Utopia, you are standing in it!

Various media this morning have given quite a lot of coverage to the new paper released by the NZ Initiative, headed How Central Bank Mistakes After 2019 Led to Inflation. The authors are Bryce Wilkinson of the Initiative and former Reserve Bank Governor (2012-17) Graeme Wheeler – the coverage probably mostly because of the trenchant words from the former Governor, I think the first we have heard from him since he moved back to corporate board land in late 2017.

I’m not one of those who has any particular problem with former Governors and Deputy Governors commenting on what is going on with monetary policy. If it isn’t always common, well we have a fairly thin pool of commentators in New Zealand, and these are hardly ordinary times. The quality of the debate is only likely to be improved by hearing, and challenging/scrutinising, alternative perspectives. We can only hope…

Example of product type used by the wind industry
So much for ‘keeping it in the ground’, as climate obsessives like to intone to anyone who will listen to their anti-oil rants.
– – –
On Sunday, puzzled Swedish journalist and political commentator Peter Imanuelsen tweeted the news: “A wind power turbine just collapsed in Sweden”, says CNS News.

“People are being warned to keep their distance because…it is now leaking oil everywhere! “Wait, these “green” wind turbines use oil???”

About this episode from IMDb

In the 1970s, anti-discrimination rights are put to the test. Boston whites violently resist federal school desegregation order. Atlanta’s mayor Jackson proves affirmative action can work, but Bakke decision challenges that policy.

About this series

Wikipedia

Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network and also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at the film production company Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills and interviews of participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the folk song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” which is used in each episode as the opening theme music.

A total of 14…

‘Politics is history on the wing! What other sphere of human activity calls forth all that is most noble in men’s souls, and all that is most base? Or has such excitement? Or more vividly exposes our strengths and weaknesses?’
(Cicero defending his fascination with politics to his secretary, Tiro, in Imperium, page 263)

What you notice first about this book are a) its length (480 pages) and b) the blank flatness of its style. Here’s how it opens:

My name is Tiro. For thirty-six years I was the confidential secretary of the Roman statesman Cicero. At first this was exciting, then astonishing, then arduous, and finally extremely dangerous. During those years I believe he spent more hours with me than with any other person, including his own family. I witnessed his private meetings and carried his secret messages. I took down his speeches, his letters and his literary…

About this episode from IMDb

Black activism is increasingly met with violent and unethical response from local and federal law enforcement. A five-day inmate takeover at Attica Prison calls the public’s attention to conditions there leaves 43 dead: 39 killed by police.

About this series

Wikipedia

Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network and also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at the film production company Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills and interviews of participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the folk song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” which is used in each episode as the opening theme…

A Scottish Minister, when introducing a Bill into the Scottish Parliament, is required by section 31(1) of the Scotland Act 1998 to state that, in his or her view, the Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Parliament. Such a statement is required, by paragraph 3.4 of the Scottish Ministerial Code, to be “cleared” with the Scottish Law Officers (in practice the Lord Advocate).

It was because the Lord Advocate did “not have the necessary degree of confidence” to clear such a statement in relation to the draft Scottish Independence Referendum Bill that she was requested by the First Minister to refer the question whether the Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Parliament to the Supreme Court in terms of paragraph 34 of Schedule 6 to the Scotland Act.

To date, the Supreme Court has not accepted the reference but has told both the…

Germans are in the midst of a power pricing and supply disaster thanks to the world’s most idiotic energy policy, centred on an unhinged obsession with chaotically intermittent wind and solar.

Already suffering Europe’s highest power prices, consumers are bracing for even worse to come.

Vladimir Putin’s Ukrainian adventure has merely brought things to a head; heavily reliant upon Russian gas – used to shore up its grid in response to total collapses in wind and solar output (think calm weather and sunset) – now that Vlad’s gas is in short supply, Germany has slammed into reality with a vengeance.

Francis Menton takes a ‘don’t say we didn’t warn you’ delight in detailing the root cause of a perfectly predictable and perfectly avoidable calamity.

And The Winner Is, Germany!
Manhattan Contrarian
Francis Menton
29 June 2022

Just over six months ago, in December 2021, I asked the question that was…

Adding to already voluminous research in the area (including studies from Australia, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom), I wrote yesterday about a new study showing that lower corporate tax rates produce more economic growth.

Not that these results should be a surprise.

Anyone with a basic understanding of economics realizes that taxes discourage the activity that is being taxed (something politicians understand when they discuss levies on tobacco).

And the higher the tax, the greater the damage.

Today, let’s revisit the 2017 Trump tax cuts, particularly the reduction in the corporate tax rate.

The International Monetary Fund has published new research on the issue, looking specifically at the impact of cross-border investment. Here are some excerpts from the study, which was written by Thornton Matheson, Alexander Klemm, Laura Power, and Thomas Brosy.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) sharply…

About this episode from IMDb

Call to pride and push for unity galvanize blacks. Cassius Clay challenges America to accept him as Muhammad Ali, who refuses to fight in Vietnam. Students at Howard University fight to bring the growing black consciousness movement and their African heritage inside the walls of the institution.

About this series

Wikipedia

Eyes on the Prize is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network and also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at the film production company Blackside and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills and interviews of participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the folk song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,”…

Offshore wind farm [image credit: Wikipedia]
UK governments are legally forced to follow the Climate Change Act and even then they’re coming up short, according to a High Court verdict this week. How long can this climate-induced madness go on?
– – –
A new analysis by Net Zero Watch reveals that Net Zero policies are already costing every household over £2,000 ($2,400) per year, says Climate Change Dispatch.

Spending programs and the Emissions Trading Scheme together cost around £300 ($360), while green levies – mostly subsidies to renewables – are adding another £350 ($420).

Renewable energy also imposes a range of indirect costs as businesses pass on their costs to consumers, which may add up to another £600 ($719).

Finally, there is a significant cost due to the constraints put on fossil fuel extraction in the UK.

I am delighted that my research has recently garnered two prizes, one in international trade and one in regional science.

The Journal of International Economics granted the 2022 Bhagwati Award to “The Comparative Advantage of Cities” (joint with Don Davis). This award recognizes the best trade paper published in the JIE during the past two years.

The City of Heidenheim and the August Lösch Association awarded me the 2022 August-Lösch Prize, recognizing three of my papers published in 2020 and 2021 (“The Comparative Advantage of Cities”; “Cities, Lights, and Skills in Developing Economies”; “How Many Jobs Can be Done at Home?”). This prize recognizes outstanding academic research in the field of Regional Science.

Nuclear power generation is back with a vengeance for two reasons: the evident nonsense of relying upon sunshine and breezes for reliable power; and the political desire to reduce carbon oxide gas emissions. True it is that even Germany’s Greens have dropped their CO2 emission reduction ambitions, but here in Australia the suicidal desire to destroy what’s left of our reliable and affordable power supplies still runs unchecked.

The zealots in the Labor-Green Alliance (and the appeasers in the Liberal Party) mean that Australians are stuck with net-zero carbon oxide gas targets for the foreseeable future, such that the only way of ensuring the lights stay on, in the long run, is to employ nuclear power: the only stand-alone power generation source that does not emit carbon oxide gas emissions during the process and which is available 24 x365, whatever the weather.

Australia’s wind and solar-driven power pricing and supply…