The nutrition and food news today, including radio, TV, blogs, is full of stories decrying the consumption of Ultra-Processed Foods – UPFs. Normally I would give a series of links to the latest headlines but I doubt anyone could have missed them – they have been ubiquitous.
Modern Scientific Controversies: The War on Food: Part 1
Modern Scientific Controversies: The War on Food: Part 1
04 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of regulation, health economics Tags: Anti-Science left, food safety
Atheist Orthodoxy: The Freedom From Religion Foundation Censors Scientist Over Transgender Views
03 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, Freedom of religion, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is under fire this week after it censored a leading scientist, atheist, and board member, Jerry Coyne, a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Chicago. The FFRF took down a column in which Coyne published a column titled “Biology is not bigotry,” a critique of an earlier […]
Atheist Orthodoxy: The Freedom From Religion Foundation Censors Scientist Over Transgender Views
The New FDA and the Regulation of Laboratory Developed Tests
28 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: drug lags
The FDA under President Trump and new FDA head Martin Makary should rapidly reverse the FDA’s powergrab on laboratory developed tests. To recap, laboratory developed tests (LDTs) are the kind your doctor orders, they are a service not a product and are not sold directly to patients. Congress has never given the FDA the authority […]
The New FDA and the Regulation of Laboratory Developed Tests
The curse of socialism
27 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, growth disasters, health economics, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice Tags: economics of socialism, The Great Escape
RODNEY HIDE: Doctors and Nurses now Kill and Maim
26 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, health economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: abortion law reform
Our Doctors and Nurses are leaving babies to die should their attempt to kill them in utero fail. Their only care is to wrap the poor things in a blanket as they struggle and strain to their last pained breath. That happens now in New Zealand hospitals with nurses and doctors present with the ability…
RODNEY HIDE: Doctors and Nurses now Kill and Maim
The Power of Big Ice Cream
24 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA Tags: economics of obesity, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
You’ve heard of Big Oil, Big Tech and Big Pharma. Now it has been revealed that there is another player in this game: Big Ice Cream: San Francisco’s new consultant on “weight stigma” is a pro-fat activist promoted by the food industry. On Monday, Virgie Tovar, the author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat, announced the new role […]
The Power of Big Ice Cream
Health insurance companies are not the main villain
16 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, health economics, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: health insurance
First of all, insurance companies just don’t make that much profit. UnitedHealth Group, the company of which Brian Thompson’s UnitedHealthcare is a subsidiary, is the most valuable private health insurer in the country in terms of market capitalization, and the one with the largest market share. Its net profit margin is just 6.11%… That’s only about half of […]
Health insurance companies are not the main villain
NZ Nursing Council Raises A Middle Finger To Health Minister Shane Reti And The Coalition Government.
08 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of regulation, health economics, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, occupational regulation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
What follows are Scope of Practice requirements for Enrolled and Registered Nurses from 25 January 2025. There are some small differences in requirements but the points I am highlighting are the same and what follows is for Enrolled Nurses. Scope of Practice Enrolled Nurses Enrolled nurses in Aotearoa New Zealand reflect knowledge, concepts and worldviews of both tangata whenua and tangata […]
NZ Nursing Council Raises A Middle Finger To Health Minister Shane Reti And The Coalition Government.
You Have Been Warned
07 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in health economics Tags: economics of pandemics
New paper in Science, A single mutation in bovine influenza H5N1 hemagglutinin switches specificity to human receptors. If that isn’t clear enough, here is the editor’s summary: In 2021, a highly pathogenic influenza H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b virus was detected in North America that is capable of infecting a diversity of avian species, marine mammals, and […]
You Have Been Warned
Royal Covid Commission report says “NZ’s vaccination rollout was slightly slower to get started than in some other countries”. And Pigs Fly.
06 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
The Australian Commonwealth Government COVID-19 Response Inquiry slammed that country’s late “stroll-out” of the vaccine. It meant politicians viewed lock-downs as their only tool of control. According to the Sydney Morning Herald some of “the Inquiry’s most specific criticism was around the delayed vaccine rollout ahead of the Omicron variant which swept through country at…
Royal Covid Commission report says “NZ’s vaccination rollout was slightly slower to get started than in some other countries”. And Pigs Fly.
Snobbery
06 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: nanny state
Stuff reports: Moral and health-related objections to fast food should not be considered in a hearing for a proposed Wānaka McDonald’s, the company claims. Neither was the perception of McDonald’s as a large corporate that should not be allowed to exist, legal representative Jeremy Brabant said at the resource consent hearing which opened on Monday.…
Snobbery
Misuse of land use planning
05 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, health economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: nanny state, zoning
If you thought McDonald’s was some kind of public health hazard, using processes under the Resource Management Act to try to block one from opening in Wanaka would be among the stupidest possible ways of dealing with it. The country already has food safety regulations. If you thought that (in fact delicious and fine) McDonald’s food…
Misuse of land use planning
The Missing Myths
04 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, discrimination, economic history, economics of climate change, economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, gender, global warming, health economics, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Age of Enlightenment, crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, free speech, gender wage gap, law and order, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, sex discrimination
Michael Huemer’s Progressive Myths is the best book on wokeness. One of its many strengths is its focus on basic facts. As the author explains:I have selected beliefs that can be debunked fairly quickly and forcefully. Many other progressive beliefs require long argumentation and subjective judgment calls to assess. About these more difficult issues, I…
The Missing Myths
Germany chart of the day
04 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economic growth, health economics, macroeconomics Tags: economics of pandemics, Germany
Here is the link.
Germany chart of the day
Will politicians learn anything from the first Covid Response report?
04 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
Bryce Edwards writes – Any criticism of New Zealand’s Covid response needs to begin by acknowledging its success. Our total confirmed deaths per million people is far lower than those of many peer nations. But we’re still living with the cost of that response: reduced trust in institutions and deeper social division; years of […]
Will politicians learn anything from the first Covid Response report?
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