
For @AOC @SenSanders @Greens @NZGreens
16 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, history of economic thought, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Berlin wall, East Germany, free speech, regressive left
Against cultural equivalence
15 Apr 2025 1 Comment
in economic history, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, The Great Enrichment
The assertion that all cultures are equal has become a widely accepted axiom in contemporary discourse, shaped significantly by well-intentioned efforts to foster global tolerance and respect. However, it is not only possible but necessary to challenge this view. While cultural relativism emphasizes understanding and tolerance, it need not extend to cultural equivalence. Indeed, an […]
Against cultural equivalence
Catholics in the Commons after emancipation
13 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of religion Tags: British constitutional law, British politics

Today (13 April) marks the anniversary of the Roman Catholic Relief Act gaining royal assent in 1829, which removed many of the barriers restricting Roman Catholics from sitting in Parliament. However, as Dr Philip Salmon of the Victorian Commons explores, hostility to Catholics continued despite their emancipation … It may seem surprising to some that […]
Catholics in the Commons after emancipation
The Year Without a Summer: A Climate Catastrophe and Its Global Impact
10 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of natural disasters

The “Year Without a Summer,” which occurred in 1816, stands as one of the most dramatic examples of short-term climate disruption in recorded history. This year was marked by unusual and extreme weather patterns that caused widespread crop failures, food shortages, and social unrest across the Northern Hemisphere. The phenomenon was primarily caused by the […]
The Year Without a Summer: A Climate Catastrophe and Its Global Impact
Book review: The Economists’ Hour
10 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, labour economics, macroeconomics

Once upon a time, economists were backroom advisers, crunching numbers and developing theories, but rarely in the limelight and certainly not the central actors in political decision-making. However, as Binyamin Appelbaum outlines in his 2019 book The Economists’ Hour, that all changed in the late 1960s. The title of the book references the period from…
Book review: The Economists’ Hour
THE TRIALS OF HARRY S. TRUMAN: THE EXTRAORDINARY PRESIDENCY OF AN ORDINARY MAN, 1945-1953 by Jeffrey Frank
09 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Korean war, World War II
(President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Vice President elect Harry S. Truman, Vice President Henry Wallace) During my forty-four year teaching career on the secondary and university level I was often asked; “Who is your favorite President?” The answer came very easily, Harry S. Truman. My response was based on his personality, moral code, and his actions […]
THE TRIALS OF HARRY S. TRUMAN: THE EXTRAORDINARY PRESIDENCY OF AN ORDINARY MAN, 1945-1953 by Jeffrey Frank
Resource Management and Property Rights
08 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: housing affordability, land supply
Brian Easton writes – While there have been decades of complaints – from all sides – about the workings of the Resource Management Act (RMA), replacing is proving difficult. The Coalition Government is making another attempt. To help answer the question, I am going to use the economic lens of the Coase Theorem, set out […]
Resource Management and Property Rights
The Regulation Review Committee’s tikanga decision
07 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational regulation, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
The Committee probably went as far as it could Gary Judd writes – What the Committee did The Regulation Review Committee decided (1) that making tikanga a compulsory subject for law students did not unduly trespass on personal rights and liberties, but (2) requiring tikanga to be incorporated in the other compulsory subjects was an […]
The Regulation Review Committee’s tikanga decision
Daniel Hannan on the Logical Contradictions in the Case for Trump’s Tariffs
06 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, liberalism, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tariffs
Tweet The post Daniel Hannan on the Logical Contradictions in the Case for Trump’s Tariffs appeared first on Cafe Hayek.
Daniel Hannan on the Logical Contradictions in the Case for Trump’s Tariffs
Operation Michael Runs Out Of Breath I THE GREAT WAR Week 193
05 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, war and peace Tags: World War I
Trump’s tariff claims are even stupider than anyone thought
04 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economic law, international economics, International law, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tariffs
The White House released a list of countries and the tariff rates they charged the US. It was clearly wrong as NZ has an average tariff of around 1.7% on US imports and the list said 20%. I thought it was because they were including our GST of 15%. That would have been very dumb, […]
Trump’s tariff claims are even stupider than anyone thought
Prebs is Right – a 4 Year Parliamentary Term is no panacea to NZ’s stagnation. The problem is neither the Nats nor Labour have had a plan since 1993.
03 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic growth, economic history, law and economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
In an excellent article in the Herald, Richard Prebble (or “Prebs” as we call him) argues the proposals presented by National-ACT for a…
Prebs is Right – a 4 Year Parliamentary Term is no panacea to NZ’s stagnation. The problem is neither the Nats nor Labour have had a plan since 1993.
Richard Cobden and his constituencies
02 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, economic history, liberalism, Public Choice Tags: British constitutional law

In this guest post, originally published on the Victorian Commons website, Professor Simon Morgan of Leeds Beckett University, the principal investigator on the Letters of Richard Cobden Online resource, shows how Cobden’s letters can shed light on his role as a constituency MP. The publication in 2023 of the Letters of Richard Cobden Online, an open access database […]
Richard Cobden and his constituencies
The Great Escape
02 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: anti-vaccination movement, child mortality, The Great Escape, vaccines

Public-Private-Partnerships?
02 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, public economics
New Zealand’s economic development has always been a partnership between the public and private sectors. Brian Easton writes – Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) have become fashionable again, partly because of the government’s ambitions to accelerate infrastructural development. There is, of course, an ideological element too, while some of the opposition to them is also ideological. PPPs […]
Public-Private-Partnerships?
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