Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
27 May 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights Tags: 2024 presidential election, sex discrimination
One political advertisement stood out from the thousands that blitzed the US presidential campaign of 2024. It inflicted enormous damage on the Democratic Party’s flagbearer, Kamala Harris. The ad’s central tagline deployed just two sentences: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Former President Bill Clinton urged the Harris Campaign to come back […]
NZ First’s foray into transgender issues might be ethically dubious, but politically it could be a winner
26 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
Human welfare, not abstract emissions targets, must remain the lodestar. History shows that technological progress and energy abundance, not central planning, have lifted billions from poverty and improved environmental outcomes along the way. The post Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Net Zero Dream appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Net Zero Dream
26 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, politics - New Zealand, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
Radio NZ reports: A developer is calling on the Upper Hutt City Council to let it build what it believes to be a crucial road, so it can construct 1600 homes. Guildford Timber Company (GTC) wants to build the road through an area of council-owned land known as the Silverstream Spur, home to a number…
1,600 more homes in Upper Hutt, if the Council doesn’t block it
24 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, history of economic thought, law and economics, Murray Rothbard, property rights, Public Choice
SummaryThis chapter, on “Conservation, Ecology, and Growth,” is an early statement of free-market environmentalism. It begins by ridiculing leftists’ decades of contradictory complaints about capitalism: “Stagnation; deficient growth; overaffluence; overpoverty; the intellectual fashions changed like ladies’ hemlines,” and quoting one of Schumpeter’s best lines:Capitalism stands its trial before judges who have the sentence of death…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 13
23 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economics, macroeconomics, public economics Tags: Sweden
I don’t often claim to be ahead of the curve, but I’m going to pat myself on the back in today’s column about Swedish economic policy. More than 16 years ago, I started writing about Sweden’s shift from statism to markets. More than 14 years ago, I praised Swedish policy makers for significantly reducing the […]
The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Sweden, Part IV
22 May 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights
Winston should be ashamed
Myth, Memory and the BNZ
18 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism, constitutional law, nuisance suits
Climate Change Dispatch reports DOJ Sues Minnesota Over State Climate Lawsuit Targeting Energy Companies. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. Justice Department argues the state case oversteps federal authority, seeks to reshape national energy policy. The complaint, filed Monday, May 4, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, accuses […]
DOJ Sues Against Minnesota’s Climate Lawsuit
18 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand Tags: competition law
The Commerce Commission’s “State of Competition in New Zealand” report landed on Tuesday. It is arguably the most important economic document of the political year. It names four sectors as the country’s least competitive: electricity, gas, water and waste services; financial and insurance services; information media and telecommunications; and mining. The night before the report […]
The Regulator has confirmed the NZ economy is rigged
16 May 2026 1 Comment
in Austrian economics, economics of regulation, health economics, industrial organisation, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand Tags: black markets, economics of smoking
Radio NZ reports: Deakin University associate criminology professor Dr James Martin told RNZ the Australian approach had relied on enforcement to suppress the black market. “This has been really ineffective,” he said. “We’ve got between 50-60 percent of all tobacco and nearly all vaping products in Australia now come from criminal suppliers, and it’s generated…
Bigger than Ben Hur
16 May 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of regulation, international economic law, international economics, International law, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: India, preferential trading agreements
A Constitutional Trojan Horse: advancing change through political stealth Trade Minister Hon Todd McClay has announced that the New Zealand-India free trade agreement has been signed and that the formal parliamentary treaty scrutiny process is now under way. The full text of the agreement is now public and has been referred to Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee […]
The Sting in the India Trade Deal
16 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: climate activists, constitutional law
Mike Smith, the climate activist suing six of New Zealand’s largest companies over greenhouse gas emissions, is unhappy. On Tuesday, the Government announced it will amend the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to stop cases like his and others like it. Smith calls the move “an affront to democracy.” He has the wrong end of the […]
An affront to democracy?
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism
This essay is capitulation to catastrophe…. Don’t talk about it, then the public won’t know about it, then you can’t run for office on it and the country won’t act on the emergency. The post Disaster? NYT Op-Ed on Demoting the Climate Pitch appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
Disaster? NYT Op-Ed on Demoting the Climate Pitch
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, urban economics Tags: competition law, land supply, zoning
The Spinoff reports: Both Labour and National governments have considered the idea of breaking up the big two but ultimately decided against it. A 2023 analysis by MBIE suggested forcibly breaking up the supermarkets could cost as much as $3.8 billion over 20 years, mostly due to the loss of economies of scale. It could make wholesale and distribution…
A good idea for supermarket competition
12 May 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, Public Choice
For all the talk of finally relitigating the underlying climate science, the EPA’s final rule does almost none of that. It does not argue that greenhouse gases fail to qualify as pollutants. It does not litigate model sensitivities, the surface temperature record, attribution methodology, or any of the empirical questions that WUWT contributors and others…
Three Months In: EPA’s Endangerment Finding Repeal Has Quietly Become a Legal Fight, not a Scientific One
11 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, transport economics Tags: electric cars, Germany
By Paul Homewood AOL also cover the story:
Volkswagen Face $1.7 Billion Fine For Missing Emissions Targets
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
A History of the Alt-Right
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Res ipsa loquitur - The thing itself speaks
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“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
The truth about the great wind power fraud - we're not here to debate the wind industry, we're here to destroy it.
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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