NewstalkZb reports: The derelict Reading Cinema complex on Wellington’s Courtenay Place has finally been sold, with a local developer snapping up the 1.5-hectare plot. The property was at the centre of a controversial deal between Wellington City Council and Reading International last year, after the council tried to buy the land under the quake-prone building […]
A Reading deal that doesn’t cost ratepayers
A Reading deal that doesn’t cost ratepayers
08 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle
Meta Culpa: Zuckerberg Joins Musk in the Global Fight for Free Speech
08 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, law and economics, liberalism, politics - USA Tags: creative destruction, free speech, political correctness, regressive left

Below is my column in Fox.com on the potentially historic change in policy at Meta to restore free speech protections. As one of the longest and loudest critics of the company over its censorship history, it is admittedly hard to trust. However, an alliance of Mark Zuckerberg with Elon Musk could prove the most important […]
Meta Culpa: Zuckerberg Joins Musk in the Global Fight for Free Speech
California’s Exxon Lawsuit Is Guided More By Symbols Than Actions
08 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: recycling
The lawsuit also seems to neglect the enormous benefits that plastics have brought to ordinary people, including Californians. Despite ongoing challenges with recycling, plastics are attractive because they are extremely versatile, cheap to manufacture, and possess many unique properties that make them preferable to alternative materials that are not always as practical to use or even better for the environment.
California’s Exxon Lawsuit Is Guided More By Symbols Than Actions
Justin Trudeau Had an Epiphany and Endorsed My Doctrine on Prorogation
07 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, law and economics, politics, Public Choice Tags: Canada, constitutional law

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, the Prime Minister gave to me his second tactical prorogation and endorsed what I had written in 2011. Introduction At around 10:45 on the morning of 6 January 2025 – the Feast of Epiphany and the Day of the Three Kings – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revealed that he […]
Justin Trudeau Had an Epiphany and Endorsed My Doctrine on Prorogation
Forcing people to choose between reality and trans rights is a bad idea
07 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Jerry Coyne writes: When I wrote yesterday about my critique of Kat Grant’s “What is a woman?” piece, a critique published on the Freedom from Religion Foundation’s (FFRF) website, I had no idea that what I wrote was being removed by the FFRF at that moment! … One part of what Coyne wrote resonated with me: The first […]
Forcing people to choose between reality and trans rights is a bad idea
JOHN MENDZELA: Submission on the Treaty Principles Bill
07 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, discrimination, economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law, racial discrimination

4 January, 2025 Justice Committee Parliament of New Zealand Dear Committee Members, I wish to make a submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill that you will be considering in the near future. As the map below demonstrates, I have independently consulted on governance and management in dozens of diverse nations. Many…
JOHN MENDZELA: Submission on the Treaty Principles Bill
Submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill
07 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
By Dr Peter Winsley I support the Bill, despite its weaknesses. For expositional clarity, in my submission I use the term “te Tiriti” rather than “the Treaty.” This acknowledges that about 540 rangatira signed te Tiriti versus about 39 who signed the English language document.to a Context is important. Te Tiriti was an international treaty […]
Submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill
Ruth Richardson on the Treaty Principles Bill
07 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, discrimination, economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
Ruth Richardson’s submission on the Treaty Principles Bill is excellent. I’ve copied it below.
Ruth Richardson on the Treaty Principles Bill
DON BRASH: DAME TARIANA TURIA – MAY SHE REST IN PEACE
07 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in labour economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
I didn’t have the privilege of working with Dame Tariana in any substantive way but I developed a very high regard for her integrity and commitment to the wellbeing of New Zealanders, and especially Maori New Zealanders of course. The National Party did very well in the 2005 general election, increasing its Parliamentary representation from…
DON BRASH: DAME TARIANA TURIA – MAY SHE REST IN PEACE
The Trump Sentencing: Curtain to Fall on Merchan’s Hamlet on the Hudson
07 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election

Below is my column in the Hill on the sentencing this week of President-Elect Donald Trump in Manhattan. Judge Juan Merchan waited to schedule the hearing for just ten days before the inauguration, limiting the time available to appeal. His order suggests that, if there is any interruption or delay in his sentencing, he might […]
The Trump Sentencing: Curtain to Fall on Merchan’s Hamlet on the Hudson
California Rings in the New Year with New Push to Block Voter Identification
05 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: 2024 presidential election

In California, Democrats are ringing in the New Year with a new push against voter identification. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has been hammering Huntington Beach because the city recently amended its municipal laws to require basic voter identification. While voters overwhelmingly support voter identification, Democrats in California recently passed a law making it a […]
California Rings in the New Year with New Push to Block Voter Identification
European Energy Firm Ordered to Remove 84 Wind Turbines from Osage Lands In Oklahoma
04 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: wind power
Energy Expert Robert Bryce: “It is a colossal black eye for the wind industry, which has collected tens of billions of dollars in federal tax credits by claiming its landscape-blighting, bird-and-bat-killing, property-value-destroying turbines are an essential part of the effort to avert catastrophic climate change.”
European Energy Firm Ordered to Remove 84 Wind Turbines from Osage Lands In Oklahoma
Government moves to strengthen free speech on campus
03 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Penny Simmonds announced: Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse approach,” Ms […]
Government moves to strengthen free speech on campus
Atheist Orthodoxy: The Freedom From Religion Foundation Censors Scientist Over Transgender Views
03 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, Freedom of religion, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is under fire this week after it censored a leading scientist, atheist, and board member, Jerry Coyne, a professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Chicago. The FFRF took down a column in which Coyne published a column titled “Biology is not bigotry,” a critique of an earlier […]
Atheist Orthodoxy: The Freedom From Religion Foundation Censors Scientist Over Transgender Views
DON BRASH: TIME TO SUBMIT ON THE TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL FAST RUNNING OUT
03 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
This Parliament is being asked to pass a significant number of important Bills during the course of its three-year life – Bills related to resource management planning, to infrastructure, to education and to health. But few Bills are of greater significance than the Treaty Principles Bill which David Seymour has sponsored. Why? Because it goes…
DON BRASH: TIME TO SUBMIT ON THE TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL FAST RUNNING OUT
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