The Great Escape
22 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, health economics Tags: child mortality, infant mortality, The Great Escape
3 things the M4 Sherman did BETTER than other tanks
22 Feb 2025 2 Comments
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War II
Bugger all
21 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, transport economics Tags: electric cars
The Royal Society Moves to Expel Musk Over His Political Views
21 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, entrepreneurship, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, property rights, transport economics Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, space
Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is one of the most prominent scientific organizations in the world with associations to such luminaries as Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Despite that proud history, British scientists are pushing to politicize the society and expel Elon Musk because they disagree with his political views. It is not […]
The Royal Society Moves to Expel Musk Over His Political Views
Four dead hostages, including the Bibas family, handed over to Israel by Hamas
21 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
The inevitable happened this morning: Hamas turned over four dead bodies of Israeli hostages, encased in black boxes. And, contrary to my expectations, there was a ceremony, with posters blaming the deaths on Netanyahu and the Red Cross there signing documents. The bodies included the Bibas family (Shiri Bibas and her two children. four-year-old Ariel […]
Four dead hostages, including the Bibas family, handed over to Israel by Hamas
The U.S. government’s new definition of sex
21 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
There will be a few posts on the definition of sex today, as everything “dropped”—as the kids say—at the same time. First, on January 20, the Trump administration issued an executive order, “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government”—an attempt to efface gender ideology from the government and […]
The U.S. government’s new definition of sex
The solution is to deport quicker
21 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of immigration
The Herald reports: Daman Kumar – the 18-year-old threatened with deportation to India despite living in New Zealand all his life – has been offered residency. Green Party immigration spokesman Ricardo Menéndez March told the Herald he was informed of the development by Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk’s office this afternoon. Menéndez March wrote to the minister last week, […]
The solution is to deport quicker
Keynes on the Soviet Union
21 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in history of economic thought, macroeconomics, Marxist economics Tags: British politics, Russian revolution
I had not known of this passage, which I am packaging with its introduction from Gavan Tredoux: John Maynard Keynes has the undeserved reputation of a critic of the USSR. Few know that he reviewed Sidney and Beatrice Webb’s mendacious tome The Soviet Union: a New Civilization (1935/1937/1943) fawningly. Perhaps the most embarrassing thing Keynes […]
Keynes on the Soviet Union
The Accumulation of Regulation
21 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation Tags: employment law
Like many who do business in California, I often complain about the regulatory burden (free at last!) People will ask, “So what one regulation would you get rid of?” The problem is that this is a really hard question to answer because in most cases it is not any one regulation in particular, but the…
The Accumulation of Regulation
@NZGreens @Greens
20 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in environmental economics, environmentalism Tags: recycling
Tal vs. Fischer: Gladiator battle in the King’s Indian Defense!
20 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in chess
The Spectacular Economic Ignorance of Peter Navarro
20 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, survivor principle, unemployment Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tarrifs
TweetHere’s a letter to the New York Times. Editor: Encountering, in David Leonhardt’s report, a summary of Peter Navarro’s attempted justifications of Trump’s tariffs makes the head spin (“A Disagreement on Tariffs,” February 18). Navarro’s arguments are so illogical, self-contradictory, and economically ignorant that they’d be merely laughable were he not an advisor to the…
The Spectacular Economic Ignorance of Peter Navarro
Selfishly Speaking, Who Should Skip College?
20 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, economics of information, human capital, James Buchanan, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: adverse selection, asymmetric information, College premium, signaling
The central thesis of my The Case Against Education is that actually-existing education is a terrible waste of taxpayer money. Since signaling, not building human capital, is the main function of education, the main effect of government subsidies is credential inflation. In economic jargon, my claim is that education has a low (indeed, negative) social…
Selfishly Speaking, Who Should Skip College?
Our letter to the three societies on the definition of sex—with signers
20 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Six days ago I posted a group letter to the Presidents of three ecology/evolution/systematics societies who had issued a joint statement that many of us found deeply misguided. As I wrote at the time: The Presidents of three organismal-biology societies, the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the American Society of Naturalists (ASN) and […]
Our letter to the three societies on the definition of sex—with signers
Effects of the minimum wage on the nonprofit sector
19 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage
After a few days of ‘rest’ (by which I really mean some intensely long work days), I’m going to pick up again on my recent series of posts about the minimum wage (see here for the most recent post), but returning to more familiar ground – the disemployment effects of the minimum wage. The story…
Effects of the minimum wage on the nonprofit sector
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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