Ele Ludemann writes – Minister for Children Karen Chhour is putting children first: Hon KAREN CHHOUR: I move, That the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the bill.
Putting children first
Putting children first
26 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: child protection, economics of fertility
The Great Post-Pandemic Population Shift
26 May 2024 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, population economics, transport economics, urban economics Tags: land supply
A little more than half of America’s incorporated cities collectively lost 2.7 million residents between 2020 and 2023, according to estimates released by the Census Bureau earlier this week. New York City alone lost almost 500,000 residents, or 5.5 percent of its population, while the next 20 biggest losers together … Continue reading →
The Great Post-Pandemic Population Shift
The cost of colonialism
26 May 2024 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, income redistribution, law and economics, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics Tags: China
ROGER PARTRIDGE: The Tikanga Challenge for Law Schools, the Rule of Law – and Parliament
24 May 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights
Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law. Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum. AUT Law School…
ROGER PARTRIDGE: The Tikanga Challenge for Law Schools, the Rule of Law – and Parliament
New article by some middling economists about Biden Admin. merger policy
24 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, industrial organisation, law and economics Tags: competition law, merger law enforcement
DETERRENCE IN MERGER REVIEW: LIKELY EFFECTS OF RECENT U.S. POLICY CHANGESBy Luke M. Froeb, Steven T. Tschantz & Gregory J. WerdenWe model likely effects of Biden Administration changes in merger enforcement on five discrete decisions in the review process. We find that the policy changes can be expected to stop many bad mergers but only at the cost…
New article by some middling economists about Biden Admin. merger policy
Living in sin
23 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage, law and economics Tags: economics of fertility
How serious is an MP’s failure to declare $178k in donations?
23 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s being explained as an “inadvertent error”. However, National MP David MacLeod’s excuse for failing to disclose $178,000 in donations for his election campaign last year is not necessarily enough to prevent some serious consequences. A Police investigation is now likely, and the result of his non-disclosure could even see him […]
How serious is an MP’s failure to declare $178k in donations?
Biden’s Voldemortian Theory of Privilege: The President Whose Voice Must Not Be Heard
21 May 2024 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 curious claim of executive privilege over the audiotape from President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. It is the first time that I know of where the content of a presidential conversation was treated as unprivileged but not audio of the conversation claimed as […]
Biden’s Voldemortian Theory of Privilege: The President Whose Voice Must Not Be Heard
RODNEY HIDE: My Journey
19 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
It’s been awhile since I have written. I have tried. But I have not had anything useful to say. My concern has always been public policy. What should the government do for the best result? My writing on the government was technical. Here’s what the government is doing. Here’s what they hope to achieve. Here…
RODNEY HIDE: My Journey
TVNZ hīkoi documentary needs a sequel
19 May 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economic history, law and economics, movies, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: native title
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account of 2004’s hīkoi from Cape […]
TVNZ hīkoi documentary needs a sequel
Getting Played: The Demolition of Cohen on Cross Examination Reveals “The Grift” to a New York Jury
18 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, 2024 presidential election

Below is my column in Fox.com on the approaching end of the Trump trial in Manhattan. With the dramatic implosion of Michael Cohen on the stand on Thursday with the exposure of another alleged lie told under oath, even hosts and commentators on CNN are now criticizing the prosecution and doubting the basis for any […]
Getting Played: The Demolition of Cohen on Cross Examination Reveals “The Grift” to a New York Jury
Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?
17 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, managerial economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle, theory of the firm, transport economics
The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people regard as worst case. It’s no wonder Ministry of Transport officials […]
Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?
HENRY ERGAS: Universities offer course in self-serving cowardice
17 May 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, laws of war, politics - Australia, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, useful idiots, war against terror
When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge could possibly arise: to be a hypocrite one has to know…
HENRY ERGAS: Universities offer course in self-serving cowardice
No, President Biden Did Not Commit an Impeachable Offense in Freezing the Arms Shipment to Israel
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, law and economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: 2024 presidential election, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror

Below is my column in USA Today on the effort to impeach President Joe Biden over his freezing of arms shipments to Israel. While one can strongly disagree with the policy or the motivation behind the action, it is not a high crime and misdemeanor in my view. Here is the column:
No, President Biden Did Not Commit an Impeachable Offense in Freezing the Arms Shipment to Israel
Netherlands government about to be formed, per reports
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics Tags: economics of immigration, The Netherlands
It is being reported (e.g., Politico, FT) that a coalition government is soon to be announced for the Netherlands, which a general election in late November. The government would consist of the following parties, with their seats noted: The far-right Freedom Party (PVV, 37), led by Geert Wilders, the center-right VVD (24), the Christian democratic/anti-establishment […]
Netherlands government about to be formed, per reports


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