This essay is capitulation to catastrophe…. Don’t talk about it, then the public won’t know about it, then you can’t run for office on it and the country won’t act on the emergency. The post Disaster? NYT Op-Ed on Demoting the Climate Pitch appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
Disaster? NYT Op-Ed on Demoting the Climate Pitch
Disaster? NYT Op-Ed on Demoting the Climate Pitch
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism
Strategic overhangs and ways to prevent them in MMP systems
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, politics - New Zealand
In mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral systems, an “overhang” seat can result if a party wins more seats via the nominal tier (of, typically, single-seat districts) than it would be entitled to if a regular proportional-representation (PR) systems were used.
Strategic overhangs and ways to prevent them in MMP systems
Review of “Ted Kennedy: A Life” by John A. Farrell
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of education, economics of media and culture, politics - USA
Ted Kennedy: A Life by John A. Farrell 752 pages Penguin Press Published: Oct 2022 “Ted Kennedy: A Life” is John Farrell’s just-released biography of the youngest son of Joseph P. Kennedy. Farrell is a former correspondent for The Boston Globe who has written biographies of Tip O’Neill and Richard Nixon (a Pulitzer Prize finalist […]
Review of “Ted Kennedy: A Life” by John A. Farrell
The bizarre case of Glyndwr Michael- The WWII Hero, who never was.
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War II
It’s amazing to think that the allies possibly won the war by a dead homeless man. Glyndwr Michael (4 January 1909 – 24 January 1943) was a semi-literate homeless man whose body was used in Operation Mincemeat, the successful World War II deception plan that lured German forces to Greece prior to the Allied invasion […]
The bizarre case of Glyndwr Michael- The WWII Hero, who never was.
The Māori political class is failing its people
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
On Monday, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi announced publicly she was leaving Te Pāti Māori to form the Te Tai Tokerau Party. The announcement was framed in the language of mana motuhake, regional self-determination, and wahine leadership. It was, she said, the approach she and her team decided was best for them.
The Māori political class is failing its people
Why it is unlikely Waititi’s thinking about one-term government and the Maori Party will be realised
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
Rawiri Waititi is absolutely correct when he says there will be no one-term government without Te Pati Māori. At no point since the last election have Labour and the Green Party been polling strongly enough to contemplate forming a government without the inclusion of Te Pati Māori. And even if Te Pati Māori were to […]
Why it is unlikely Waititi’s thinking about one-term government and the Maori Party will be realised
Review of “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century” by Beverly Gage
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, politics - USA
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage 864 pages Viking (Penguin Random House) Published: Nov 2022 One of 2022’s most notable new biographies is Beverly Gage’s long-awaited “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.” Gage is a professor of American history at Yale University […]
Review of “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century” by Beverly Gage
REVENGE OF ODESSA by Frederick Forsyth and Tony Kent
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War II
In 1972 English writer Frederick Forsyth published a novel, THE ODESSA FILE which encompassed the adventures of a young German reporter attempting to discover the location of a former SS concentration-camp commander, Austrian Nazi SS-Obersturmfuhrer and Commandant of the Riga Ghetto during 1943, Eduard Roschmann who earned the nickname the “Butcher of Riga.” In the novel, the German freelance […]
REVENGE OF ODESSA by Frederick Forsyth and Tony Kent
A Friendly Appeal to the Unconvinced
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, liberalism Tags: The Great Enrichment
An excerpt from the conclusion of *Unbeatable*
A Friendly Appeal to the Unconvinced
A good idea for supermarket competition
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, urban economics Tags: competition law, land supply, zoning
The Spinoff reports: Both Labour and National governments have considered the idea of breaking up the big two but ultimately decided against it. A 2023 analysis by MBIE suggested forcibly breaking up the supermarkets could cost as much as $3.8 billion over 20 years, mostly due to the loss of economies of scale. It could make wholesale and distribution…
A good idea for supermarket competition
Bill Maher’s newest rule: young people and political violence
13 May 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, television, TV shows
This week Bill Maher’s comedy-and-news bit is about the “Assassination Generation,” referring to all the young men who kill or commit arson for ideological reasons. As we know, a big proportion of young people (about 40%) think that political violence is sometimes warranted. As you might expect, Maher deplores this behavior and the ideas behind…
Bill Maher’s newest rule: young people and political violence
Libertarians and Holocaust Denial
13 May 2026 Leave a comment
in history of economic thought, liberalism, libertarianism, Murray Rothbard Tags: The Holocaust
Libertarians were important actors in American Holocaust denial in the decades following World War II.
Libertarians and Holocaust Denial
Review of “King: A Life” by Jonathan Eig
13 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig 688 pages Farrar, Straus and Giroux Published: May 2023 Jonathan Eig’s “King: A Life” was published early last year to nearly instant acclaim and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Biography earlier this year. Eig is a journalist and author previously best-known for his biographies “Luckiest Man: The Life […]
Review of “King: A Life” by Jonathan Eig
Simon Karsunke: What comes next? The way forward on UK House of Lords reform
13 May 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy Tags: British constitutional law, British politics
On 18 March 2026 the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill became the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026. Following one final vote on the evening of the 10th of March 2026 in the House of Lords , and after having offered additional life peer appointments to Conservative peers, the Labour government has succeeded […]
Simon Karsunke: What comes next? The way forward on UK House of Lords reform
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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