The Most Depressing Chart about Germany

I’ve used the “most depressing chart” approach when writing about the United States, about Europe, about Japan, and about the western world. Today, let’s focus on Germany. And I’ll start with a caveat. I wrote about Germany earlier this month and that column included several charts that might qualify. Especially the last visual which showed […]

The Most Depressing Chart about Germany

RODNEY HIDE: The Strange New Face of Women’s Empowerment

Here is a single image that captures the extent to which we are lost. Khadija Patel stands at the Palace of Westminster, recipient of the British Citizen Award 2026 for her “work empowering young women.” She is covered from head to toe. Only her eyes are visible. The official caption celebrates her as a champion…

RODNEY HIDE: The Strange New Face of Women’s Empowerment

New Research Further Confirms Anti-Growth Impact of Wealth Taxation

I’ve shared multiple studies about the harmful impact of wealth taxes (see here, here, here, here, and here). Today, let’s add to the body of evidence. I’ll start by calling attention to a column I wrote in 2019 that warned how wealth taxes mean very high – even confiscatory – taxes on saving and investment. […]

New Research Further Confirms Anti-Growth Impact of Wealth Taxation

The economic effects of GLP-1s

We estimate the causal impacts of GLP-1 treatment on labor market outcomes using linked Danish administrative data and a matched stacked difference-in-differences design. We compare patients who initiate GLP-1 treatment during the first two years of Semaglutide availability to observably similar patients who initiate four years later. We find that GLP-1 treatment reduces long-term sickness…

The economic effects of GLP-1s

Criminal “Villification”: Australia Court Upholds Conviction, Massive Fine, and Compelled Speech in Transgender Case

We have followed the evisceration of free speech values in the United Kingdom and other Western nations. Australia has been…

Criminal “Villification”: Australia Court Upholds Conviction, Massive Fine, and Compelled Speech in Transgender Case

The Apples and Oranges Tribunal

Suppose that apples sell for more than oranges and Parliament in it’s wisdom decides that, at last, apples and oranges must be compared. Not by shoppers — shoppers are biased, they merely reveal what they are willing to pay — but by a tribunal, which will determine whether apples and oranges are of truly equal…

The Apples and Oranges Tribunal

The common sense of Fareed Zakaria

This is one of the best Op-Eds you will read this year, though it deliberately deemphasizes the personal (no one is attacked) in a manner that will result in less attention.  Better to write the truth!  Excerpt: Why has this [voter discontent} happened? Some of it is economic. Expensive housing, stagnant incomes and widening inequality have fueled public…

The common sense of Fareed Zakaria

Goldman’s Demand for “One Case” of Immigration Obstruction Fails Spectacularly When DHS Offers 7,000 in New York Alone

An over-30-point primary loss would ordinarily produce a degree of introspection and self-reflection in a politician. Indeed, even such a…

Goldman’s Demand for “One Case” of Immigration Obstruction Fails Spectacularly When DHS Offers 7,000 in New York Alone

Occupational Licensing: US and International

The potential benefit of having the government require that certain jobs require an official license is quality control and protection. Personally, I rather like knowing that my nurse or doctor or dentist has gone through courses and training. The potential cost is that requirement to have a government license can become a way for those…

Occupational Licensing: US and International

The Case Against a Universal Basic Income

A Universal Basic Income, or UBI, is a superficially attractive idea. Under such a scheme, every adult would receive a regular payment from the government, regardless of income, employment or need. Supporters argue that it would reduce poverty, simplify welfare, provide security in an uncertain labour market and give people greater freedom to choose how […]

The Case Against a Universal Basic Income

Oren Cass Again Swings and Misses in His Attempt to Discredit Economists

TweetHere’s a letter to the Financial Times. Editor: Oren Cass’s attempt to discredit economists’ support for a policy of liberal immigration is flawed (“Mass immigration is not the silver bullet economists think it is,” July 10). For example, consider this question that he poses rhetorically: “If employers believe they will always have access to a…

Oren Cass Again Swings and Misses in His Attempt to Discredit Economists

Goldsmith on consent laws

Paul Goldsmith announced: A re-elected National Government will modernise sexual consent laws to specify there must always be a “yes,” rather than an absence of a “no,” National’s Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says. “National is focused on fixing the basics in law and order, and modernising our consent laws is an important part of that.…

Goldsmith on consent laws

Pronatal policies

The Institute for Family Studies puts up a pro-natal proposal that I’d not seen before.Most of the literature I’ve seen on baby bonuses suggests that the amount on offer would have to be hefty to have substantive effects. This version could harness a bit of loss aversion:President Trump launched a small savings account seeded with…

Pronatal policies

Broadband coverage and rural fertility

I recently expressed some scepticism at a paper showing that the release of the iPhone explained a third or more of the decline in US fertility. So, I was interested to read this new working paper by Gokhan Kumpas (California State University, Los Angeles), which looks at the effect of broadband coverage on fertility. Specifically, Kumpas…

Broadband coverage and rural fertility

Occupational Licensing Around the World

Hartley and Kleiner have a new Fed Minneapolis working paper surveying workers around the world to measure occupational licensing by country. In the United States, occupational licensing has increased substantially over time, so one might expect licensing to rise with income. Their headline result is the opposite: occupational licensing is negatively correlated with GDP per…

Occupational Licensing Around the World

Previous Older Entries

Thoughts from the North

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Fardels Bear

A History of the Alt-Right

Vincent Geloso

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Bassett, Brash & Hide

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Truth on the Market

Scholarly commentary on law, economics, and more

The Undercover Historian

Beatrice Cherrier's blog

Matua Kahurangi

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Why Evolution Is True

Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.

NoTricksZone

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Homepaddock

A rural perspective with a blue tint by Ele Ludemann

Kiwiblog

DPF's Kiwiblog - Fomenting Happy Mischief since 2003

The Dangerous Economist

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Watts Up With That?

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The Logical Place

Tim Harding's writings on rationality, informal logic and skepticism

Doc's Books

A window into Doc Freiberger's library

The Risk-Monger

Let's examine hard decisions!

Uneasy Money

Commentary on monetary policy in the spirit of R. G. Hawtrey

Barrie Saunders

Thoughts on public policy and the media

Liberty Scott

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Point of Order

Politics and the economy

James Bowden's Blog

A blog (primarily) on Canadian and Commonwealth political history and institutions

Science Matters

Reading between the lines, and underneath the hype.

Peter Winsley

Economics, and such stuff as dreams are made on

A Venerable Puzzle

"The British constitution has always been puzzling, and always will be." --Queen Elizabeth II

The Antiplanner

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Bet On It

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History of Sorts

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Roger Pielke Jr.

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JONATHAN TURLEY

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Conversable Economist

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The Victorian Commons

Researching the House of Commons, 1832-1868

The History of Parliament

Articles and research from the History of Parliament Trust

Books & Boots

Reflections on books and art

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Posts on the History of Law, Crime, and Justice

Sex, Drugs and Economics

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European Royal History

Exploring the Monarchs of Europe

Tallbloke's Talkshop

Cutting edge science you can dice with

Marginal REVOLUTION

Small Steps Toward A Much Better World

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

“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.

STOP THESE THINGS

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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law

Alt-M

Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law