Plus: Democrats reckon with the rise of the DSA, Trump scales back America’s military presence abroad, and the case for letting kids play outside
Who Pays for Medicare for All?
Who Pays for Medicare for All?
18 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in health economics, income redistribution, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics
The Cost of Going to Space
18 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation Tags: space
Terzi & Nicoli have a fascinating new paper analyzing over 4,400 orbital launches since 1960 to estimate “Wright’s Law.” This law states that a new technology’s unit costs fall in proportion to cumulative experience. Essentially, it is an expression of learning-by-doing. They show:… that the average cost of sending a kilogram to orbit has dropped…
The Cost of Going to Space
Opportunity Party on when you’re a child
17 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election, crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
The Opportunity Party policy is or was that any criminal offender aged under 25 should be sent to the Youth Court for a family group conference, rather than go to an adult court. They say this is because 24 year old brains are not fully developed, so they should not be held fully accountable for…
Opportunity Party on when you’re a child
The effects of remote work on the disability employment gap
17 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, transport economics, urban economics Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
A rise in work from home explains most of the postpandemic gain in full-time employment among people with physical disabilitiesBy Tyler Smith. “Employment among people with disabilities has remained well below that of the broader population, with an average disability employment gap of 27 percentage points across OECD countries. In the United States, this low disability…
The effects of remote work on the disability employment gap
A Close Call with Asteroid Apophis
17 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture Tags: space
It was quite a scare when first discovered in 2004, but thousands of observations later, we now know that the asteroid known as Apophis will miss Earth when it makes its closest approach in April 2029. However, in the grand scheme of things in our vast universe, this will be a close call, and it’ll…
A Close Call with Asteroid Apophis
Life and death of Mata Hari
16 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: World War II
Despite her exotic name Mata Hari was a Dutch woman. Her real name was Margaretha (Gretha)Zelle and was born in Leeuwarden, in the province of Friesland in the North West of the Netherlands.. Today marks her 150th birthday. At 18, Zelle answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Dutch Colonial Army Captain Rudolf MacLeod (1 March 1856 – 9 January 1928), […]
Life and death of Mata Hari
The Omagh Bombing
16 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics Tags: British politics, Northern Ireland, war against terror
The Omagh bombing, which took place on August 15, 1998, stands as the deadliest single atrocity of the decades-long sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. Just four months after the historic signing of the Good Friday Agreement, a car bomb exploded in the busy centre of Omagh, County Tyrone, in an attack […]
The Omagh Bombing
Alex Tabarrok: Britain’s equal pay madness
16 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, discrimination, economics of education, gender, health and safety, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: affirmative action, gender wage gap, pay equity, sex discrimination
The Taliban, Women and the Far Left
15 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of education, economics of religion, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, war and peace Tags: Afghanistan
It is five years today since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. On 15 August 2021, its forces entered Kabul as the Afghan government collapsed and the long Western intervention came to an ignominious end. Five years later, the consequences for Afghan women are appalling. The Taliban has issued more than 100 decrees restricting the […]
The Taliban, Women and the Far Left
The Schutzstaffel (SS): The Engine of the Nazi State
15 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, World War II
The Schutzstaffel (SS): The Engine of the Nazi State The Schutzstaffel, commonly referred to as the SS, played a pivotal role in the rise and implementation of the Nazi regime in Germany between 1925 and 1945. Originally formed as a paramilitary bodyguard unit for Adolf Hitler, the SS evolved into a multifaceted organization responsible for […]
The Schutzstaffel (SS): The Engine of the Nazi State
Incentive Misalignment in Communism: the case of Vietnam
15 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, Marxist economics Tags: economics of central planning, Vietnam
Rainer Zitelmann writes in How Capitalism Beat Communism in Vietnam in Reason Magazine, The state collectives did not reward members for the amount of rice they produced, but instead counted how many days they had worked. 183 more words
Incentive Misalignment in Communism: the case of Vietnam
Fred Hockley-Executed 9 hours after Japanese surrender.
14 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Japan, World War II
Following the Hiroshima bombing on August 6, the Soviet declaration of war and the Nagasaki bombing on August 9, the Emperor’s speech was broadcast at noon Japan Standard Time on August 15, 1945, and did reference the atomic bombs as a reason for the surrender. The broadcast was recorded a day earlier but was broadcast […]
Fred Hockley-Executed 9 hours after Japanese surrender.
Millions of households could face threat of emergency blackouts
14 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics, climate alarmism, solar power, wind power
By Paul Homewood h/t Ian Cunningham We are rapidly turning into a third world country where our electricity grid is concerned: From the Telegraph: Emergency power cuts could be imposed on millions of households at short notice to avoid nationwide blackouts, under new rules introduced by grid bosses.
Millions of households could face threat of emergency blackouts
Some Links
14 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
TweetRyan Bourne explains that “burrito-gate reflects inflation’s toxic legacy.” Brian Albrecht carefully lays out the likely consequences of Mamdani’s government-run grocery stores. National Review‘s Jim Geraghty is right: “Both parties embrace what’s popular and abandon what’s right.” A slice: The Republican president keeps taking a government stake in private companies, now up to 30 firms.…
Some Links
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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