The Labour Government lost the 2023 election when its support halved from 2020. It deserved to lose on economic grounds alone. Covid lockdowns that went beyond the prudent and wrecked livelihoods in the name of saving lives; an orgy of careless spending of borrowed money; and a failure to ensure that the 16,000 extra bureaucrats…
MICHAEL BASSETT: LABOUR’S CRIME LEGACY OF THE LAST THREE YEARS
MICHAEL BASSETT: LABOUR’S CRIME LEGACY OF THE LAST THREE YEARS
31 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of education, labour economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Productivity Syndrome and the Investment Prescription
30 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics
Economic productivity is about growing the size of the pie. I sometimes point out that no matter what your goal–spending increases, tax cuts, greater support for the poor, environmental protection–that goal is easier when the economic pie is growing. When the economic pie isn’t growing, after all, then all priorities have to pit potential winners…
Productivity Syndrome and the Investment Prescription
The UK shows why it is one of the most tolerant countries there is
27 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination Tags: British politics, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Vaughan Gething has just been elected as First Minister of Wales. He is black (his mother is Zambian) and this makes him the first black leader of a country in Europe. It also means that none of the four leaders of the UK are white men. And I (especially) have nothing against white men, but […]
The UK shows why it is one of the most tolerant countries there is
Universal Basic Income: The Freiman-Caplan Debate
27 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: child poverty, family poverty, negative income tax
As expected, I really enjoyed the Institute for Liberal Studies’ UBI debate between myself and Chris Freiman. Chris was definitely the least enthusiastic UBI supporter I’ve debated. All the way to the point of, “Given all the truly promising ideas we have, and the downside risks of the UBI, perhaps I shouldn’t even publicly defend…
Universal Basic Income: The Freiman-Caplan Debate
DON BRASH: Terminated for saying “no” to cultural training – what’s next? (UPDATED)
26 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: affirmative action, Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
The following is written by Don Brash in his capacity as Hobson’s Pledge Trustee. As I shared with you previously, the Real Estate Authority (REA) said they were going to cancel real estate agent Janet Dickson’s licence for five years because she would not take a compulsory Māori culture course. Then, the real estate company…
DON BRASH: Terminated for saying “no” to cultural training – what’s next? (UPDATED)
*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*
26 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, law and economics, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
That is the title of the new Judith Butler book, focusing mostly on trans issues. To be clear, on most practical issues concerning trans, I side with the social conservatives. For instance, I don’t think trans women have a right to compete in women’s weightlifting contests. And I have not been happy with how many […]
*Who’s Afraid of Gender?*
Eat the Rich: Warren Plan Would Impose Wealth Tax, Captivity Tax, and $100 Billion for Increasing Tax Audits
23 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic growth, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
The wealth tax is back. We have previously discussed the constitutional and policy concerns surrounding the push by Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) to introduce a wealth tax that would start with billionaires. It would not likely end there. The law would also apply the same type of California approach to wealthy families […]
Eat the Rich: Warren Plan Would Impose Wealth Tax, Captivity Tax, and $100 Billion for Increasing Tax Audits
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
21 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: affirmative action, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
As you know, I go back and forth on the question of affirmative action for college and professional-school admissions, and even after I thought I’d settled on a view (i.e., give some preference to minorities among those equally qualified for admission), it still keeps changing. After I read the long New York Times piece below […]
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex
14 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
On March 8, I wrote a critique of this article, which appeared in American Scientist (click sceenshot to read): When I wrote my piece, I had grown weary of people making the same tired old arguments against the sex binary, arguments like saying that sex isn’t binary because male orangutans come in two forms (“flanged” […]
A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex
An Open Letter to Nobel-laureate Economist Angus Deaton
13 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, unemployment Tags: creative destruction, free trade, tariffs
TweetProf. Angus Deaton Princeton University Prof. Deaton: Over the years I’ve learned much from your writings, and I regard your 2013 The Great Escape as one of the most important books published in the past 15 years. So I was quite surprised and disappointed to read that you, as you say, are now “much more…
An Open Letter to Nobel-laureate Economist Angus Deaton
Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments
13 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Really? Do I have to rebut the same arguments about the definition of biological sex again? Well, here in American Scientist is a group of two anthropologists, one anatomist, and a gender-and-sexuality-studies professor, all telling us that there is no clear definition of sex, using the same tired old arguments to rebut the gamete-based sex […]
Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments
The RCT Agenda
12 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, economics of information, economics of regulation, experimental economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, managerial economics, market efficiency, Marxist economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: The fatal conceit
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
What media bias looks like
11 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: marriage and divorce
Lindsay Mitchell writes – When news media took a pummelling last week at both TVNZ and TV3, a number of critics said part of the reason ratings are poor is the public don’t trust them. The public believe that the media is biased. The print media is similarly suspect. An article in Stuff on Sunday […]
What media bias looks like
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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