions, but it is an important assertion of democratic values. ACT will add property rights to the New Zealand Bill…
Excellent constitutional ideas from ACT
Is there a construal of “anti-Zionism” that doesn’t mean “antisemitism”?
03 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, population economics, war and peace Tags: Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
I wrote about this issue before, and I still can’t find a construal of “anti-Zionism” that is not equivalent to “antisemitism”? I ask because people who throw the term anti-Zionist around, like Zohran Mamdani, adamantly deny that they mean “antisemitism.” So that makes it okay for them to tar people as “Zionists” and deny that…
Is there a construal of “anti-Zionism” that doesn’t mean “antisemitism”?
The Milei Miracle, Part V
02 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, growth disasters, growth miracles, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics Tags: Argentina
The world’s worst-performing economy for 100 years has – in a remarkably short period of time – become an amazing case study of economic liberalization. Thanks to President Javier Milei, Argentina is now enjoying an economic miracle. In Part V of this series (previous versions here, here, here, and here), we’re going to illustrate Milei’s […]
The Milei Miracle, Part V
001 -The Polish-German War – WW2 – September 1, 1939 [IMPROVED]
02 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: World War II
Big differences
02 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
The TPM overhang strategy could result in permament left wing government
02 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election, constitutional law
Te Pati Maori are trying to use the Māori seats to engineer overhang seats, to try and lock the centre right out of power – even if they win more votes. But recent law changes means the potential impact of this strategy could be huge. At present there are seven Māori seats. If TPM won…
The TPM overhang strategy could result in permament left wing government
Disappointing
01 Sep 2026 1 Comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, population economics Tags: economics of immigration
The ACT Party has announced a new policy that would:Remove the existing Permanent Resident visa category;Require all Resident Visa holders to receive a 5 year travel facility, replacing the current two-year initial travel condition;Require all Resident Visa holders to be physically present in New Zealand for at least 730 days within any rolling five-year period,…
Disappointing
‘The Use of Knowledge in Society,’ by Friedrich A. Hayek
01 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economics of information, entrepreneurship, F.A. Hayek, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, Ludwig von Mises, market efficiency, Ronald Coase, Ronald Coase, Ronald Coase, theory of the firm
The wealth and technological sophistication of modern society are readily apparent. Less visible, but no less remarkable, is its ability to coordinate the actions of billions of people who know almost nothing about one another’s circumstances. Every day we make decisions without possessing most of the information on which those decisions ultimately depend. We purchase…
‘The Use of Knowledge in Society,’ by Friedrich A. Hayek
Do labour markets behave like competitive markets?
01 Sep 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: competition law, monopsony
The American evidence is that they frequently do not. For over a century there was a separate Department of Labour, which was amalgamated into that vast miscellaneous department, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Today there is no Minister of Labour, while the portfolios of workplace relations and safety and of immigration are held […]
Do labour markets behave like competitive markets?
Throwback Sunday: “We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period!”
31 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
Video of Dr David Deming’s statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works on December 6, 2006. Dr Deming reveals that in 1995 a leading scientist emailed him saying “We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period”. A few years later, Michael Mann and the IPCC did just that by…
Throwback Sunday: “We have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period!”
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments