Shane Jones is committed to state-led economic development. New Zealand First and ACT sit further apart on the economics spectrum than do Labour and National. On other parts of the policy spectrum the two are more aligned, but this column’s focus is primarily on economics and, particularly, the economics of NZF. I leave Christopher Luxon’s […]
New Zealand First’s Economics
New Zealand First’s Economics
23 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, politics - New Zealand
Aussie Senator: US Social Media Reluctance to Censor Climate Skeptics – “This is the Problem”
23 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - Australia Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism, free speech
Apparently free speech is OK, as long as the Australian Government thinks what you are saying is true.
Aussie Senator: US Social Media Reluctance to Censor Climate Skeptics – “This is the Problem”
The Economic Burden of Protectionism, Part III
23 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA, survivor principle
In Part I and Part II of this series, we looked at research showing that Americans are bearing the burden of Trump’s trade taxes. Those findings are a useful antidote to Trump’s silly and illiterate claim that foreign companies are swallowing the added cost. In both of those columns, however, I pointed out that I’m […]
The Economic Burden of Protectionism, Part III
Can fertility return to replacement levels?
23 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, population economics
Many countries, including almost all developed countries and many developing countries, are now experiencing below-replacement fertility, with fertility rates having declined substantially over the past decade or more. That means that each generation will be progressively smaller than the last, and almost inevitably that leads to a declining population (in the absence of offsetting migration…
Can fertility return to replacement levels?
“It’s Not Going to End Well for Them”: Susan Rice Joins Call for a Revenge Purge After Democrats Re-Take Power
22 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
As Democrats plan for the possible takeover in the midterms and 2028 election, they are already openly discussing their push…
“It’s Not Going to End Well for Them”: Susan Rice Joins Call for a Revenge Purge After Democrats Re-Take Power
Clearing up some misconceptions about the DoE report
22 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice
by Ross McKitrick Last year I had the privilege of working with a small team (me, Judy Curry, John Christy, Steve Koonin and Roy Spencer) on a draft report for U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on the topic of climate … Continue reading → The post Clearing up some misconceptions about the DoE report appeared…
Clearing up some misconceptions about the DoE report
The Case Against Net Zero
22 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics
By Paul Homewood Robin Guenier has updated his Case Against Net Zero: In October 2008, Parliament passed the Climate Change Act requiring the Government to ensure that by 2050 ‘the net UK carbon account’ was reduced to a level at least 80% lower than that of 1990; this refers to CO2 and […]
The Case Against Net Zero
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 3
21 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in libertarianism, Murray Rothbard
SummaryRothbard now applies the normative standards developed in chapter 2 to explain what libertarians have against government (or as Rothbard, inspired by Germanic capitalization, calls it, “the State”). The argument is simple: If a private individual did what governments do, almost everyone would call him a criminal. If I took your money without your consent, I’d…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 3
Trump’s Tariffs Have Not Shifted the Trade Deficit
21 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in international economics, politics - USA Tags: free trade, tarrifs
The recent Supreme Court decision that President Trump did not have arbitrary and unbounded powers he has claimed to impose or retrace tariffs came as no surprise, for a variety reasons laid out in earlier posts here, here, and here. But here I want to focus on a different claim: that the reason for tariffs…
Trump’s Tariffs Have Not Shifted the Trade Deficit
Sewage, scrutiny, and the politics of accountability
21 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, environmentalism, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, urban economics Tags: water pollution
Is it racist to be angry at elected representatives? Moa Point as a case study… When a city pumps tens of millions of litres of raw sewage into the sea day after day, the public is entitled to anger. There is human waste in the sea and on the shore, beaches are closed in peak […]
Sewage, scrutiny, and the politics of accountability
The Constitutional Anomaly of a Disgraced Ex-Prince in the Line of Succession
21 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in politics Tags: British constitutional law
Yesterday, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. While the specifics of the police investigation aren’t known, the assumption is that it’s related to his alleged sharing of sensitive documents with Jeffrey Epstein during his tenure as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment. Although the impact of […]
The Constitutional Anomaly of a Disgraced Ex-Prince in the Line of Succession
Nature, ideologically captured, uses “pregnant people” instead of “pregnant women”
21 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: sex discrimination
Here’s a new article in Nature (click on the title screenshot below to read it); it’s about the dearth of information about the safety of drugs used by pregnant women. Except, to Nature, they refer not to “women” but to “pregnant people,” for in the article, that is about the only term that refers to…
Nature, ideologically captured, uses “pregnant people” instead of “pregnant women”
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t: The billion-dollar bill for Labour’s gas ban
20 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
Few policies manage to unite the left, the right and the Taxpayers’ Union in opposition. The Government’s billion-dollar LNG import terminal in Taranaki managed it inside 24 hours. By Tuesday morning, it had been attacked from the left as a gas tax, from the right as a new levy on households, and from the commentariat […]
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t: The billion-dollar bill for Labour’s gas ban
PEN America gets captured: organization accepts Palestine as a member and rejects Israel; Jewish chief executive resigns after accusations of being a “Zionist” and not signing on to Israel’s “genocide”
20 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left
Every day, it seems, another group gets ideologically captured, valorizing Palestine (or Hamas) and demonizing Israel. This is dispiriting for Jews, but the latest such capture—of the free-expression literary group PEN America—is especially depressing. The decline of PEN American was first evidenced to me when, in 2015, it decided to give a “freedom of expression”…
PEN America gets captured: organization accepts Palestine as a member and rejects Israel; Jewish chief executive resigns after accusations of being a “Zionist” and not signing on to Israel’s “genocide”
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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