Ananish Chaudhuri writes – With power about to change hands, I see more and more commentary about how this election was somehow unfair. There was Rob Campbell, Chancellor of AUT, pontificating in the Herald that this election was “bought”. Then more recently David Williams of Newsroom weighed in about the influence of the Taxpayers’ Union […]
ANANISH CHAUDHURI: Labour stuffed up; that’s why they lost – deal with it
ANANISH CHAUDHURI: Labour stuffed up; that’s why they lost – deal with it
02 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
Walter Block on Sexual Discrimination & the Pay Gap(Uncut)
02 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, gender, health economics, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
DON BRASH: SHOULD WE HAVE A REFERENDUM ON THE TREATY?
31 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
A couple of days ago, K Gurunathan – described as a former mayor of Kapiti – had an article in Stuff under the heading “ACT’s Treaty referendum: a bad idea, and even worse timing”. In the article, he noted that former Prime Minister John Key had ruled out the idea of scrapping Maori electorates, even…
DON BRASH: SHOULD WE HAVE A REFERENDUM ON THE TREATY?
Claudia Goldin with Kiana Scott: The Century-Long Fight to Close the Gen…
31 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of information, gender, health and safety, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Casey Mulligan on Vaccines, the Pandemic, and the FDA 5/22/23
31 Oct 2023 2 Comments
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: drug lags, economics of pandemics
War of the Worlds-October 30-1938
30 Oct 2023 Leave a comment

It’s Sunday evening, you turn on the radio and the news breaks that planet Earth is invaded by Mars. So what do you do? You panic of course. Well that was the case for many when they switched on the radio on October 30,1938. By the end of October 1938, Welles’s Mercury Theatre on the […]
War of the Worlds-October 30-1938
Ripping down the “kidnapped” posters
30 Oct 2023 Leave a comment

One act that is absolutely reprehensible, unjustifiable, and downright sick is the ripping down of posters and fliers showing pictures of the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. No matter what you feel about what’s going on in Gaza right now, there’s no justification for ripping down posters calling attention to Jewish (and non-Jewish) […]
Ripping down the “kidnapped” posters
Monetary policy and estimated excess demand
30 Oct 2023 Leave a comment

In my post last week on ANZ’s note on the balance of payments, I included this chart from the latest IMF WEO (numbers finalised late last month). On the IMF’s read we had the most overheated advanced economy this year taken as a whole. ANZ themselves followed up with this chart (As a reminder, the […]
Monetary policy and estimated excess demand
2023 Swiss election: minor technical problem leads to major embarrassment
30 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
Like most European countries, Switzerland uses proportional representation (PR) to choose members of the National Council, the lower house of the country’s federal legislature. However, the Swiss system has distinctive characteristics which require a special procedure to determine the nationwide party percentage shares, and a minor technical problem during the federal election held last Sunday, […]
2023 Swiss election: minor technical problem leads to major embarrassment
Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell by Jason Riley Book Review
30 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Thomas Sowell, urban economics

I was skeptical of learning about Sowell because he leans conservative, and I was curious to learn about Sowell because he leans conservative. The last few years I’ve grown sympathetic to the political left because I got tired of conservatives seeming hatred for all things “left.” After reading this book I think a lot of […]
Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell by Jason Riley Book Review
Book Review: Race and Culture by Thomas Sowell
29 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, discrimination, economic history, gender, growth disasters, growth miracles, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, Marxist economics, minimum wage, occupational choice, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell is a skilled writer with a powerful ability to combine historical, social science and free-market perspectives. He cuts through the noise and doesn’t mince his words on the sensitive topics of race and culture. In Race and Culture Sowell argues against two common social science doctrines: 1) that all races are equal and […]
Book Review: Race and Culture by Thomas Sowell
Bowman Video Contradicts His Account to Congress, the Court, and the Public
28 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) has pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor after he was caught on videotape pulling a fire alarm in the middle of a key vote to avoid a government shutdown. The misdemeanor was the charge that I discussed when this first arose. However, the release of the videotape raises another issue: whether […]
Bowman Video Contradicts His Account to Congress, the Court, and the Public
The most violent MP ever elected to the House of Commons? John Patrick Somers (1800-1862)
28 Oct 2023 Leave a comment

John Patrick Somers (1800-1862), or ‘Pat Somers’ as he was generally known, is a strong contender for the most violent MP to have ever sat in the House of Commons. In this week’s blog our senior research fellow, Dr Martin Spychal, discusses one of the most extraordinary characters that we’ve uncovered during our research for […]
The most violent MP ever elected to the House of Commons? John Patrick Somers (1800-1862)
A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
28 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, Thomas Sowell

Another brilliant piece of work by the master, Thomas Sowell. Quite a theoretical book but an incredibly useful framework. I’ve observed numerous recent events through Sowell’s visions since I started reading the book. The ability for ideas to immediately infiltrate one’s framework and lexicon is a true hallmark of greatness. A vision is our natural […]
A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
House resolution favoring Israel passes with ten holdouts, nine of them Democrats (and six Dems voted “present”). Guess the Democrats!
27 Oct 2023 Leave a comment

The new House, with a new Speaker, has finally done something: passing its first resolution. It’s a resolution supporting Israel in its war against Hamas. A bit from the NY Times: The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to pass a resolution declaring solidarity with Israel, pledging to give its government whatever security assistance it needs […]
House resolution favoring Israel passes with ten holdouts, nine of them Democrats (and six Dems voted “present”). Guess the Democrats!
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