Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
26 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
From a big-picture economic perspective, I worry most about the damage of high tax burdens on innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment. Those are things that generate enormous benefits for society, yet also things that are very sensitive to bad tax policy (specifically high marginal tax rates and the tax code’s bias against saving and investment). Sadly, […]
Part I: Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
25 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
A couple of weeks ago the editor of Central Banking magazine (something of an house journal for central bankers, and for whom I’ve done book reviews for some years) invited me to write a fairly full article for a non-NZ audience on the extraordinary events of recent months. Having been so caught up in the […]
Article for Central Banking magazine on Orr/Quigley/Willis saga, and lessons
24 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, human capital, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - USA Tags: economics of immigration
From 1990 to 2010, rising numbers of H-1B holders caused 30–50 percent of all productivity growth in the US economy. This means that the jobs and wages of most Americans depend in some measure on these workers. The specialized workers who enter on this visa fuel high-tech, high-growth sectors of the 21st century economy with skills like computer […]
Michael Clemens on H1-B visas
23 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, human capital, labour economics, macroeconomics, occupational choice Tags: forecasting errors
23 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic growth, economic history, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, macroeconomics Tags: real business cycle theory
17 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: European Union
I put a lot of focus on “convergence” and “divergence” because economic theory says rich countries should not grow faster than poor countries. So when there are examples of divergence, especially when looking at decades of data, we can learn very important lessons about economic policy. Those lessons, in every single case, teach us that […]
The United States vs. Europe, Part IV
17 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, Edward Prescott, health economics, macroeconomics
15 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of education, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden
Maybe it’s just because I live in Minnesota, a state where the differences between immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Finland are still apparent in the names of towns and the surnames of people. But when I run into people who would prefer that the US distribution of income be more equal, they often point to…
Predistribution, Not Redistribution, in the Nordic Countries
13 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in economics of bureaucracy, financial economics, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
A couple of nights ago, shortly after the Minister and Treasury finally released the suite of texts between Willis and Rennie, ZB featured interviewer Heather du Plessis-Allan talking to Herald journalist Jenee Tibshraeny (who has been over the Orr/Quigley/Willis saga issue from day one). There wasn’t anything concrete that was new in the conversation but […]
Outstanding questions
12 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, currency unions, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics Tags: monetary policy
09 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, macroeconomics, politics - USA
Five questions I’ll be bringing to the conference this week
Abundance 2025 – Preview
07 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, entrepreneurship, financial economics, macroeconomics Tags: China, Japan
TweetThe folks at Unleash Prosperity share a chart that shows that Japanese industrial policy – which we Americans a few decades ago were warned by oh so very many pundits, professors, and politicians left, right, and center would propel Japan’s economy to great heights and leave America’s in the dust – was a curse to…
Some Links
01 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability
Don Brash writes – In recent years, when addressing Rotary and other audiences, I often talk about the five big challenges facing New Zealand – persistently slow growth in productivity, and therefore in income levels; ridiculously unaffordable house prices; the increasing division of our society into those with a Maori ancestor and those without; the […]
Do rising house prices damage economic growth?
28 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, development economics, economic growth, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, monetary economics, Public Choice, unemployment Tags: Argentina
Javier Milei has generated amazingly good results in just 20 months. But more reform is needed to undo the damage of 80 years of Peronism, which is why I explain that Argentina’s mid-term elections will be very important. Milei wants to turn Argentina into the world’s freest economy. That won’t be possible so long as […]
The Most Important Election(s) of 2025
26 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: 2026 general election
Chris Trotter writes – “There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”. Those words, taken from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, are often quoted in the context of politicians facing the hard choice between doing it now, or not doing it at all.
If the election was scheduled for next week, Hipkins could win – but (luckily for Luxon) it’s next year
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
The truth about the great wind power fraud - we're not here to debate the wind industry, we're here to destroy it.
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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