Germany approaching energy state of emergency…shutdown of heavy industries. The consequence: another economic body blow the country cannot afford…gross policy negligence
One Reason Only For Germany’s Heating Gas Crisis: Its Hardcore-Dumbass Energy Policy
One Reason Only For Germany’s Heating Gas Crisis: Its Hardcore-Dumbass Energy Policy
04 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: Germany
Debunking Trump’s Error-Filled WSJ Column
04 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, economic history, fisheries economics, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economic law, international economics, macroeconomics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: free trade, tarrifs

Donald Trump, who describes himself as “Tariff Man,” recently wrote a column in defense of his protectionist trade policy for the Wall Street Journal. After reading the column, my first thought was that Trump was trying to show he is more economically illiterate than Joe Biden (a big challenge, as seen here and here). And […]
Debunking Trump’s Error-Filled WSJ Column
The radical right is not conservative
04 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: voter demographics
That the radical right calls itself “conservative” is one of the most successful acts of political re-branding in modern history. The label has stuck so firmly that many people now treat the two as interchangeable. Yet historically, philosophically, and temperamentally, they are opposites. This confusion is not confined to the uninformed. Journalists who ought to know better […]
The radical right is not conservative
Netflix, WBD, and the Myth of the Streaming Monopoly
03 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: competition law

The proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) assets by Netflix is already being cast as a landmark antitrust “test case.” If past deals are any guide, the critiques will follow a familiar script: narrow market definitions, selective data points, and headline-friendly market-share claims designed to trigger alarm. Yet in a video ecosystem defined by…
Netflix, WBD, and the Myth of the Streaming Monopoly
Vance on the Greens
03 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: regressive left
This column by Andrea Vance was actually last March but I only just discovered it, and it is so good it needs repeating. She writes: In the Chlöe Swarbrick era, the Greens have been reduced to a caucus of anarkiddies posting out a flood of social-justice clickbait. They indulge in culturally progressive obsessions, moored in…
Vance on the Greens
Border Security Type I and Type II Errors
03 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: economics of immigration

One way of looking at the a policy of increased ICE enforcement of US border security is as a debate over decision error costs. The expressed goal is to remove the worst of the worst criminals. Few would disagree with this goal. However, in this dragnet, immigrants without criminal backgrounds have also been detained. The…
Border Security Type I and Type II Errors
Cutting losses – governments too slow to learn
02 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
Updated 3.20pm Business generally works out when to cut losses because the risks of failure are too high for shareholders and workers. Government on the other hand are very slow, regardless of stripe. Grant Robertson got very grumpy with KiwiRail re the ship and ferry land side infrastructure and should have stopped or changed it, […]
Cutting losses – governments too slow to learn
Starmer Government Greenlights 15 Minute City Legal Enforcement
02 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, transport economics, urban economics Tags: British politics
Ordinary residents of trial cities will only be permitted 100 days per year outside their 15 minute region. But special people get a free pass.
Starmer Government Greenlights 15 Minute City Legal Enforcement
One Reason Only For Germany’s Heating Gas Crisis: Its Hardcore-Dumbass Energy Policy
02 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: Germany

Germany approaching energy state of emergency…shutdown of heavy industries. The consequence: another economic body blow the country cannot afford…gross policy negligence As Germany’s heating gas supply becomes increasingly tense and nears emergency low levels, policymakers will likely blame a “colder than normal winter.” But that claim will not hold. The real reason: It is what…
One Reason Only For Germany’s Heating Gas Crisis: Its Hardcore-Dumbass Energy Policy
The execution of deserter Eddie Slovik
01 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: World War II

Eddie Slovik was executed on January 31, 1945, becoming the only American soldier put to death for desertion since the Civil War. Of approximately 40,000 U.S. service members who deserted during World War II, only several thousand were court-martialed. Forty-nine received death sentences, but Slovik was the only one whose sentence was executed. Private Eddie […]
The execution of deserter Eddie Slovik
Bill Maher is back with New Roolz
01 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
Bill Maher is back, and this week he has a particularly good comedy bit: “New Rule: Eyeroll Activism.” His topic is similar to Ricky Gervais’s scathing remarks at the 2020 Golden Globes in that both men excoriate Hollywood for its virtue signaling, with Maher beginning with the wearing of anti-ICE pins at the Golden Globes.…
Bill Maher is back with New Roolz
The great climate climbdown
01 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
Matt Ridley writes: I first wrote a doom–laden article for the Economist about carbon dioxide emissions trapping heat in the air in 1987, nearly 40 years ago. I soon realised the effect was real but the alarm was overdone, that feedback effects were exaggerated in the models. The greenhouse effect was likely to be a moderate inconvenience…
The great climate climbdown
Colonialism, Slavery, and Foreign Aid (with William Easterly) 12/8/25
01 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, property rights Tags: age of empires, economics of colonialism, economics of slavery
Real Environmental Crisis Is Not Climate Change
01 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, growth disasters, health economics Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism, public health, water pollution
The real environmental emergency isn’t the modest warming that has helped humans thrive. It’s land degradation, poisoned water and other forms of pollution that are burying the Global South alive. Yes, we’ve been fighting the wrong environmental war.
Real Environmental Crisis Is Not Climate Change
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