Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Murray Rothbard, privatisation, Public Choice
Update: I’m doing a Substack Live today on You Have No Right to Your Culture with the Boyd Institute’s Peter Banks. 4 PM ET.SummaryThis is the shortest chapter of the book, just six pages long. Rothbard makes a laundry list of what he calls “the major problem areas of our society” and argues that government…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 4
31 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, Public Choice, urban economics
Radio NZ reports: Auckland Councillors have voted not to proceed with a six-month trial of fortnightly kerbside rubbish collections in parts of the city, after considering public feedback. The proposed trial would’ve halved the number of kerbside collections in Te Atatū, Panmure, Tāmaki, Clendon Park and Weymouth, with the intention of reducing waste to landfill.…
Why not leave rubbish collection to the private sector?
02 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, privatisation
Newsroom has an article on the 10 SOEs that a Government could sell. I’ve done a matrix looking at which could be best to sell. Asset Competitive Value Sensitivity Prospects QV B $54m D Y Landcorp A $1.6b B Y AsureQuality B $100m C Y Kordia B $62m C Y Kiwibank B $2.6b A Y…
What should we sell?
24 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, financial economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, privatisation
Pragmatic analysis says maybe we should, but we should also consider nationalisation. We should certainly consider better regulation. Brian Easton writes – An earlier column argued that we should make the government’s net worth – the value of its assets less its liabilities – more prominent in fiscal policy. Net worth is also fundamental when we are […]
Should We Privatise More Government Businesses?
13 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, politics - USA, privatisation Tags: Singapore
The Herald reports: Opposition leader Chris Hipkins is dismissive of Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying the country needs a “mature” conversation around the potential sale of state-owned assets. “What would this government do when they’ve run out of things to sell?” Hipkins said, after Luxon spoke positively of a new Treasury report that calls for […]
The stupidity of Labour on assets
02 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, public economics
New Zealand’s economic development has always been a partnership between the public and private sectors. Brian Easton writes – Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) have become fashionable again, partly because of the government’s ambitions to accelerate infrastructural development. There is, of course, an ideological element too, while some of the opposition to them is also ideological. PPPs […]
Public-Private-Partnerships?
17 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights
The extent to which the government should be involved in the provision of goods and services generates a lot of debate. Most of that debate is unhelpful, since it involves small-government, market-fundamentalist types arguing against anti-market socialist types. It’s all ideological, and there’s a pretty good chance that neither of the sides in that argument…
Should the government operate petrol stations?
17 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, managerial economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle, theory of the firm, transport economics
The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people regard as worst case. It’s no wonder Ministry of Transport officials […]
Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?
15 Apr 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, Public Choice, public economics, survivor principle Tags: media bias
Hosking went after Radio New Zealand this morning and it was bad.The Mike Hosking Breakfast, 0600 till 0900 has three producer/support staff, Radio NZ Morning report has 16 production staff to cover the same five day time slot, yet the state run highly subsidised show falls way behind in ratings.. That 16 figure for production […]
No Knife But A Bloodletting Nevertheless.
08 Nov 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of socialism, Sweden
Two days ago at Texas Christian University, I debated Scott Sehon, chair of Bowdoin College’s Philosophy Department, on Capitalism versus Socialism. (Video forthcoming eventually). My opening statement was a slight variation on the one I wrote for an earlier debate on the same topic with Elizabeth Bruenig. Sehon’s opening statement was adapted from his Socialism:…
Reflections on the TCU Capitalism versus Socialism Debate
14 Jun 2022 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, defence economics, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, growth disasters, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, Marxist economics, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, theory of the firm, unemployment Tags: fall of communism
28 Aug 2021 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, F.A. Hayek, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle
09 Jun 2021 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Armen Alchian, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of information, entrepreneurship, financial economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, Ronald Coase, survivor principle, theory of the firm, transport economics, urban economics
05 Mar 2021 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of education, entrepreneurship, health economics, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, privatisation, survivor principle Tags: Sweden
12 Feb 2021 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, health economics, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, privatisation, Public Choice, survivor principle Tags: Sweden
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
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