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
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
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”
Greens announce their new crime policy is to pretend there is none!
20 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand
An amazing interview at The Spinoff: Swarbrick said she had regularly told Beck that contributing to a media narrative of the city centre being all “chaos and crime and knives and guns” resulted in less foot traffic, less vibrancy and less safety. “I have personally contacted Viv and spoken to her at a number of meetings…
Greens announce their new crime policy is to pretend there is none!
Even auto giants know it: the electric car boom is out of charge
19 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, income redistribution, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics Tags: electric cars
By Paul Homewood h/t Ian Magness From the Telegraph: “I think the customer has spoken. That’s the punchline,” said Jim Farley, the chief executive of Ford. The American boss was speaking last week as his company unveiled a $5bn (£3.7bn) annual loss, barely two months after it had booked a shock $19.5bn write-down. The […]
Even auto giants know it: the electric car boom is out of charge
A course of indoctrination at the University of Chicago
19 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economic history, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: economics of colonialism, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror, West Bank
There are many courses in universities that seem not to be exercises in objective teaching and learning, but rather courses designed to foist certain political ideologies or points of view on students. One of them at this university was called to my attention by several in our community; it seems to be a course on…
A course of indoctrination at the University of Chicago
January 2026 Winter Storm Impacts on New York Grid
19 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: solar power, wind power
During and following the January winter storm there were at least eight consecutive days when the New York total wind and solar production was less than 6% of the capacity available. These are the conditions that require DEFR. Without DEFR, intermittent, diffuse, and correlated electric generating resources are not viable. Given that there is no…
January 2026 Winter Storm Impacts on New York Grid
The Economic Burden of Protectionism, Part II
18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: free trade, tarrifs
In Part I of this series, we reviewed some new research from the New York Federal Reserve. That study showed that Americans bear about 90 percent of the burden of Trump’s Liberation Day trade taxes. Though I added my own two cents because I don’t actually care that much about who bears the burden of […]
The Economic Burden of Protectionism, Part II
Any Hope for a European Economic Renaissance?
18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: European Union
The good news is that Europe has a lot of economic freedom by world standards. Especially Western Europe. The bad news is that economic freedom has been declining in Western Europe. To make matters worse, Europe has a big demographic problem, with a growing number of older people over time who have been promised benefits […]
Any Hope for a European Economic Renaissance?
The rise and fall of British gambling
18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, health economics
Most people know that the number of drinkers and smokers is in decline in the UK, but you might be surprised to hear that the same is true of gamblers. For the first time since the early 1990s, gamblers are in the minority with only 48% of English adults engaging in any gambling activity in…
The rise and fall of British gambling
The Economics of Climate Adaptation Optimism
18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming
We invite your comments on our new pre-print
The Economics of Climate Adaptation Optimism
Minimum Wages for Gig Workers Can’t Work
17 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice
In 2017, I analyzed the Uber Tipping Equilibrium: What is the effect of tipping on the take-home pay of Uber drivers? Economic theory offers a clear answer. Tipping has no effect on take home pay. The supply of Uber driver-hours is very elastic. Drivers can easily work more hours when the payment per ride increases…
Minimum Wages for Gig Workers Can’t Work
Bill Maher’s latest Rule
17 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
In this week’s news-and-snark piece, Bill Maher offers a piece that may be controversial, for it’s about how men need to be “men” again. He avers that the loss of masculinity in males is one reason why women are disappointed in men, and why people are having less sex. The data are eye-opening; for example,…
Bill Maher’s latest Rule
“You see tech and AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics”
17 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply Tags: creative destruction
How many times have I heard versions of that claim? Erik Brynjolfsson picks up the telephone in the FT: While initial reports suggested a year of steady labour expansion in the US, the new figures reveal that total payroll growth was revised downward by approximately 403,000 jobs. Crucially, this downward revision occurred while real GDP…
“You see tech and AI everywhere but in the productivity statistics”
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