Most people know that the number of drinkers and smokers is in decline in the UK, but you might be surprised to hear that the same is true of gamblers. For the first time since the early 1990s, gamblers are in the minority with only 48% of English adults engaging in any gambling activity in…
The rise and fall of British gambling
The rise and fall of British gambling
18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, health economics
The Economics of Climate Adaptation Optimism
18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming
We invite your comments on our new pre-print
The Economics of Climate Adaptation Optimism
Minimum Wages for Gig Workers Can’t Work
17 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice
In 2017, I analyzed the Uber Tipping Equilibrium: What is the effect of tipping on the take-home pay of Uber drivers? Economic theory offers a clear answer. Tipping has no effect on take home pay. The supply of Uber driver-hours is very elastic. Drivers can easily work more hours when the payment per ride increases…
Minimum Wages for Gig Workers Can’t Work
Bill Maher’s latest Rule
17 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
In this week’s news-and-snark piece, Bill Maher offers a piece that may be controversial, for it’s about how men need to be “men” again. He avers that the loss of masculinity in males is one reason why women are disappointed in men, and why people are having less sex. The data are eye-opening; for example,…
Bill Maher’s latest Rule
“You see tech and AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics”
17 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: creative destruction
How many times have I heard versions of that claim? Erik Brynjolfsson picks up the telephone in the FT: While initial reports suggested a year of steady labour expansion in the US, the new figures reveal that total payroll growth was revised downward by approximately 403,000 jobs. Crucially, this downward revision occurred while real GDP…
“You see tech and AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics”
Forgotten History-The Swiss Airforce during WWII.
16 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Switzerland, World War II
Although Switzerland remained neutral throughout World War II, it had to deal with numerous violations of its airspace by combatants from both sides – initially by German aircraft, especially during their invasion of France in 1940. Zealous Swiss pilots attacked and shot down eleven German aircraft, losing two of their own, before a threatening memorandum […]
Forgotten History-The Swiss Airforce during WWII.
Eat the Rich: California Democrats Trigger a Reverse Gold Rush with a Wealth Tax
16 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: California, regressive left, rule of law, taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, wealth tax
Below is my column in the California Post and New York Post on the exodus of wealthy taxpayers from the state as Democrats seek to trap them with a retroactive wealth tax. They are engineering a type of reverse Gold Rush as up to a trillion dollars leave the state with a line of U-Hauls […]
Eat the Rich: California Democrats Trigger a Reverse Gold Rush with a Wealth Tax
Starmer surrenders to EU net zero rules
15 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics
By Paul Homewood h/t Doug Brodie From the Telegraph: Sir Keir Starmer has drawn up plans under which the UK will ramp up its net zero targets and cede control over its energy policy as part of closer alignment with Brussels.
Starmer surrenders to EU net zero rules
Pinker and Tupy tout worldwide progress, espouse an objective morality
15 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of religion, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech
In this Free Press article, Steve Pinker and Marian Tupy (the latter identified as “the founder and editor of HumanProgress.org, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and co-author of Superabundance”) once again recount the undoubtable progress that humanity has made over the past six or seven centuries. The progress described here will be familiar…
Pinker and Tupy tout worldwide progress, espouse an objective morality
Is it a party or a family?
15 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
The Herald has documents in relation to the court case between Te Pati Maori and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. What is fascinating is how they reveal the extent of the Tamihere family control of the party. It goes well beyond what we already knew. Here is what has been revealed: So a majority of the officers and…
Is it a party or a family?
Why Rescinding the Endangerment Finding May Survive Lawfare
15 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
Some thoughts from my browser AI. My Question: What are the legal matters, such as major questions requiring congressional action, that favor ending EPA CO2 Endangerment Finding? Search Assistant Reply: The legal matters surrounding the repeal of the EPA’s CO2 Endangerment Finding involve the major questions doctrine, which suggests that significant regulatory authority should not […]
Why Rescinding the Endangerment Finding May Survive Lawfare
Changes in the Gender Wage Gap for Business Professionals
14 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics Tags: gender wage gap
In the United States, much of the gap in earnings between men and women is due to the persistent gap for high wage earners. This paper explores changes in the gender wage gap for MBAs graduating from a large public university over 30 years. We document large gender wage gaps on average, which grow in…
Changes in the Gender Wage Gap for Business Professionals
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 2
14 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in libertarianism, Murray Rothbard
SummaryIn this chapter (“Property and Exchange”), Rothbard introduces the “non-aggression axiom,” also often known as the “non-initiation of force axiom.” The intuition is simple enough: No one has the right to start using physical violence or the threat thereof against another person or his property. This is one of the first moral rules we learn as…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 2
Japan 2026: A landslide enabled by the electoral system, but tempered by the nomination strategy
14 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
This landslide really was made possible by the electoral system and opposition fragmentation more so than LDP popularity. It could have been a little bigger if only the LDP had presented a few more list candidates.
Japan 2026: A landslide enabled by the electoral system, but tempered by the nomination strategy
Finland Regrets Its Green Grid
14 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: Finland, wind power
“Imagine an argument so airtight about science so settled over technology so reliable that you have to use censorship to make sure nobody gives a dissenting opinion.” @ProctorZ Tyler Durden reports at zerohedge “Electricity Market Is Fubar”: Finland Wind Turbine Blades Freeze, Curbing Green Power Output. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. […]
Finland Regrets Its Green Grid
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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