Below is my column in the New York Post on President Joe Biden’s call to reform the Supreme Court by ending lifetime tenure for Supreme Court justices. Here is the column:
Biden Abandons the Court . . . and His Last Inviolate Principle
Biden Abandons the Court . . . and His Last Inviolate Principle
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, constitutional law
The Minimum Wage, Rent Control, and Vacancies or Who Searches?
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, minimum wage, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, unemployment, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, regressive left, rent control
In an interesting new paper Federal Reserve economists Marianna Kudlyak, Murat Tasci and Didem Tüzemen look at what happens to job vacancy postings when the minimum wage increases. The vacancy data in our analysis come from the job openings data from the Conference Board as a part of its Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) data series. […]
The Minimum Wage, Rent Control, and Vacancies or Who Searches?
Venezuela under “Brutal Capitalism”
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, growth disasters, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, resource economics Tags: Venezuela
Jeffrey Clemens points us to some bonkers editorializing in the NYTimes coverage of the likely stolen election in Venezuela. The piece starts out reasonably enough: Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, was declared the winner of the country’s tumultuous presidential election early Monday, despite enormous momentum from an opposition movement that had been convinced this was […]
Venezuela under “Brutal Capitalism”
Rent Control Reduces New Development: Bug or Feature?
30 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, regressive left, rent control
The minimum wage will tend to increase unemployment among low-skill workers, often minorities. To many people that’s an argument against the minimum wage. But to progressives at the opening of the 20th century that was an argument for the minimum wage–progressive’s demanded minimum wages to get women and racial minorities out of the work force. […]
Rent Control Reduces New Development: Bug or Feature?
Karen Chhour gives her response on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into …
29 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
PETER WILLLIAMS: The costs of Te Mana o te Wai are worse than we thought
29 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics
Last month I wrote about the Government’s failure to repeal David Parker’s mad ‘te Mana o te Wai’ (literally meaning the mana of the water) requirements. A few days ago, the research team at the Taxpayers’ Union were sent the details on how the rules are playing it out in my local area: Otago. While…
PETER WILLLIAMS: The costs of Te Mana o te Wai are worse than we thought
Tikanga, law and information asymmetry
27 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
Justice Joe Williams in his 2013 paper Lex Aoteoroa made a case for Māori tikanga being recognized as New Zealand’s “first law”. Tikanga existed prior to New Zealand’s development of a legal system based on the British model. Without written language pre-European Māori tikanga is not well documented. However, its customs and norms governed, for […]
Tikanga, law and information asymmetry
Not a good case for a CBDC
27 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, financial economics, law and economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: digital currency
The Reserve Bank’s latest round of consultation on a possible central bank digital currency (CBDC) closes today. The thick and probably expensive (at least one of the documents was produced jointly with the consultancy firm Accenture) set of consultation documents came up a few months ago. I thought I had run out of time to […]
Not a good case for a CBDC
The Cancer Society is racist? Really?
26 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, health economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Graham Adams writes on the media’s mission to demonise NZ’s health system — Not long after I began treatment in 2015 for an aggressive leukaemia, I was phoned by a representative of the Cancer Society. A hospital oncology staffer had strongly recommended I give the organisation my name and contact details so I did. I […]
The Cancer Society is racist? Really?
Cheatling Responsibility
26 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: 2024 presidential election, crime and punishment, law and order
No sooner does this blog write about shitty government bureaucrats refusing to do the right thing, and even doubling down on the wrong things, than one of them does the right thing. Cheatle Resigns and for Good Cause. That’s Kimberly Cheatle, head of the United States Secret Service (USSS), finally taking responsibility for her outfit […]
Cheatling Responsibility
Just Stop Oil Activists Disrupt Flights, Demand Fossil Fuel End by 2030
25 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, law and economics, transport economics Tags: climate activists
…the Heathrow arrestees may find the UK justice system will be less forgiving than their previous experiences.
Just Stop Oil Activists Disrupt Flights, Demand Fossil Fuel End by 2030
Anti-Free Speech Laws Hit New Heights in Italy: Reporter Fined for “Body Shaming” Prime Minister Meloni
25 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics, property rights Tags: free speech, Italy, political correctness, regressive left
I have long been critical of the erosion of free speech in Italy and other Western European countries, including the use of criminal libel laws against critics of the police or government. This week a Milan court has ordered a journalist to pay Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni damages of 5,000 euros ($5,465) for making […]
Anti-Free Speech Laws Hit New Heights in Italy: Reporter Fined for “Body Shaming” Prime Minister Meloni
“Let’s Hope Today’s Events Inspire Others”: Rutgers Professor Under Fire for Posting on Trump Assassination Attempt
24 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, crime and punishment, free speech, law and order, political correctness, regressive left
We have been following the controversies surrounding professors commenting on the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Some of those responses have ranged from celebrations to spreading bizarre conspiracy theories. The latest controversy concerns Rutgers University Writing Program Assistant Teaching Professor Tracy Budd, who posted a Facebook message saying ”Let’s hope today’s events inspire […]
“Let’s Hope Today’s Events Inspire Others”: Rutgers Professor Under Fire for Posting on Trump Assassination Attempt
Climate Criminals
24 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
By Paul Homewood . A new organisation called Climate Criminals is calling on the International Criminal Court to bring charges against a large number of businessmen and others from what they call the polluter industrial complex, who they deem to be guilty of various crimes against the climate. They are clearly a bunch of loons, […]
Climate Criminals
Dawkins talks to Kathleen Stock
24 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Here we have a 55-minute (remote) conversation between Richard Dawkins and Kathleen Stock conducted during the “Dissident Dialogues” conference in NYC last May. Here’s a précis of Stock’s background from Wikipedia: Kathleen Mary Linn Stock OBE is a British philosopher and writer. She was a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex until 2021. She has published academic […]
Dawkins talks to Kathleen Stock
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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