Roland Fryer on Race, Diversity, and Affirmative Action
11 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: affirmative action, racial discrimination
Why Gen Z Are Blind to Bloodthristy Hamas
09 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
Brad Polumbo explains at Newsweek An Insane Number of Gen Zers Support Hamas’s Slaughter of Innocent Israelis. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. Nearly half of young respondents said they side with the terrorist group that just earlier this month purposefully targeted and slaughtered innocent civilians. Gen Z is really not okay. […]
Why Gen Z Are Blind to Bloodthristy Hamas
Biden 2.0: Can the President Avoid the “Second-Term Curse”?
09 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
Below is my column in The Hill on a second Biden Administration and what it might entail in policy priorities. With one year before the next presidential election, the Hill asked me to project what such a second term might look like for President Joe Biden. Here is the column: Popular culture has curses that…
Biden 2.0: Can the President Avoid the “Second-Term Curse”?
Self Imposed Energy Poverty Coming to Canada
08 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: Canada
Jock Finlayson describes how climate change policies are depleting Canadians’ financial means in his article Millions of Canadians May Face ‘Energy Poverty’. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. The term “energy poverty” is not yet part of day-to-day political debate in Canada, but that’s likely to change in the next few years. […]
Self Imposed Energy Poverty Coming to Canada
Willis as Minister of Finance
08 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
In this morning’s edition The Post has a double-page article about what Nicola Willis might be like as Minister of Finance. Those of my comments that were included are here My bottom line was actually very similar to that of CTU economist, Labour champion, and former political adviser to Grant Robertson who was quoted as […]
Willis as Minister of Finance
Reflections on the TCU Capitalism versus Socialism Debate
08 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of socialism, Sweden
Two days ago at Texas Christian University, I debated Scott Sehon, chair of Bowdoin College’s Philosophy Department, on Capitalism versus Socialism. (Video forthcoming eventually). My opening statement was a slight variation on the one I wrote for an earlier debate on the same topic with Elizabeth Bruenig. Sehon’s opening statement was adapted from his Socialism:…
Reflections on the TCU Capitalism versus Socialism Debate
New York Times Controversy Exposes the Inherent Conflict in Advocacy Journalism
08 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
Jazmine Hughes, a writer for the New York Times Magazine, resigned this week after a conflict with her editors over signing of an anti-Israeli letter. New York Times Magazine Editor Jake Silverstein said Hughes violated the company’s policy on public protest. The incident exposes the inherent conflicts — and hypocrisy — in the shift away […]
New York Times Controversy Exposes the Inherent Conflict in Advocacy Journalism
Poland: Steps on the way to cohabitation
07 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
No sooner had I closed off the previous entry by noting that “the specific rules of any country’s semi-presidential system matter less when the election has actually resulted in an assembly majority,” than I read that President Andrzej Duda of Poland has initiated the process of government formation. He has done so by nominating a […]
Poland: Steps on the way to cohabitation
CHRIS TROTTER: Threatening “consequences”
07 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
Chris Trotter writes – “CONSEQUENCES” – it’s a word that acquires an ominous quality in the mouths of political radicals, as in: “Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from its consequences.” Or, as Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa Packer expressed it, when asked what would happen if the Act Party secured its referendum on […]
CHRIS TROTTER: Threatening “consequences”
Still under-policed and over-imprisoned
07 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, Gary Becker, labour economics, law and economics, occupational choice, Public Choice Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
A new paper, The Injustice of Under-Policing, makes a point that I have been emphasizing for many years, namely, relative to other developed countries the United States is under-policed and over-imprisoned. …the American criminal legal system is characterized by an exceptional kind of under-policing, and a heavy reliance on long prison sentences, compared to other […]
Still under-policed and over-imprisoned
Smith’s Siren: Can Trump Be Convicted for the Lure of Bad Lawyering?
07 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
Below is my column in The Messenger on the emerging controversy in the Trump prosecutions over the testimony of former counsel to the former president. Various lawyers have now accepted plea bargains. However, Special Counsel Jack Smith and Fulton County District Attorney appear to be arguing that, while Trump was assured of these claims by […]
Smith’s Siren: Can Trump Be Convicted for the Lure of Bad Lawyering?
The Case Against Affordable Housing
06 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, economic history, urban economics Tags: affordable housing
Affordable housing projects aren’t making housing more affordable. In fact, says a new study by an MIT economist, construction of new subsidized housing displaces new unsubsidized housing for little net gain in the housing supply. Specifically, the study found, ten new subsidized housing units resulted in eight fewer unsubsidized units. … Continue reading →
The Case Against Affordable Housing
Liberal Hypocrisy is Fueling American Inequality. Here’s How. | NYT Opinion well worth watching
04 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of regulation, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, top 1%, zoning
Quotation of the Day…
04 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics
Tweet… is from pages 86-87 of Georgetown University philosopher Jason Brennan’s excellent 2014 book, Why Not Capitalism?: So, to summarize, there is a range of reasons to have private property, even in utopian conditions. People get value from having objects that they can use at will, without having to ask permission from others. They get…
Quotation of the Day…
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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