New Rule: Capitalism Cells | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
17 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows
Did the Defense Make Prison More Likely for Hunter Under the Sentencing Guidelines?
16 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
For months, I have been expressing disbelief that Hunter Biden and his defense team were going to take the gun case to trial. Even on the eve of the trial, I thought that the defense might snap into sanity and plead out the case. The reason was simple. A guilty plea would have materially improved […]
Did the Defense Make Prison More Likely for Hunter Under the Sentencing Guidelines?
Does Parliament also need to define taonga?
14 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law
Piers Seed writes about the current definition of taonga: According to the Waitangi Tribunal the definition of taonga is: “Treasures’: ‘taonga’. As submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal concerning the Māori language have made clear, ‘taonga’ refers to all dimensions of a tribal group’s estate, material and non-material – heirlooms and wahi tapu (sacred places), ancestral lore…
Does Parliament also need to define taonga?
Hunter Comes Up A Donut Short of a Defense in Delaware
13 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in the New York Post on the conviction of Hunter Biden in Delaware and how his nullification strategy may have backfired. As discussed below, empathy can turn into insult when jurors are given patently implausible theories by the defense. Hunter finally found a group of people who were unwilling to see […]
Hunter Comes Up A Donut Short of a Defense in Delaware
“I Take Responsibility”: Pelosi Admits Fault for the Lack of Security Precautions on January 6th
12 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election
For years, some of us have asked why the Capitol was so poorly prepared for the January 6th riot. As part of the coverage on that day, I remarked at the start of the protests that I had never seen the Capitol so thinly protected for a major demonstration. Some paths to the Capitol were…
“I Take Responsibility”: Pelosi Admits Fault for the Lack of Security Precautions on January 6th
Three Strikes might have kept this victim alive
12 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
The Herald reports: A recidivist offender who shot a small-time Auckland drug dealer while robbing him of his stash and recent gaming machine jackpot had been on electronically monitored post-prison release conditions at the time of the murder – but had cut off his tracking device. That factor of Benjamin “Dekoy” Mcintosh’s murder in June 2022 was highlighted for the […]
Three Strikes might have kept this victim alive
Can Democracy Survive the “Defenders of Democracy”?
11 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 US presidential election, 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in The Hill on the latest calls to protect democracy with distinctly undemocratic measures. Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton insisted that the 2024 election was our D-Day, suggesting that voters would have to fight the GOP like the Nazis in World War II. Clinton previously called on Europe to censor American […]
Can Democracy Survive the “Defenders of Democracy”?
On electing gangsters
10 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, law and economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: economics of corruption, India
In India it’s common for politicians to have criminal cases against them. Why do voters vote for criminals? One compelling explanation provided by political scientist Milan Vaishnav is that voters often care less about their represntative’s ability to deliver broad-based development or draft good laws, and more about the effectiveness at helping them access limited […]
Haan, goonda hai, magar hamara goonda hai
Will Hunter Take the Stand? He May Want to Think Twice Before Checking That Box
09 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, economics of prohibition, gun control
This weekend, the Hunter Biden team is reportedly debating whether to have him take the stand on Monday, a move rife with risk. Most criminal defendants avoid such appearances given the potential damage of a withering cross examination. Those risks were evident in the recent testimony of Hunter’s daughter, Naomi, which backfired badly on key […]
Will Hunter Take the Stand? He May Want to Think Twice Before Checking That Box
More impatient people are more likely to commit crime
09 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economics of crime, economics of education, labour economics, law and economics, occupational choice Tags: cognitive psychology, crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
Gary Becker’s famous model of rational crime suggests that criminals weigh up the costs and benefits of crime (and engage in a criminal act if the benefits outweigh the costs). Time preferences matter in this model, because the benefits of a criminal act are usually realised immediately, whereas the greatest costs (including the penalties of…
More impatient people are more likely to commit crime
Laptop Deniers in Delaware: The Media Shrugs as the Biden Laptop is Authenticated in Federal Court
08 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in Fox.com on the authentication of Hunter Biden laptop in the Delaware trial. The government has denounced the Russian disinformation claims as a “conspiracy theory” and put on evidence that there is no evidence of tampering with the laptop. The FBI declared the laptop to be “real” and “authentic” and the […]
Laptop Deniers in Delaware: The Media Shrugs as the Biden Laptop is Authenticated in Federal Court
Just Ask Mookie: Hunter Biden Has No Defense Other Than Nullification
06 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in the New York Post on the first day of testimony in the trial of Hunter Biden. Every claim of the defense seemed to collapse in the first two days of the trial. The defense argued that Hunter did not check the box on the gun form, so the prosecutors called […]
Just Ask Mookie: Hunter Biden Has No Defense Other Than Nullification
Is Hunter Biden Pursuing a Jury Nullification Strategy?
05 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in The Hill on the start of the Hunter Biden trial and the elements of a classic jury nullification strategy by the defense. It is not clear that it will work in an otherwise open-and-shut case, but it might. What is clear is that it may be all that Biden has […]
Is Hunter Biden Pursuing a Jury Nullification Strategy?
Stephen Tierney: The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024: Necessary remedy or unwarranted interference with judicial independence?
04 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics Tags: British constitutional law
For the first time, by way of the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act (“the Act”), Parliament has legislated to quash criminal convictions. In this post I will argue that, no matter how understandable, indeed laudable, the intention behind this legislation, in its haste to offer a speedy and comprehensive correction to mass injustice, Parliament has crossed […]
Stephen Tierney: The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024: Necessary remedy or unwarranted interference with judicial independence?
Pushback on Pessimism About Randomized Controlled Trials
03 Jun 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economics of crime, law and economics Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
Back in January, I posted about an article that was getting some attention in my world. Megan T. Stevenson is an active researcher in the criminal-justice-and-economics literature. She argues that when you look at the published studies that use randomized control trial methods to evaluate ways of reducing crime, most of the studies don’t show a…
Pushback on Pessimism About Randomized Controlled Trials
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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