Housing in Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore was slightly more affordable in 2024 than it had been in 2023. Wendell Cox’s latest assessment of housing affordability, when compared with last year’s assessment, shows that housing became slightly less affordable in Ireland and the United Kingdom, while affordability remained … Continue reading →
The Latest Affordability Numbers
The Latest Affordability Numbers
26 May 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, income redistribution, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Updates on the Reform Act and Fixed-Date Elections
26 May 2025 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, politics, Public Choice Tags: Canada, constitutional law
Nova Scotia Shows a Better Way In February, I outlined a government bill tabled by Tim Houston, Premier of Nova Scotia, which contained a line to repeal the province’s fixed-date elections law, amongst other things. The omnibus Government Organization and Administration Act received Royal Assent on 26 March 2025, and thus makes Nova Scotia both […]
Updates on the Reform Act and Fixed-Date Elections
Dutch Cancel Offshore Wind Auction Due To Lack Of Interest
26 May 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Netherlands, wind power
By Paul Homewood Now the Dutch are having trouble finding anyone willing to build offshore wind farms without massive subsidies, as Reuters report: The Netherlands will postpone tenders for two offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW) due to a lack of interest from potential bidders, the Dutch government […]
Dutch Cancel Offshore Wind Auction Due To Lack Of Interest
Japan’s population crisis reaches tipping point | FT Film
26 May 2025 1 Comment
in labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: ageing society, Japan
Quotation of the Day…
25 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply
Tweet… is from my late, great colleague Walter Williams’s January 6th, 2011, column, “Settled ‘facts’ that just ain’t so“: U.S. manufacturing is going through the same kind of labor-saving technological innovation as agriculture. In 1790, farmers were 90 percent of the U.S. labor force. By 1900, only about 41 percent of our labor force was…
Quotation of the Day…
The 3.5 percent remittance tax
25 May 2025 1 Comment
in development economics, financial economics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: remittances
Trump has been talking about this. I am not sure what version of the idea we might end up with, but let’s consider the idea in its abstract form. Let’s also put aside money laundering issues, and talk about “simple remittances.” The United States has a partial monopsony power over Latino (and often other) migrants, […]
The 3.5 percent remittance tax
Amon Göth—Pure Evil
25 May 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, World War II
Amon Göeth was sentenced to death and was hanged on 13 September 1946 at the Montelupich Prison in Kraków, not far from the site of the Płaszów camp, the camp he had been in charge of until two years, to the date, prior to his execution. On 13 September 1944, he was relieved of his […]
Amon Göth—Pure Evil
National Grid Boss Admits Electricity Prices Will Rise To Pay For Net Zero
25 May 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics, wind power
By Paul Homewood The Telegraph is reporting that the National Grid boss, John Pettigrew, is advising Miliband to reject zonal pricing, because it is a unneeded distraction.
National Grid Boss Admits Electricity Prices Will Rise To Pay For Net Zero
Trade sentences to ponder
25 May 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economics Tags: European Union
The IMF puts the hidden cost of trading goods inside the EU at the equivalent of a 45% tariff. For services the figure climbs to 110%, higher than Trump’s “Liberation day” tariffs on Chinese imports—measures many saw as a near-embargo. These barriers are not direct taxes. Instead, a construction company might find its building materials or plans, […]
Trade sentences to ponder
Bombs Away – German Thirst For Caucasian Oil I THE GREAT WAR Week 200
24 May 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War I
Deficits forever?
24 May 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics
Eric Crampton writes – This week’s budget projected no return to balanced books. It is difficult to see how recent budgets from National and Labour comply with the Public Finance Act’s fiscal responsibility provisions. It is a problem.
Deficits forever?
Prepping for the Next Pandemic
24 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of natural disasters, health economics, Public Choice Tags: economics of pandemics
If you are like me, you spend a certain amount of time trying not to remember the pandemic experience. But COVID-19 pandemic did cause more than one million American deaths. In a world of sane and sensible prioritizing and policy-making, spending some time and effort focused on how to reduce the risks and costs of…
Prepping for the Next Pandemic
The (deeply underwhelming) Budget
23 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics
Michael Reddell writes – There were good things in the Budget. There may be few/no votes in better macroeconomic statistics and, specifically, a monthly CPI but – years late (for which the current government can’t really be blamed) – it is finally going to happen.
The (deeply underwhelming) Budget
US State-Level Abortion Regulations: Causes and Effects
23 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, gender, health economics, labour economics, politics - USA, population economics Tags: abortion law reform
Regulations about abortion are often wildly controversial. But what effects to they actually have? Caitlin Myers addresses these issues in “From Roe to Dobbs: 50 Years of Cause and Effect of US State Abortion Regulations” (Annual Review of Public Health 2025, pp. 433-446). As a starting point, consider the years before and after the 1973 US Supreme Court…
US State-Level Abortion Regulations: Causes and Effects
The cost of Labour’s botched pay equity scheme
23 May 2025 1 Comment
in discrimination, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
The Herald reports: During her Budget presentation, Willis said that pay equity costs in 2020 were initially expected to reach $3.7b but there had since been a “blowout” with costs rising steeply, especially due to Labour’s 2022 decision to fund claims in the “funded sector”. The exact figure isn’t known, but as they have announced […]
The cost of Labour’s botched pay equity scheme
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