Do Me a Personal Favor: Please Pre-Order *Build, Baby, Build* Now

I started writing Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation, in the early weeks of Covid. Now, with the kind cooperation of the Cato Institute, my second non-fiction graphic novel releases on May 1, 2024. That’s less than six weeks away.The official coverPlease forgive my laughable arrogance, but I assure you that…

Do Me a Personal Favor: Please Pre-Order *Build, Baby, Build* Now

Uber

There has been a fair bit of discussion over the Ocker court decision re Uber and their dishonest ways. In many countries, including Oz and New Zealand, Uber came in and set up illegal operations. In New Zealand they put anyone who wanted a go on their books. At that time New Zealand had rather […]

Uber

100 Years of Rent Control in Sweden

Bet On It reader Vanja Månborg knows a lot about rent control in Sweden. If you think Sweden is a country of thoughtful technocrats where government intervention works well, reading his guest post may make you think again. Here’s Vanja:Sweden has had rent control regulations since 1917 with less than two decades of pause between…

100 Years of Rent Control in Sweden

One Year Since the Meltdown at Silicon Valley Bank: Commercial Real Estate and Ongoing Threats

One year ago in March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank melted down, quickly followed by similar meltdowns at Signature Bank and First Republic Bank. Measured by the nominal size of bank assets, these were three of the biggest four US bank failures in history. (The failure of Washington Mutual Bank in 2008 remains the largest.) Was…

One Year Since the Meltdown at Silicon Valley Bank: Commercial Real Estate and Ongoing Threats

The RCT Agenda

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

Claim: Social Science can Solve the Climate Crisis

Making do with less: “… We can repair and recreate our relationships with the Earth and the consumption that has gotten us to this point. …”

Claim: Social Science can Solve the Climate Crisis

TV layoffs not a threat to democracy

A few weeks ago I joined some contemporaries by abandoning the near sixty year habit of watching nightly TV news. I dropped it because I felt it did not give me real information that I had not acquired from other media sources, including some I pay for – The Economist, the NZ Herald, The Atlantic […]

TV layoffs not a threat to democracy

The tohunga suppression myth that won’t die

Graham Adams writes — Jonathan Swift’s observation in 1710 that “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it” seems entirely apt for last week’s parliamentary debate on disestablishing the Māori Health Authority. No fewer than three MPs — MPs Cushla Tangaere-Manuel (Labour), Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke (Te Pāti Māori), and Steve Abel (Greens) — referred to […]

The tohunga suppression myth that won’t die

Even Lowerer Hutt

One annoying thing about writing a Saturday column for the Stuff papers is never knowing whether a piece will show up in print.I’d thought this one was a banger. I’ll be talking about related issues tomorrow night as part of a panel for A City for People. 🟨🟪 Our speaker line up has dropped! 🟪🟨Join us on…

Even Lowerer Hutt

Gaelic Price Control

Here is a nice video on the experience with price control in Ireland and Scotland.  Hat tip: Marginal Revolution

Gaelic Price Control

The US Housing Market Is Very Quickly Becoming Unaffordable

In a post from July 2021, I discussed housing affordability and “zoning taxes” — in other words, how land use restrictions such as zoning were driving up the cost of housing in some US cities. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York stood out as the clear outliers, with “zoning taxes” adding several multiples […]

The US Housing Market Is Very Quickly Becoming Unaffordable

Statewide Rent Control Being Considered in Washington

Five things to know about WA proposal to limit rent hikes | The Seattle Times Isn’t rent control one of the most studied economic experiments? And hasn’t it been shown to be, over the long term, a disaster for everyone involved? What does economic evidence tell us about the effects of rent control? | Brookings […]

Statewide Rent Control Being Considered in Washington

ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Former PM Hipkins & Profs Bloomfield & Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated

Why are we still talking about Covid when many countries – like the US – have moved on? Well the US economy is currently booming and ours is stuck in the mud. The reason has emerged over time. Although our response to the virus was to be commended in early 2020 when no-one knew what…

ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Former PM Hipkins & Profs Bloomfield & Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated

Government Intervention and Relative Prices

I periodically share Mark Perry’s famous “Chart of the Century” to show that government intervention is a recipe for rising relative prices.* Since economic principles don’t change when you cross national borders, one might expect to see similar patterns in other countries. And we do. Here’s a chart from Matthew Lesh of the Institute for […]

Government Intervention and Relative Prices

Greens explained

https://www.facebook.com/share/Zo6jkDHhsR9xAmfL/?mibextid=xfxF2i

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