The Herald reports: Ministry officials are denying they deliberately misled a Parliament select committee by not revealing an immigration IT project had been terminated while being questioned about its progress. Appearing before Parliament’s Privileges Committee today, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) chief executive Nic Blakeley and former Immigration New Zealand (INZ) head Alison…
Will MBIE be held on contempt?
Will MBIE be held on contempt?
29 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
Defending the Indefensible: Western Communists and the Berlin Wall
29 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Berlin wall, East Germany
When the East German government began constructing the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961, its real purpose was unmistakable. It was intended to stop East Germans escaping to the West. Nevertheless, communist parties and sympathetic intellectuals in Western countries attempted to justify the Wall by presenting it as a defensive measure rather than an instrument […]
Defending the Indefensible: Western Communists and the Berlin Wall
Criminal “Villification”: Australia Court Upholds Conviction, Massive Fine, and Compelled Speech in Transgender Case
29 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
We have followed the evisceration of free speech values in the United Kingdom and other Western nations. Australia has been…
Criminal “Villification”: Australia Court Upholds Conviction, Massive Fine, and Compelled Speech in Transgender Case
Trump is Right to Take On the Climate Litigation Complex
29 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, development economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of education, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: climate alarmism
Whatever one makes of President Trump’s chosen words, the underlying demand – that a body claiming the authority of disinterested science should actually be disinterested – is one any serious defender of scientific integrity ought to be able to endorse. Surely the most litigated-against President in US history is right in ensuring that judges overseeing…
Trump is Right to Take On the Climate Litigation Complex
Hazlitt on Marx
29 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics
The Apples and Oranges Tribunal
28 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of education, economics of regulation, gender, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, property rights Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Suppose that apples sell for more than oranges and Parliament in it’s wisdom decides that, at last, apples and oranges must be compared. Not by shoppers — shoppers are biased, they merely reveal what they are willing to pay — but by a tribunal, which will determine whether apples and oranges are of truly equal…
The Apples and Oranges Tribunal
Italy is changing its electoral system (again)
28 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, politics, Public Choice Tags: Italy
Nicknamed the “Stabilicum” by the right-wing coalition government that introduced it, this would be the fifth major electoral reform in Italy since 1993.
Italy is changing its electoral system (again)
The law school at the U of C bans devices in the classroom
28 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
Speaking of AI, I wish the rest of the University of Chicago would adhere to our Law School’s new dictum, reported in the article below from WGN9 (click to read): An excerpt: Some students at the University of Chicago will have to learn how to do their work the old fashioned way, without their phones…
The law school at the U of C bans devices in the classroom
Entryism: The Subversion of Political Parties from Within
28 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - USA Tags: British politics
Entryism is objectionable not because it advances left-wing or right-wing ideas, but because it seeks political power under a partially false identity. Instead of openly forming a party, presenting a programme and asking voters to support it, entryists join a larger established party and attempt to redirect or capture it from within. Political parties must, […]
Entryism: The Subversion of Political Parties from Within
The common sense of Fareed Zakaria
28 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, labour economics, macroeconomics, unemployment
This is one of the best Op-Eds you will read this year, though it deliberately deemphasizes the personal (no one is attacked) in a manner that will result in less attention. Better to write the truth! Excerpt: Why has this [voter discontent} happened? Some of it is economic. Expensive housing, stagnant incomes and widening inequality have fueled public…
The common sense of Fareed Zakaria
A populist ACT
27 Jul 2026 1 Comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election
There is insufficient support for neoliberal economic policies so political parties of the hard right are adopting populist causes. To succeed the neoliberal revolution of Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson had to change the culture of New Zealanders from their belief that the government was usually the solution to a problem to a society which […]
A populist ACT
Is Britain’s New Energy Secretary Even Crazier than Mad Ed?
27 Jul 2026 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, Marxist economics Tags: British politics
Energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh wants full Net Zero by 2030. The post Is Britain’s New Energy Secretary Even Crazier than Mad Ed? appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
Is Britain’s New Energy Secretary Even Crazier than Mad Ed?
The DSA and the Myth of Scandinavian Socialism
27 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Norway, Sweden
This week, Darializa Avila Chevalier was asked if there has ever been a “successful model of socialism anywhere in the…
The DSA and the Myth of Scandinavian Socialism
Goldman’s Demand for “One Case” of Immigration Obstruction Fails Spectacularly When DHS Offers 7,000 in New York Alone
27 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: economics of immigration
An over-30-point primary loss would ordinarily produce a degree of introspection and self-reflection in a politician. Indeed, even such a…
Goldman’s Demand for “One Case” of Immigration Obstruction Fails Spectacularly When DHS Offers 7,000 in New York Alone
The failure of the League of Nations.
26 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: World War I
The failure of the League of Nations is one of the most significant geopolitical collapses of the 20th century. Established after World War I to prevent another global conflict, it ultimately proved powerless against the rise of aggressive militarism in the 1930s. Historians generally attribute its collapse to four interconnected fatal flaws: Furthermore, other crucial […]
The failure of the League of Nations.
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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