See ‘Mellon vs. Churchill’ Review: The Payback Problem by Benn Steil. He reviewed the book Mellon vs. Churchill: The Untold Story of Treasury Titans at War by Jill Eicher. Excerpts:”In a nutshell, the debt story of the 1920s goes like this. Following World War I, 10 countries owed the U.S. more than $10 billion ($190 billion…
At the end of World War I, Britain was in heavy financial debt to the U.S. The question of repayments would bedevil both countries for decades
At the end of World War I, Britain was in heavy financial debt to the U.S. The question of repayments would bedevil both countries for decades
27 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, financial economics, international economic law, international economics, International law, war and peace Tags: British politics France, World War I
Beating the market
23 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economics of information, entrepreneurship, financial economics Tags: active investing, efficient markets hypothesis, passive investing
SEC Climate Risk Rule is Entrapment
11 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: climate activists, efficient markets hypothesis
Stone Washington and William Happer explain the nefarious and ill-advised decree in their article SEC’s Climate Risk Disclosure Rule Would Compel Companies to Make Scientifically False and Misleading Disclosures. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. In March last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued its climate risk disclosure rule, called “The […]
SEC Climate Risk Rule is Entrapment
Bernanke on inflation targeting
09 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, economic history, financial economics, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, unemployment Tags: monetary policy
Former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (and FOMC), Ben Bernanke, was yesterday the first of two keynote speakers at the Reserve Bank’s conference to mark 35 years of inflation targeting, which first became a formalised thing here in New Zealand. He indicated that he’d be speaking about inflation targeting in general and […]
Bernanke on inflation targeting
Driving a Stake Through Stakeholder Capitalism
07 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate activists, greenwashing, regressive left
E, S, G does not cover core financial risks. We’re looking to assess financially-relevant environmental, social and governance factors, not financially-relevant financial factors.” Got that? Yup. It’s total hogwash.
Driving a Stake Through Stakeholder Capitalism
BP Faces “Existential Crisis” After Ruinous Attempt to Go Green
02 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of climate change, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: 2024 presidential election, climate activists, climate alarmism, efficient markets hypothesis, greenwashing
BP’s green pivot has backfired spectacularly, hammering profits and leaving the company vulnerable to a hedge fund siege, writes Jonathan Leake in the Telegraph.
BP Faces “Existential Crisis” After Ruinous Attempt to Go Green
Mandated Board Diversity Reduces Firm Value
27 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of regulation, financial economics, gender, industrial organisation, labour economics, occupational choice, politics - USA Tags: efficient markets hypothesis, sex discrimination
Jon Klick finds that when courts in CA surprisingly invalidated a set of DEI laws, the market value of firms subject to those laws increased: California mandated that firms headquartered in the state include women (SB 826) and underrepresented minorities (AB 979) on their corporate boards. These laws, passed in 2018 and 2020 respectively, were […]
Mandated Board Diversity Reduces Firm Value
The American Rōnin: How Displaced “Disinformation Experts” Are Seeking New Opportunities in Europe and Academia
27 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, financial economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Below is my column in the Hill on the new American emigres: “disinformation experts” who are finding themselves unemployed with the restoration of free speech protections. Here is the column:
The American Rōnin: How Displaced “Disinformation Experts” Are Seeking New Opportunities in Europe and Academia
Does the Feldstein-Horioka Puzzle mean National’s Foreign Investment Ambitions Won’t Raise NZ Productivity?
26 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic history, financial economics, history of economic thought, international economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand Tags: foreign investment
The NZ Herald’s Editor has declared its journalists will be promoted or fired on the basis of factors like how many clicks they get on their articles. Yes, the Herald is now officially “click bait”. We’re trying to avoid the mistake of writing shallow nonsense at this Blog. So on that note, here’s a somewhat…
Does the Feldstein-Horioka Puzzle mean National’s Foreign Investment Ambitions Won’t Raise NZ Productivity?
Equinor Cut Green Investment In Half
07 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming Tags: greenwashing
By Paul Homewood h/t Ian Cunningham More bad news for the idiot Miliband: Norwegian energy giant Equinor is halving investment in renewable energy over the next two years while increasing oil and gas production.
Equinor Cut Green Investment In Half
Mocking European Statism
04 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: employment law, European Union
I have a special page for humor involving Europe, but I have not added to it since sharing some Brexit humor in 2016. Let’s being the process of catching up with some amusing cartoons and memes mocking our government-loving cousins on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve made the serious point that bureaucrats […]
Mocking European Statism
Can President Trump break the International Corporate Tax Cartel?
01 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, financial economics, fiscal policy, industrial organisation, International law, macroeconomics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
From the Economist: The international tax system has long suffered from two related problems: firms go to great lengths to book profits in low-tax jurisdictions, and governments thus have strong incentives to compete with each other in cutting levies so as to attract investment [only a dirigiste would consider this a problem]. Hoping to forestall…
Can President Trump break the International Corporate Tax Cartel?
Interview with Eugene Fama: For Whom are Financial Markets Efficient?
28 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, entrepreneurship, financial economics Tags: efficient markets hypothesis, Internet
Joe Walker interviews Eugene Fama (Nobel ’13) with the title “For Whom is the Market Efficient?” (The Joe Walker podcast, December 31, 2024). Here are some bits and pieces of their exchange that caught my eye. Are financial markets efficient? WALKER: Gene, I was talking with a few friends who work in high finance in preparation…
Interview with Eugene Fama: For Whom are Financial Markets Efficient?
The Tennessee-BlackRock Settlement: A Win for Transparency and Investor Interests
24 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: active investing, climate activists, climate alarmism, efficient markets hypothesis
While no settlement is perfect, this agreement represents a significant victory for transparency, accountability, and the integrity of financial markets. For Tennessee investors—and indeed, all investors across the country—it’s a step in the right direction.
The Tennessee-BlackRock Settlement: A Win for Transparency and Investor Interests
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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