4 January, 2025 Justice Committee Parliament of New Zealand Dear Committee Members, I wish to make a submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill that you will be considering in the near future. As the map below demonstrates, I have independently consulted on governance and management in dozens of diverse nations. Many…
Argentina’s bonds have already rallied dramatically. One gauge of the nation’s hard-currency debt, the ICE BofA US Dollar Argentina Sovereign Index, has generated a total return of about 90% this year. Meanwhile, the S&P Merval Index has risen more than 160% this year through Monday, far outpacing stock benchmarks in developed, emerging and frontier markets […]
I am sad to hear about the passing of Manmohan Singh at age 92. Singh was perhaps the most influential Indian policymaker in the last five decades. An Oxbridge educated trade economist, he became India’s most important technocrat in the 1980s and 1990s – occupying every top position in economic policy – finance secretary; deputy […]
The only takeaways from the coal use data are that countries with sensible leaders are looking to the energy needs of their citizens and that climate is too complex an issue to attribute to a gas that is 0.04% of Earth’s atmosphere.
Cost-benefit analyses affirm it would be better to abandon Net Zero policy initiatives and instead “do nothing” about greenhouse gas emissions. New research finds CO2’s largest possible climate impact is “negligible.” The cumulative expected temperature change in doubling CO2 from 400 to 800 ppm is only 0.81°C at most, and this is “certainly not cause…
Criminals turn college campuses into recruitment hubs, recruiting chemistry students in Mexico with big paydays.By Natalie Kitroeff and Paulina Villegas of The NY Times. Excerpts:”In their quest to build fentanyl empires, Mexican criminal groups are turning to an unusual talent pool: not hit men or corrupt police officers, but chemistry students studying at Mexican universities.People…
Bashar al-Assad has been the President of Syria since 2000, inheriting power from his father, Hafez al-Assad. His presidency has been marked by widespread human rights abuses, war crimes, and violations of international law, particularly during the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011. As the leader of the Syrian government, Assad’s policies and military […]
Here is a gloomy account from Vladimir Mirov: Ruble depreciation will contribute to inflation even further, as Russia is continued to be heavily reliant on imports – this is a kind of self-sustaining spiral. I also strongly disagree with those who say that cheaper ruble is “good” for exporters and the budget. Exporters have yet […]
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, elected in 2022, declared martial law. Given the conditions for which martial law is justified in the constitution (see below) were clearly not in place, this was a power usurpation–an autogolpe. Or an attempted one. It collapsed within about a matter of hours, with the National Assembly voting to annul […]
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
Recent Comments