Tomas Pueyo has collated a huge amount of public opinion data from Muslims in Western countries. He finds: Depending on the country of origin and destination:~10-40% of Muslims are moderate & well integrated~20-50% are conservative, religious, pious~25% are fundamentalists~Of which 15% (pp) are radical Islamists Some findings in the US: He concludes: In summary, the…
What do Muslim immigrants think?
What do Muslim immigrants think?
31 May 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of media and culture, economics of religion, law and economics, liberalism, politics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: economics of immigration
Eighty years after a famous math problem was posed, AI finally solved it
31 May 2026 Leave a comment
I don’t wholeheartedly embrace AI, for I think it will be the death of liberal education. In both the humanities and science, I fear that students will lose any ability they have to write, and will not improve their writing because they’ll be using bots. This will degrade their ability to communicate. (Scientists too need…
Eighty years after a famous math problem was posed, AI finally solved it
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 14
30 May 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, liberalism, libertarianism, Murray Rothbard, war and peace
SummarySome libertarians argue that the implications of libertarianism for foreign policy are unclear. In this chapter, Rothbard argues that libertarianism implies strict “isolationism”:Pending the dissolution of States, libertarians desire to limit, to whittle down, the area of government power in all directions and as much as possible… In foreign affairs, the goal is the same:…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 14
How Much Has Shale Gas Saved U.S. Consumers?
30 May 2026 Leave a comment
in energy economics, politics - USA
It may seem like a distant memory now, but as of the mid-2000s, U.S. natural gas production had been flat for a decade, and the U.S. was importing liquefied natural gas (LNG), with plans to import much more. Then shale gas happened. Advances in hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling caused U.S. natural gas production to…
How Much Has Shale Gas Saved U.S. Consumers?
Absurd Cost Overruns Are a Bipartisan Problem
30 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, industrial organisation, managerial economics, organisational economics, survivor principle, theory of the firm
Regarding the pervasive problem of cost overruns (defined as government programs and projects that wind up costing far more than initial estimates), I’ve always appreciated this image sent by a reader. It nicely captures a key reason for cost overruns, which is that there is no bottom-line incentive for bureaucrats and politicians to monitor costs. […]
Absurd Cost Overruns Are a Bipartisan Problem
The 1947 Heatwave, Which The Met Office Keeps Quiet About
29 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of climate change, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
This week’s heatwave is an exceptionally rare event for this time of year, but it is not unprecedented, even during the few brief years our temperature records date back. The post The 1947 Heatwave, Which The Met Office Keeps Quiet About appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
The 1947 Heatwave, Which The Met Office Keeps Quiet About
SEZs as policy trial areas
29 May 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic growth, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, macroeconomics, property rights
A decade ago, I coauthored a report looking at how greater localism and subsidiarity could be achieved in a very centralised country where local councils have variable capabilities. We settled on policy trial areas. The basic gist was as follows. First, a community would pitch a policy trial area – a special economic zone – with different policy…
SEZs as policy trial areas
Europe’s War on Wealth
29 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, occupational choice, P.T. Bauer, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: European Union
Given the relative economic weakness that plagues most European nations (documented here, here, here, here, and here), a top priority for policy makers should be to improve incentives for wealth creation. But that assumes politicians care about the prosperity of citizens. Based on a new report from the European Commission, the answer is no. Instead of […]
Europe’s War on Wealth
On Private Money
28 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, financial economics, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetary economics
TweetHere’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal. Editor: Greg Ip’s argument that cryptocurrencies, being privately issued, will fail as money relies heavily on his historical claim that privately issued bank notes in the 19th-century United States failed as money (“Stablecoins Are Private Money. That’s Why They’re a Risk to the Economy.” May 25). Mr.…
On Private Money
The Courts and Climate Change
28 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism, nuisance suits
Legislation or Litigation The Smith v Fonterra case was brought by climate change spokesperson for the Iwi Chairs Forum Michael Smith (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) against several major emitters. Smith was attempting to use tort law to address the diffuse, cumulative harms of climate change to his property, culture, and iwi. When the matter came before the Court […]
The Courts and Climate Change
Trade Deficit Illiteracy, Part III
28 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, international economics, macroeconomics, politics - USA
Looking at Part I and Part II, and considering the focus of today’s column, this series should actually be entitled “Trade Deficit Literacy.” That’s because the material I cite explains that a trade deficit is merely the flip side of an investment surplus. And it is good that the United States is a magnet for […]
Trade Deficit Illiteracy, Part III
Edmund Phelps, 1933-2026
28 May 2026 Leave a comment
in business cycles, history of economic thought, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, unemployment
Economics has recently lost another of the greats, Nobel Prize-winning economist Edmund Phelps, who passed away last week. Phelps was a macroeconomist, and among his many contributions he helped to formalise the concept of the natural rate of unemployment. Phelps won the Nobel Prize in 2006 for “his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy”.Surprisingly,…
Edmund Phelps, 1933-2026
NZ First’s foray into transgender issues might be ethically dubious, but politically it could be a winner
27 May 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights Tags: 2024 presidential election, sex discrimination
One political advertisement stood out from the thousands that blitzed the US presidential campaign of 2024. It inflicted enormous damage on the Democratic Party’s flagbearer, Kamala Harris. The ad’s central tagline deployed just two sentences: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Former President Bill Clinton urged the Harris Campaign to come back […]
NZ First’s foray into transgender issues might be ethically dubious, but politically it could be a winner
Blame Washington for the Great Depression, Part III
27 May 2026 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, great depression, history of economic thought, macroeconomics
To follow up on Part I and Part II in this series, let’s start with this Stossel video featuring Professor Don Boudreaux of George Mason University. The message is simple and accurate. Starting nearly 100 years ago, we got terrible statist policy from Herbert Hoover, followed by terrible statist policy from Franklin Roosevelt. No wonder […]
Blame Washington for the Great Depression, Part III
Schumpeter comes to Wellington
27 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
(And what we can learn from the Luddites) In 1987 Telecom New Zealand employed about 25,000 people. By 1997 it employed under 8,000. A single corporation shed 17,000 jobs in a decade, in a country of 3.3 million. The cost of Telecom’s long-distance calls fell by 60 per cent between 1987 and 1992. The decade that followed […]
Schumpeter comes to Wellington
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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