By Paul Homewood Michael Shellenberger is one of the best communicators I have come across. Here he unpicks a lot of the myths around climate change. It is a long video – what I often do is watch 10 or 15 minute chunks Alternatively, watch the first couple of minutes and then fast forward […]
Seven Lies We’re Told About Climate Change | Michael Shellenberger
Seven Lies We’re Told About Climate Change | Michael Shellenberger
26 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of education, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
Woke Wellington strikes again
25 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of education, economics of religion, politics - New Zealand
The Herald reports: A bicultural overhaul of Army doctrine that features Māori cosmology at its core has led to a Government revolt, with the NZ Defence Force putting on hold part of the controversial programme. The NZ Army’s new “general orders” to soldiers uses a pantheon of te ao Māori gods as guiding influences for…
Woke Wellington strikes again
What are Folk Economic Beliefs?
25 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, behavioural economics, economics of education
In the modern world, many of the topics about which people have opinions are some distance away from any actual experience or expertise that these same people have. In this situation, people are unlikely to form their opinions with a deep dive into relevant history, data, and academic research. Instead, they are more likely to…
What are Folk Economic Beliefs?
Nature, ideologically captured, uses “pregnant people” instead of “pregnant women”
21 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: sex discrimination
Here’s a new article in Nature (click on the title screenshot below to read it); it’s about the dearth of information about the safety of drugs used by pregnant women. Except, to Nature, they refer not to “women” but to “pregnant people,” for in the article, that is about the only term that refers to…
Nature, ideologically captured, uses “pregnant people” instead of “pregnant women”
PEN America gets captured: organization accepts Palestine as a member and rejects Israel; Jewish chief executive resigns after accusations of being a “Zionist” and not signing on to Israel’s “genocide”
20 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left
Every day, it seems, another group gets ideologically captured, valorizing Palestine (or Hamas) and demonizing Israel. This is dispiriting for Jews, but the latest such capture—of the free-expression literary group PEN America—is especially depressing. The decline of PEN American was first evidenced to me when, in 2015, it decided to give a “freedom of expression”…
PEN America gets captured: organization accepts Palestine as a member and rejects Israel; Jewish chief executive resigns after accusations of being a “Zionist” and not signing on to Israel’s “genocide”
Any Hope for a European Economic Renaissance?
18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, economic growth, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: European Union
The good news is that Europe has a lot of economic freedom by world standards. Especially Western Europe. The bad news is that economic freedom has been declining in Western Europe. To make matters worse, Europe has a big demographic problem, with a growing number of older people over time who have been promised benefits […]
Any Hope for a European Economic Renaissance?
Changes in the Gender Wage Gap for Business Professionals
14 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics Tags: gender wage gap
In the United States, much of the gap in earnings between men and women is due to the persistent gap for high wage earners. This paper explores changes in the gender wage gap for MBAs graduating from a large public university over 30 years. We document large gender wage gaps on average, which grow in…
Changes in the Gender Wage Gap for Business Professionals
Polls are snapshots, not predictions: how to read them critically this election year
12 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in econometerics, economics of education, economics of information, politics - New Zealand
With nine months to go, how much can opinion polls tell us about the general election on November 7? Short answer: not much. Based solely on polls, no one could have predicted the past three elections this early in the year they were held. Trends shifted over the subsequent months, and events (especially COVID in 2020) […]
Polls are snapshots, not predictions: how to read them critically this election year
NYRB article attacks the biological definition of sex holding with definitions based on self-identification
12 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, economics of regulation, gender, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: political correctness, sex discrimination, regressive left
I used to subscribe to the New York Review of Books, which, while sometimes a repository for boring academic cat-fights, often included engaging and illuminating articles—until fabled editor Bob Silvers died in 2017. Now, under the leadership of editor Emily Greenhouse, the magazine, always Left-leaning, seems to have become more progressive. The article by gender…
NYRB article attacks the biological definition of sex holding with definitions based on self-identification
Why Climate Science Is Not Settled
11 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, economics of education, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, liberalism Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism, conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science
Viewing the climate issue as unsettled is not to deny science, but rather to respect it. Empirical inquiry thrives on skepticism, on a willingness to question assumptions, on the refusal to treat model outputs as conclusive. To dismiss this centuries-old process is to put at risk the lifestyles and lives of billions.
Why Climate Science Is Not Settled
The radical right is not conservative
04 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: voter demographics
That the radical right calls itself “conservative” is one of the most successful acts of political re-branding in modern history. The label has stuck so firmly that many people now treat the two as interchangeable. Yet historically, philosophically, and temperamentally, they are opposites. This confusion is not confined to the uninformed. Journalists who ought to know better […]
The radical right is not conservative
Maarten Boudry on the policing of academia
31 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in liberalism, war and peace, law and economics, International law, economics of crime, economics of education, Marxist economics, defence economics Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
My friend Maarten Boudry, a Belgian philosopher, has been increasingly demonized for his heterodox views, especially on the Hamas/Israel war, since he is sympathetic to Israel (he isn’t Jewish). In the latest post on his Substack site, also published in condensed form in The Jewish Chronicle, Maarten recounts how there is a near-unanimity among European…
Maarten Boudry on the policing of academia
When the Left and the Right start behaving in the same way, there’s nothing left of the Left
23 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, gender, International law, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: regressive left
I HAVE BEEN RESISTING the conclusion that New Zealand no longer possesses a “left-wing” movement. What the news media persists in referring to as “the Left” or “progressives” are no such thing. By any reasonable definition, the movements identified – or identifying themselves – as left-wing fail to measure up. What they truly are we […]
When the Left and the Right start behaving in the same way, there’s nothing left of the Left
Endangered Republicans at Yale
21 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - USA Tags: academic bias
The NY Post reports: A recent report from the Buckley Institute found that there are no Republican faculty members across 27 departments at Yale University. … It found that nearly 83% of faculty are registered Democrats or primarily support Democratic candidates. More than 15% identify as independent, and fewer than 3% are Republicans, according to the report. Most notably, 27 of 43 undergraduate…
Endangered Republicans at Yale
Western Leftists and Islamic States
14 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, economics of religion, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: regressive left
Western leftists do criticise Islamic states at times—but they rarely prioritise opposing them, and often treat them with conspicuous restraint. That asymmetry is not accidental. It follows from the same ideological lenses that drive anti-Zionism. Here are the main reasons. 1. Anti-imperialism outweighs liberal values For much of the Western Left, opposition to Western power is the overriding moral […]
Western Leftists and Islamic States
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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