The Barnum effect is the tendency for people to accept vague, general personality descriptions as if they were specifically true of them. For example, if someone reads: “You sometimes doubt whether you have made the right decision, but you also have a strong independent streak.” many people feel that it describes them personally, even though it could describe a […]
The Barnham Effect
The Barnham Effect
12 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education Tags: personality psychology
Australia puts fostering “indigenous knowledge systems” as its first priority in developing marine biology
12 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science, regressive left
As always, an Aussie who wishes to remain anonymous sent me this link, and noted that New Zealand isn’t the only country in the Antipodes that tries to make science (again “Western science”) coequal with indigenous knowledge. Clicking on the screenshot below will take you to the strategy developed by the Aussie government: the “Australian…
Australia puts fostering “indigenous knowledge systems” as its first priority in developing marine biology
The Stresa Front -When Mussolini ‘condemned’ Hitler.
11 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, International law, war and peace Tags: Italy, Nazi Germany
The Stresa Front was a short-lived diplomatic alignment in 1935 between United Kingdom, France, and Italy, formed in response to the growing threat posed by Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. Named after the Italian town of Stresa, where representatives met in April 1935, the agreement aimed to preserve the post–World War I European order and […]
The Stresa Front -When Mussolini ‘condemned’ Hitler.
What Freedom of Speech Is For: The case against silencing
11 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, economics of education, economics of religion, Karl Popper, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, Freedom of religion, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
In 1633, the Roman Inquisition condemned Galileo for heresy. His offence was to argue that the Earth moves around the Sun. The Church was not acting out of malice. It was protecting a politically approved consensus against what was considered to be dangerous nonsense. The theologians and philosophers who condemned Galileo were not fools. They […]
What Freedom of Speech Is For: The case against silencing
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 9
11 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in Austrian economics, business cycles, economic history, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetary economics, Murray Rothbard Tags: monetary policy
SummaryIn 1973, when the first edition of For a New Liberty was published, Keynesians were still sitting pretty. Five years later, the Keynesians had so much egg on their faces that Rothbard was inspired to add this entirely new chapter on “Inflation and the Business Cycle: The Collapse of the Keynesian Paradigm” to his revised…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 9
A good corporate welfare expose
11 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, Music, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
The Spinoff becomes an unlikely fiscal conservative: Tourism minister Louise Upston was excited when she announced that Robbie Williams will play two shows in Auckland and Christchurch later this year. “It’s fantastic to welcome a showstopper act like Robbie, giving fans the chance to see him entertaining us,” she said in a press release. The…
A good corporate welfare expose
Osborne 1-First Portable Computer
11 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship Tags: creative destruction
Computers nowadays come in all shapes and sizes from a smartphone to the super computer Mira. An essential requirement nowadays is that computers are portable. It may be hard to believe but the history of portable computers goes back 45 years, even when I write it ’45 years’ I can’t believe it . I was […]
Osborne 1-First Portable Computer
Oil and monetary policy
10 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, defence economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, financial economics, history of economic thought, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, unemployment, war and peace Tags: 1973 oil crisis, monetary policy, oil shocks
I didn’t have too much problem with either the Reserve Bank Governor’s speech a couple of weeks ago on a framework for how monetary policy might deal with the oil shock, or with this week’s OCR review release from the Monetary Policy Committee. It was really all very orthodox stuff, much as any of the […]
Oil and monetary policy
Why “Gini Coefficients” Are Meaningless
09 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, entrepreneurship, financial economics, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality
I created the 8th Theorem of Government because it’s important to distinguish between people who want to help the poor and people who want to punish the rich. The former group has good motives while the latter group has ignoble motivations. Envy (common among the leftist intelligentsia) Public choice (common among leftist politicians) Zero-sum illiteracy […]
Why “Gini Coefficients” Are Meaningless
Why Climate Alarm is Fading (Matt Ridley)
09 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
Matt Ridley explains the demise of climatism in his recent video The Great Climate Climbdown is finally here – How can we undo the Damage Caused? For those preferring to read, there is a transcript below with my bolds and some helpful images. I’m going to try and give you my perspective on which arguments […]
Why Climate Alarm is Fading (Matt Ridley)
Francesca Jackson: King Charles, President Trump and the State Visit: Some Constitutional Considerations
08 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, economic history, politics - Australia Tags: British constitutional law, British politics
Buckingham Palace has finally announced that the King and Queen’s planned visit to the US will indeed go ahead at the end of April 2026. After US President Donald Trump launched a string of verbal attacks on the UK Prime Minister, there had been growing calls for Keir Starmer to cancel the King’s visit, which […]
Francesca Jackson: King Charles, President Trump and the State Visit: Some Constitutional Considerations
Two “Times” obituaries for Robert Trivers
08 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
Reader Simon called my attention to a new obituary in the Times of London of Robert Trivers, a giant in evolutionary biology (and a notorious eccentric) who died on March 12. Because his death wasn’t announced immediately after he expired, this was bit late, but better late than never—especially given Trivers’s importance in the field. […]
Two “Times” obituaries for Robert Trivers
The Legacy of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” 20 Years Later
08 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, movies Tags: climate alarmism
Gore to climate scientists: “Start getting involved in politics.” Boy, did they listen.
The Legacy of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” 20 Years Later
More touting of indigenous knowledge as coequal with modern science
08 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science, regressive left
Once again we have an article about how science could be improved if only it incorporated indigenous “ways of knowing”—the “braiding of knowledge” referred to in the Guardian article below (click to read). I often see another metaphor used to express the same thing: “two-eyed seeing”, with one eye seeing the way indigenous people do,…
More touting of indigenous knowledge as coequal with modern science
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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