After the story of how Southwest Airlines broke an attempt at predatory pricing with booze, I learned of the Dow vs. Die Deutsche Bromkonvention episode. See here for an interesting narrative of events. To summarize, at the turn of the twentieth century, the German chemical industry was dominant and the various producers there had a comfortable cartel selling bromine…
A Pac-Man Defense Against Predatory Pricing?
A Pac-Man Defense Against Predatory Pricing?
08 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation Tags: competition law
Further progress in South America
08 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, health economics Tags: The Great Escape
The share of people who are hungry has been decreasing faster in South America than anywhere else in the world. It is down by one-third since 2020, according to a report published on July 21st by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Just 3.5% of people in the region consume insufficient calories, the lowest…
Further progress in South America
The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith: A Dark Mirror of American History
07 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: racial discrimination
On the night of August 7, 1930, the small city of Marion, Indiana became the site of one of the most infamous and haunting episodes of racial violence in American history—the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. What makes this event particularly searing in the American consciousness isn’t just the brutality of the act. […]
The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith: A Dark Mirror of American History
New Zealand shows how to solve the equal pay crisis
07 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, economics of regulation, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap
Outgoing governments often try to craft a legacy for themselves by introducing policy traps that incoming governments find hard to undo, such as Rishi Sunak’s National Insurance cuts in 2024 or Gordon Brown’s introduction of the 50p top rate of income tax in 2010. Keir Starmer just did something similar by initiating a huge expansion in the […]
New Zealand shows how to solve the equal pay crisis
Mapping the World of Rap Lyrics
07 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in Music
A New Article in EPJ Data Science
Mapping the World of Rap Lyrics
Hiroshima and “Little Boy”: A Historical Perspective
07 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of religion, laws of war, war and peace Tags: atomic bombings, Japan, World War II
On August 6, 1945, the world witnessed the devastating power of nuclear warfare for the first time when the United States dropped an atomic bomb, code-named “Little Boy,” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This event marked a significant turning point in World War II and had profound implications for international relations, warfare, and ethics. […]
Hiroshima and “Little Boy”: A Historical Perspective
The New McCarthys: Forty Percent of Professors Would Vote Against Hiring a Trump Voter
06 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
According to a new survey, roughly 40 percent of college faculty would “oppose hiring a Trump supporter.” The results of…
The New McCarthys: Forty Percent of Professors Would Vote Against Hiring a Trump Voter
The False Equivalence of Islamophobia and Antisemitism
06 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics Tags: Freedom of religion, racial discrimination
Islamophobia and antisemitism are often discussed as though they were equivalent forms of prejudice: one directed against Muslims and the other against Jews. At a superficial level, the comparison is understandable. Muslims and Jews may both face hostility, discrimination, vilification and violence because of their perceived identity. Such treatment is wrong in either case. But […]
The False Equivalence of Islamophobia and Antisemitism
One Nation Party and Antisemitism
05 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
One Nation spokesmen such as Malcolm Roberts and Warren Pickering have expressed conspiracy theorist allegations about global ‘cabals’ and ‘parasites’ controlling the world’s finances. To what extent is this likely to be a euphemistic form of antisemitism? In Malcolm Roberts’s case, there is a strong basis for describing the rhetoric as a coded or euphemistic […]
One Nation Party and Antisemitism
Caturday felid trifecta: The woman with a thousand cats; Larry the Cat makes michief, but chases a fox away from Downing Street; a very early fossil felid; and lagniappe
05 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in cats
Okay we’ll have a Caturday this week, but we’ll see about forthcoming weeks. If you have a cat-related item for me to consider, by all means send it along. First, we have an eight-minute video of a real “cat lady”, who has over a thousand moggies. She’s turned her house into a sanctuary/rescue center/adoption center, so…
Caturday felid trifecta: The woman with a thousand cats; Larry the Cat makes michief, but chases a fox away from Downing Street; a very early fossil felid; and lagniappe
The population bust
05 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, population economics
The Confession of Joe Biden
05 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
Below is my column in The Hill on the release of the tapes from former President Joe Biden’s interview with…
The Confession of Joe Biden
Yet more “pretty (il)legal” stuff from the Reserve Bank
05 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in economics of bureaucracy, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: monetary policy
A month or so ago the Reserve Bank announced the appointment of a new Assistant Governor (a deputy chief executive) responsible for its financial stability functions. That must have prompted a Bloomberg journalist to ask what was happening to the vacant position on the Monetary Policy Committee (given that, previously, Geoff Bascand and then Christian […]
Yet more “pretty (il)legal” stuff from the Reserve Bank
Britain told to rethink net zero strategy as costs soar
05 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics, climate alarmism, solar power, wind power
By Paul Homewood Of course, it is not a rethink required – the whole needs scrapping now. A new report has warned the United Kingdom is set to face a £40 billion annual bill by the end of the decade as its drive towards net zero energy continues. In a new study The […]
Britain told to rethink net zero strategy as costs soar
The Cost of War
04 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, energy economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Iran
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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