Bob Edlin writes – PoO was steered by David Farrar, on Kiwiblog, to the Green Party’s selection of a Samoan cartoonist as its candidate for the seat of Mangere in the General Election this year. But neither the candidate’s ethnicity, nor his profession, prompted Farrar’s expression of concern in an article on Kiwiblog headed … […]
The wrestling cartoonist with a vituperative vocabulary who has passed muster with the Greens
The wrestling cartoonist with a vituperative vocabulary who has passed muster with the Greens
29 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, politics - USA
Technological unemployment in Victorian Britain
29 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: creative destruction
We do not know whether technological unemployment swept across England in the wake of the British Industrial Revolution. In this paper, I propose an approach to quantify jobs lost to, and created by, creative destruction in the 19th century. Using over 170 million individual records from the full-count British census (1851–1911), I generate sub-industry “task”…
Technological unemployment in Victorian Britain
Unreported for nearly a year: media misconduct in Parliament
29 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, politics - New Zealand Tags: media bias
Inside the Press Gallery: power, silence, and the accountability gap in New Zealand media On the evening of 13 May 2025, Finance Minister Nicola Willis hosted a pre-Budget drinks event in her parliamentary office. The event appears, in official records, as “EVENT: Press Gallery… Parliament… Invited Guests” at 6pm in her ministerial diary. It was intended to […]
Unreported for nearly a year: media misconduct in Parliament
Against Instant Ceasefires
29 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: unintended consequences
War is so terrible that the first moral impulse is often to demand that it stop immediately. That impulse is understandable. No decent person can look at destroyed cities, dead civilians, grieving families and exhausted soldiers without longing for silence, relief and peace. But the demand for a ceasefire can also become a flawed knee-jerk […]
Against Instant Ceasefires
New Zealand’s alienated 28%
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
A new report on social cohesion was released on Thursday. The survey results in it are far from boring or inconsequential. Amongst screeds of important data, two big numbers stand out: 28% of New Zealanders are now in what the report calls the “alienated” camp of politics, and 44% of New Zealanders think the political […]
New Zealand’s alienated 28%
Bonus Quotation of the Day…
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, international economics
Tweet… is from this recent post at Marginal Revolution by my colleague Alex Tabarrok: The trade accounts are among the most pernicious statistics ever collected. The post Bonus Quotation of the Day… appeared first on Cafe Hayek.
Bonus Quotation of the Day…
Sky News issues on-air correction about Lebanon death toll
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of information, economics of media and culture, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Israel, Lebanon, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Two weeks ago, we complained to Sky News editors about an April 11 interview with Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon by presenter Yalda Hakim,… The post Sky News issues on-air correction about Lebanon death toll appeared first on CAMERA UK.
Sky News issues on-air correction about Lebanon death toll
Quotation of the Day…
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, labour economics, Thomas Sowell
Tweet… is from page 125 of Thomas Sowell’s 1999 book, Barbarians Inside the Gates: Ironically, both affirmative action and the argument for genetic inferiority of blacks use the same logic. They assume that statistical results not explainable by obvious gross differences must be explainable by the underlying factor they prefer to believe in. DBx: Indeed.…
Quotation of the Day…
The Luddites Were the First to Attack AI
28 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: creative destruction
Everyone knows the Luddites smashed looms. What is less appreciated is that the loom was the first serious programmable device — the direct ancestor of the computer. Thus, the Luddites weren’t just the first to resist automation. They were the first to attack AI. The Jacquard loom, introduced in France circa 1805, used a chain…
The Luddites Were the First to Attack AI
Quotation of the Day…
27 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation Tags: industry policy
Tweet… is from page 815 of Richard Nelson’s and Richard Langlois’s February 1983 Science paper titled “Industrial Innovation Policy: Lessons from American History”: A quick reading of the case studies is enough to dash any supposition that technological change is somehow a cleanly plannable activity. In fact, it is an activity characterized as much by…
Quotation of the Day…
What Does Dani Rodrik Think of Consumers?
27 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, international economics
TweetOn page 13 of their 2017 brief in support of “green industrial policy,” Tilman Altenburg and Dani Rodrik write: However, it should be noted that consumers do not respond perfectly to price signals. Even when new products exist that are better in many ways and cheaper, many consumers stick to the bad old alternatives because…
What Does Dani Rodrik Think of Consumers?
Why do Americans No Longer Work So Much More Than Non-Americans?
27 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, labour economics, labour supply
In the 1990s, Americans used to work much more than non-Americans. Nowadays, about half of the gap in hours worked has reversed. To evaluate the convergence of working hours, we develop a tractable model of labor supply enriched with multiple sources of heterogeneity across individuals, an extensive margin of participation, multi-member households, and an elaborate…
Why do Americans No Longer Work So Much More Than Non-Americans?
Why Religious Beliefs Are Irrational, and Why Economists Should Care
27 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of religion
My opening statement for my 2005 debate versus Larry Iannaccone
Why Religious Beliefs Are Irrational, and Why Economists Should Care
Elbe Day: A Symbolic Meeting at the End of War
26 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
Elbe Day, observed on April 25, commemorates a pivotal moment near the close of World War II in Europe when American and Soviet forces met along the Elbe River in Germany in 1945. This encounter represented far more than a tactical milestone; it symbolized the collapse of Nazi Germany and the temporary unity of two […]
Elbe Day: A Symbolic Meeting at the End of War
Elbe Day: A Symbolic Meeting at the End of War
26 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War II
Elbe Day, observed on April 25, commemorates a pivotal moment near the close of World War II in Europe when American and Soviet forces met along the Elbe River in Germany in 1945. This encounter represented far more than a tactical milestone; it symbolized the collapse of Nazi Germany and the temporary unity of two […]
Elbe Day: A Symbolic Meeting at the End of War
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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