The aphorism “Where there is smoke there is fire” suggests that if there are signs or symptoms of a situation or problem, then there must be an underlying cause or reality. However, relying on this saying can sometimes be fallacious, primarily due to the hasty generalization or false cause fallacy it may imply. 1. Hasty […]
“Where there is smoke there is fire”
“Where there is smoke there is fire”
23 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, Karl Popper, law and economics Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science
The End of Shock and Awe: How the Justice Department Made the Case for the J6 Pardons
22 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in the New York Post on the pardoning of the January 6th defendants by President Donald Trump. The scope of the pardon appears broader than some had hoped. What is clear is that any such relief should not extend to violent actors, particularly those who attacked police officers. However, the Justice […]
The End of Shock and Awe: How the Justice Department Made the Case for the J6 Pardons
A pessimist’s reasons to be optimistic in 2025
22 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand
The year ahead: Oliver Hartwich reflects on nearly five decades of living through technological transformation – and finds a giant wellspring of optimism Oliver Hartwich writes – When Newsroom’s editor Jonathan Milne invited me to write one of two special pieces for the summer break, I faced quite the conundrum. My options were to either […]
A pessimist’s reasons to be optimistic in 2025
DON BRASH: Equality is not a dirty word
21 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, health economics, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law, racial discrimination
Surely, in a liberal democracy, there are few words more chilling to read written in earnest than the “flawed concept of ‘equality’”. But there they were, in print, in an opinion piece by the National Urban Māori Authority’s Lady Tureiti Moxon published in the NZ Herald on Tuesday last week. The Treaty Principles Bill has…
DON BRASH: Equality is not a dirty word
“Leading Legal Constitutional Scholars”: Biden Again Cites Liberal Professors for an Absurd Constitutional Claim
20 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - USA Tags: constitutional law
In his final week as president, Joe Biden again invoked liberal professors to justify a plainly absurd constitutional argument by declaring that the 28th Amendment is now ratified. By invoking “leading legal constitutional scholars,” Biden only added redundancy to absurdity in claiming that the Equal Rights Amendment is now law. Unfortunately, this pattern has been […]
“Leading Legal Constitutional Scholars”: Biden Again Cites Liberal Professors for an Absurd Constitutional Claim
I See Dead Amendments: President Biden Issues Otherworldly ERA Declaration
19 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: constitutional law, sex discrimination
Below is my column in Fox.com on President Joe Biden’s last-minute declaration that the 28th Amendment is now part of the United States Constitution. It appears that our president sees dead amendments, but that is not the greatest thing that should worry you. Here is the column:
I See Dead Amendments: President Biden Issues Otherworldly ERA Declaration
Bill Maher’s latest monologue: the L.A. fires and progressive politics
19 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of natural disasters, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: climate alarmism
After a vacation hiatus, Bill Maher is back with a monologue called, “New rules: political firestorm.” Here he parses blame for the L.A. fires between unavoidable causes (no rain, lots of brush) and avoidable ones (blockheaded politicians). The latter, he says, involves cuts in the firse-department budget, stolen or nonfunctional hydrants, empty reservoirs, exposed power […]
Bill Maher’s latest monologue: the L.A. fires and progressive politics
Quotation of the Day…
19 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of love and marriage, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, unemployment
Tweet… is from page 53 of the late, great Harold Demsetz’s excellent 2008 book, From Economic Man to Economic System: Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus differed in their forecasts of mankind’s future. Smith (1776), in his Wealth of Nations, offered an optimistic view, basing this on his understanding of the new economic system that began…
Quotation of the Day…
CA gov prevents voluntary wealth-creating transactions
17 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights
From REASON: On January 7, Newsom issued a state of emergency as fires spread in Los Angeles County. On Tuesday, Newsom signed Executive Order N-7-25, prohibiting buyers for three months from “making any unsolicited offer to an owner of real property” in fire-affected areas “for an amount less than the fair market value of the…
CA gov prevents voluntary wealth-creating transactions
Margaret Thatcher, Michael Curley, and the 19th Theorem of Government
16 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, financial economics, fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, regulation, rentseeking
In this 12-second video, Margaret Thatcher is talking about the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, but her warning has universal application. And when I say her warning has universal application, I’m not joking. Politicians generally can’t resist the temptation to buy votes. And I fear that this can and will happen at all levels […]
Margaret Thatcher, Michael Curley, and the 19th Theorem of Government
The Evacuation of Auschwitz and the Death March
16 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, World War II
From January 1945, in the final months of the Third Reich, approximately 250,000 concentration camp inmates perished during death marches and in numerous acts of mass slaughter. These prisoners were mercilessly murdered by SS guards, army and police units, and, in many cases, by civilian mobs as they passed through towns and villages in Germany,Austria […]
The Evacuation of Auschwitz and the Death March
Jacksonian Obstruction: Smith Explains How He Was Planning to Circumvent the Decision in Fischer
15 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election
The release of the first part of Jack Smith’s report at midnight was the special counsel’s version of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision: we had seen it before. Putting aside the public filings where Smith fought to get this information out before the election, there was little new in the report. What the report did […]
Jacksonian Obstruction: Smith Explains How He Was Planning to Circumvent the Decision in Fischer
Assigning Responsibility for the Tragic Los Angeles Fires
15 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, urban economics
Blaming climate change for these disasters only deflects attention away from actual causes. Fabrications linking rising CO2 to wildfires should be ignored. Governments must employ solutions that will truly protect people and their property from the unstoppable, natural conditions enabling devastating fires.
Assigning Responsibility for the Tragic Los Angeles Fires
Winston Peters: “Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi – Deletion” Bill…
15 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, discrimination, economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
The New Zealand Centre for Political Research dipped into the Parliamentary archives and retrieved Winston Peters’ speech on the first reading of New Zealand First’s “Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi – Deletion” Bill on 8 June 2005 Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) : I move, That the Principles of the Treaty […]
Winston Peters: “Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi – Deletion” Bill…
Martha
15 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, law and economics
Martha (Netflix): A compelling bio on Martha Stewart. Her divorce from Andrew Stewart happened more than 30 years ago so the intensity of her anger and bitterness comes as a surprise. With barely concealed rage, she recounts his affairs and how poorly he treated her. “But didn’t you have an affair before he did?” asks […]
Martha
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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