The Labour Government lost the 2023 election when its support halved from 2020. It deserved to lose on economic grounds alone. Covid lockdowns that went beyond the prudent and wrecked livelihoods in the name of saving lives; an orgy of careless spending of borrowed money; and a failure to ensure that the 16,000 extra bureaucrats…
MICHAEL BASSETT: LABOUR’S CRIME LEGACY OF THE LAST THREE YEARS
MICHAEL BASSETT: LABOUR’S CRIME LEGACY OF THE LAST THREE YEARS
31 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of education, labour economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Cheat sheet
29 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, income redistribution, liberalism, Marxist economics, Public Choice, Rawls and Nozick, rentseeking Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left

Times are a changing
27 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of love and marriage, law and economics Tags: marriage and divorce, political correctness, regressive left
*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*
26 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, law and economics, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
That is the title of the new Judith Butler book, focusing mostly on trans issues. To be clear, on most practical issues concerning trans, I side with the social conservatives. For instance, I don’t think trans women have a right to compete in women’s weightlifting contests. And I have not been happy with how many […]
*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*
“Blatantly Misogynistic”: UC Berkeley Students Declare That They Feel Unsafe After Professor Shares Dating Advice
24 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, economics of media and culture, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left

This week, parents of students at the University of California at Berkeley took the extreme step of hiring private security to protect their children at the school after years of complaints over rising crime and anti-police policies. The university, however, is focused this week on another threat that has led students to object that they […]
“Blatantly Misogynistic”: UC Berkeley Students Declare That They Feel Unsafe After Professor Shares Dating Advice
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
21 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: affirmative action, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left

As you know, I go back and forth on the question of affirmative action for college and professional-school admissions, and even after I thought I’d settled on a view (i.e., give some preference to minorities among those equally qualified for admission), it still keeps changing. After I read the long New York Times piece below […]
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex
14 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination

On March 8, I wrote a critique of this article, which appeared in American Scientist (click sceenshot to read): When I wrote my piece, I had grown weary of people making the same tired old arguments against the sex binary, arguments like saying that sex isn’t binary because male orangutans come in two forms (“flanged” […]
A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex
Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments
13 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination

Really? Do I have to rebut the same arguments about the definition of biological sex again? Well, here in American Scientist is a group of two anthropologists, one anatomist, and a gender-and-sexuality-studies professor, all telling us that there is no clear definition of sex, using the same tired old arguments to rebut the gamete-based sex […]
Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments
The RCT Agenda
12 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of information, economics of regulation, experimental economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, managerial economics, market efficiency, Marxist economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: The fatal conceit

Randomized Controlled Trials: Could you be any more scientific? The book I’m now writing, Unbeatable: The Brutally Honest Case for Free Markets, insists that the randomistas of the economics profession actually have a thinly-veiled political agenda. Namely: To get economists to humbly serve the demagogues that rule the world instead of bluntly challenging their unabated…
The RCT Agenda
Not Bridgeable
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of crime, economics of education, economics of love and marriage, gender, income redistribution, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, political correctness, regressive left

In the last few years, especially after I started writing for this blog, I got more than a few comments about the need for bi-partisanship, not hating out ideological, let alone political opponents. What was notable about this was that they all came from the Right of the political spectrum. The Left seem quite happy […]
Not Bridgeable
#IWD2024
08 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - Australia Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination

The Harvard Crimson tells us that there are more than two sexes in humans
25 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination

It’s been hard times for my alma mater in the past year. Harvard’s President was excoriated and then removed, there were protests and illegal sit-ins over the war, a Supreme Court decision came down ruling that Harvard’s admissions policies were racist, and now Jewish students have brought a Title VI lawsuit brought against the school […]
The Harvard Crimson tells us that there are more than two sexes in humans
When it comes to lifetime earnings, the most important decision appears to be the choice of college major
25 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: College premium
See Choices and consequences in the real “game of life”: From falling in with “bad apples” to choosing a major, economists decipher how early decisions shape long-term outcomes by Jeff Horwich, Senior Economics Writer for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Excerpt:”The research on Minnesota students from Nath, Borovičková, and Leibert (discussed above) finds that while…
When it comes to lifetime earnings, the most important decision appears to be the choice of college major
Science Feedback (a “fact-checker organization”) have generated disinformation about CERES-Science
23 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of information, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate activists
In recent years, a real-life equivalent to “the Ministry of Truth” has arisen with the rise of so-called “fact-checking organizations”.
Science Feedback (a “fact-checker organization”) have generated disinformation about CERES-Science


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