Anyone watching and trying to understand last Sunday’s Q&A where Jack Tame interviewed Debbie Ngarewa-Packer will realise that she seems to be beyond reason. Tame tried to examine bits of her blather and her obvious misuse of words, but she immediately slithered like an eel under a rock and made louder assertions about how Maori “korero”…
MICHAEL BASSETT: DEALING WITH TODAY’S SMALL, RAUCOUS, CRAZY MAORI FRINGE
MICHAEL BASSETT: DEALING WITH TODAY’S SMALL, RAUCOUS, CRAZY MAORI FRINGE
22 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economic history, income redistribution, International law, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law, Maori economic development
Hollywood evidence on McCarthyism
21 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, movies, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
There is a new NBER working paper on this topic by Hui Ren Tan and Tianyi Wang, here is the abstract: We study a far-reaching episode of demagoguery in American history. From the late 1940s to 1950s, anti-communist hysteria led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and others gripped the nation. Hundreds of professionals in Hollywood were […]
Hollywood evidence on McCarthyism
Did The Guardian Just Blow Up the Exxon Knew Narrative?
20 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: conspiracy theories
So much for the big secret big oil conspiracy. Marathon Oil published an article in 1977 in a company periodical suggesting CO2 might cause mass starvation.
Did The Guardian Just Blow Up the Exxon Knew Narrative?
The House of Commons Chamber and the Politics of Seating
18 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history Tags: British politics
Parliament will be officially opened this week and debates will begin once again in the House of Commons. But with the Labour party winning such a large majority in the 2024 General Election, some of their Members may be left wondering- where should I sit? Emeritus Director of the History of Parliament, Dr Paul Seaward, […]
The House of Commons Chamber and the Politics of Seating
Chinese Economic Policy, Part I: The Demographic Challenge
17 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: China, economics of fertility
I’m in China this week, teaching about fiscal policy, convergence theory, and inequality at Northeastern University in Shenyang. So it’s a good opportunity to write about some pluses and minuses of Chinese economic policy. We’ll start this series by looking at demographics, which almost surely is the biggest long-run challenge for Chinese policymakers. How big […]
Chinese Economic Policy, Part I: The Demographic Challenge
BBB in the NYT
15 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
I pitch Build, Baby, Build in today’s New York Times. No illustrations, but a bunch of cool graphs cooked up by Sara Chodosh of the NYT data analytics team. The original title was “The Panacea Policy,” but now it’s “Yes in My Backyard: The Case For Housing Deregulation.” And for you, dear readers, it’s ungated!…
BBB in the NYT
Biden’s Desperate Vote-Buying Proposal for Nationwide Rent Control
15 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: rent control
I’m not a political pundit, but I’m guessing that yesterday’s despicable assassination attempt on Donald Trump increases the likelihood that he reclaims the White House. That’s probably not good news for trade policy (though Biden has been just as bad), but it will be very good news for housing policy. Not because of what Trump […]
Biden’s Desperate Vote-Buying Proposal for Nationwide Rent Control
“The First Amendment is Out of Control”: Academic and Media Figures Rally Against Free Speech
13 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Below is my column in Fox.com on renewed attacks on free speech and the apologists for this anti-free speech movement, including most recently comedian Jon Stewart. From moves to amend the First Amendment to mocking those being targeted, the left is pushing back at polls and efforts to restore free speech values. Here is the […]
“The First Amendment is Out of Control”: Academic and Media Figures Rally Against Free Speech
Bryan Caplan on YIMBY in the NYT
12 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Here is one excerpt: What few appreciate is that the overregulation of housing has blocked a classic American path: moving to a higher-wage part of the country to secure a better life. A paper by the economists Peter Ganong and Daniel Shoag shows that housing costs now routinely outweigh wage gains: While janitors and waiters do indeed […]
Bryan Caplan on YIMBY in the NYT
Zoning Matters for Rising Housing Costs, Especially After 1980
11 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, environmental economics, income redistribution, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
From a new working paper “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890-2006” by Ronan C. Lyons, Allison Shertzer, Rowena Gray & David N. Agorastos (emphasis added): “Zoning was adopted by almost every city in our sample during the 1920s. We see a slightly steeper gradient over the next two periods (coefficients of .48 […]
Zoning Matters for Rising Housing Costs, Especially After 1980
Why Britain Lost The Irish War of Independence (4K Documentary)
02 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, war and peace Tags: Ireland
French North America
01 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture Tags: maps
Creative destruction
30 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle
Hayley Hooper: Historical Origins of the ‘Principle of Legality’ in British Public Law
30 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: British constitutional law
In 2021 the then Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland QC MP cited the principle of legality as an example of an aspect of public law that might ‘take on a life of [its] own, and lead to the courts overreaching.’ In the simplest terms, the principle of legality is a common law rule of statutory interpretation […]
Hayley Hooper: Historical Origins of the ‘Principle of Legality’ in British Public Law
The Evolving Economic Role of Women: Goldin’s Nobel Lecture
29 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, economics of education, gender, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
Claudia Goldin’s Nobel prize lecture, “An Evolving Economic Force,” has now been published in the June 2024 issue of the American Economic Review. Or if you prefer, you can watch the watch the lecture (with more numerous slides!) from the link at the Nobel website. She writes: Women are now at the center of the…
The Evolving Economic Role of Women: Goldin’s Nobel Lecture
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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