Below is my column on Fox.com on the new disclosures of secret orders targeting now FBI Director Kash Patel and…
Jack Smith’s Secret Orders Targeting Patel and Wiles Should Alarm Us All
Jack Smith’s Secret Orders Targeting Patel and Wiles Should Alarm Us All
04 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election
More Bark Than Bite: Kaine’s War Powers Resolution is an “Imminent” Failure
04 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: regressive left
We now have a glimpse of the War Powers Resolution promised by Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), which is reportedly…
More Bark Than Bite: Kaine’s War Powers Resolution is an “Imminent” Failure
The Clintons and the Politics of Scandal
03 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
Below is my column in the Hill on the deposition of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State…
The Clintons and the Politics of Scandal
Iranian women: 1970 vs. 2020
03 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economic history, gender, labour economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, Iran, sex discrimination
I put something like this up years ago, but it’s a good way to see, with just a few clicks, what happened to Iran after the “Revolution”. Let’s taken women’s dress, a touchstone of misogyny and theocratic oppression. Before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, it was a pretty free country in that respect, and everyone…
Iranian women: 1970 vs. 2020
Sports and Supply-Side Economics
03 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, sports economics Tags: taxation and labour supply
One of the key insights of good tax policy is that people respond to incentives. If tax rates are punitive, people will do what they can to protect themselves from predatory government. Especially if they have any ability to control the timing, level, and composition of their income. Star athletes are definitely in this group. They avoid […]
Sports and Supply-Side Economics
Travel advice for vapers
03 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, international economics Tags: nanny state
The Telegraph has written a guide for vapers travelling to parts of the world that are even more hostile to e-cigarettes. I am quoted in it. Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs and editor of the Nanny State Index, which ranks countries by how much they interfere with people’s lifestyle…
Travel advice for vapers
One view of Iranian strategy
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace
Some observations and comments on Trump and Israel’s war on Iran: 1. Tehran is not looking for a ceasefire and has rejected outreach from Trump. The reason is that they believe they committed a mistake by agreeing to the ceasefire in June – it only enabled the US and Israel to restock and remobilize to…
One view of Iranian strategy
Will Denmark and/or the Netherlands Copy Norway’s Failed Wealth Tax?
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Denmark, taxation and entrepreneurship
Class-warfare tax policy is always a bad idea. Economists generally don’t like class-warfare policies because it is foolish to impose high marginal tax rates on productive behaviors such as investment and entrepreneurship. Politicians should not like class-warfare policies because of the negative impact on jobs and wages for ordinary people as well as the potential negative […]
Will Denmark and/or the Netherlands Copy Norway’s Failed Wealth Tax?
The Macroeconomic Effects of Tariffs
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, history of economic thought, international economics Tags: free trade, tariffs
We study the macroeconomic effects of tariff policy using U.S. historical data from 1840–2024. We construct a narrative series of plausibly exogenous tariff changes – based on major legislative actions, multilateral negotiations, and temporary surcharges – and use it as an instrument to identify a structural tariff shock. Tariff increases are contractionary: imports fall sharply,…
The Macroeconomic Effects of Tariffs
The Cult | A Net Zero Watch Short Film
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of education, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, movies
The brilliant Colin Brazier returns for our second short film on the cult of Net Zero and how it protects ‘green’ policies from being questioned by stifling debate and cracking down on free speech.
The Cult | A Net Zero Watch Short Film
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ conceptual conservatism
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education Tags: cognitive psychology, political psychology, regressive left
This week’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “bells,” came with a comment: “Does she think they were born yesterday?” Wikipedia tells us that another word for “conceptual conservatism” is “belief perseverance,” and characterizes it this way: Belief perseverance (also known as conceptual conservatism) is maintenance of a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it.[2] Since rationality involves conceptual…
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ conceptual conservatism
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 4
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Murray Rothbard, privatisation, Public Choice
Update: I’m doing a Substack Live today on You Have No Right to Your Culture with the Boyd Institute’s Peter Banks. 4 PM ET.SummaryThis is the shortest chapter of the book, just six pages long. Rothbard makes a laundry list of what he calls “the major problem areas of our society” and argues that government…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 4
Laying Off Workers: Cheap vs. Expensive
01 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
When thinking about what makes an economy flourish, many of us tend to focus on the success stories of innovation and growth. After all, success stories involve an element of risk, which means a chance of failure. When it’s more expensive to fail, then avoiding the risk of failure–by avoiding innovative but risky business choices–starts…
Laying Off Workers: Cheap vs. Expensive
The amazing NZ aerospace industry
01 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, industrial organisation
The Post reports: The Government has lifted a looming cap on rocket launches over New Zealand waters, in a move pitched as clearing the way for the country’s fast-growing space and advanced aviation industries. Space Minister Judith Collins and Environment Minister Penny Simmonds on Thursday confirmed the permitted number of launches that can drop rocket debris…
The amazing NZ aerospace industry
Epic Fury: Trump Can Rely on Past Democratic Presidents for the Authority to Attack Iran
01 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: constitutional law
Below is my column on Fox.com on the legal authority for Operation Epic Fury. There are good-faith arguments that such…
Epic Fury: Trump Can Rely on Past Democratic Presidents for the Authority to Attack Iran
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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