Most people know that the number of drinkers and smokers is in decline in the UK, but you might be surprised to hear that the same is true of gamblers. For the first time since the early 1990s, gamblers are in the minority with only 48% of English adults engaging in any gambling activity in…
The rise and fall of British gambling
The rise and fall of British gambling
18 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, health economics
Starmer surrenders to EU net zero rules
15 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics
By Paul Homewood h/t Doug Brodie From the Telegraph: Sir Keir Starmer has drawn up plans under which the UK will ramp up its net zero targets and cede control over its energy policy as part of closer alignment with Brussels.
Starmer surrenders to EU net zero rules
Why Rescinding the Endangerment Finding May Survive Lawfare
15 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
Some thoughts from my browser AI. My Question: What are the legal matters, such as major questions requiring congressional action, that favor ending EPA CO2 Endangerment Finding? Search Assistant Reply: The legal matters surrounding the repeal of the EPA’s CO2 Endangerment Finding involve the major questions doctrine, which suggests that significant regulatory authority should not […]
Why Rescinding the Endangerment Finding May Survive Lawfare
Trump Reverses Obama’s CO2 Endangerment Finding
14 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: constitutional law
By Paul Homewood It’s official: WASHINGTON – Alongside President Trump in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. In this final rule, EPA is saving American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion, eliminating both the Obama-era 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) […]
Trump Reverses Obama’s CO2 Endangerment Finding
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, regressive left, sex discrimination
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
The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Sweden, Part III
10 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Sweden
Based on a video from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity back in 2010, as well a video from Johan Norberg I shared in 2016, there’s a lot to learn by looking at Swedish economic history. Here’s a more recent video that also looks at that nation’s economic track record. You’ll notice a similar message […]
The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Sweden, Part III
The anatomy of usurpation: Climate Clinic Aotearoa v Minister of Energy and Resources
10 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
Imagine Parliament passes a Schools Act “to promote the establishment of schools for the benefit of New Zealand.” Parliament is careful. It specifies exactly what the Minister must consider before approving a new school: the operator’s financial capability, site safety, compliance history, and consultation with local iwi. There is no general discretion. There are no […]
The anatomy of usurpation: Climate Clinic Aotearoa v Minister of Energy and Resources
Labour Throw Motorists Under The Bus
09 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, transport economics, urban economics Tags: electric cars
By Paul Homewood You will remember I wrote to my local Labour MP a couple of months ago to discuss the problems facing electric car drivers who don’t have off street parking – namely the exorbitant cost of public chargers, lack of chargers and the issue of running a charge cable across […]
Labour Throw Motorists Under The Bus
STEVE MILLOY: 20 Years After ‘An Inconvenient Truth’
05 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of climate change, economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, movies, politics - USA Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
Jan. 24 marked the 20th anniversary of the release of Al Gore’s alarmist global warming movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” Gore has surfed the movie and climate alarmism to a net worth estimated at $300 million and a Nobel Peace Prize.
STEVE MILLOY: 20 Years After ‘An Inconvenient Truth’
Starmer Government Greenlights 15 Minute City Legal Enforcement
02 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, transport economics, urban economics Tags: British politics
Ordinary residents of trial cities will only be permitted 100 days per year outside their 15 minute region. But special people get a free pass.
Starmer Government Greenlights 15 Minute City Legal Enforcement
The Bjorn Lomborg Conundrum: Sceptic but Not Quite
31 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate activists
Lomborg has performed a valuable service in exposing the economic wreckage of Net Zero and the hollowness of green utopianism. But by clinging to the premise that climate change must ultimately be “solved” through policy-directed and publicly funded innovation, he gives credence to the very worldview he criticises. His halfway house reassures moderates, comforts elites,…
The Bjorn Lomborg Conundrum: Sceptic but Not Quite
Are the French lazy?
30 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: France, taxation and labour supply
Olivier Blanchard writes: The French are not lazy. They just enjoy leisure more than most (no irony here) And this is perfectly fine: As productivity increases, it is perfectly reasonable to take it partly as more leisure (fewer hours per week, earlier retirement age), and only partly in income. He has follow-up points and clarifications…
Are the French lazy?
Michelle Tandler on NYC rent control
28 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: rent control
This is what I’m seeing: + 2.4 million rent-controlled apartments in a city with a massive housing shortage and 1.4% vacancy rate. + A huge % of these tenants are wealthy, white boomers using the units as pieds-a-terres while they spend their weekends and summers elsewhere. + Meanwhile, the government is using rent control to…
Michelle Tandler on NYC rent control
Ross McKitrick on Climate Models, Economic Impacts, and the DOE Report
26 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming
In this in-depth interview, economist and statistician Ross McKitrick discusses climate models, uncertainty, and whether the public climate debate is as scientifically balanced as often claimed. He also reflects on his role as a co-author of the recent U.S. Department of Energy report.
Ross McKitrick on Climate Models, Economic Impacts, and the DOE Report
Waking up to the reality of tobacco’s black market
25 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - Australia Tags: economics of smoking
There’s a website called Tobacco in Australia: Facts and Issues which is written by a few anti-smoking activist-academics. It provides lots of tobacco-related statistics and a bit of editorialising. The website has a whole section devoted to criticising “industry estimates of the extent of illicit trade in tobacco”. It is an article of faith in tobakko…
Waking up to the reality of tobacco’s black market
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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