So loud are the squeals from the likes of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer against the new appointments to the Waitangi Tribunal that I can only assume that Minister Tama Potaka has got things right. And that the new members are likely to shake the organisation into some sort of compliance with its mission that was set out…
MICHAEL BASSETT: REFORMING THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
MICHAEL BASSETT: REFORMING THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
27 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law, racial discrimination
The Energy Storage Fiasco — How Soon Will It Be Abandoned?
27 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: batteries
It seems that the frequency of these spontaneous fires increases with the size of the battery. Can this problem be solved? I have no idea. But it certainly has not been solved yet.
The Energy Storage Fiasco — How Soon Will It Be Abandoned?
“No Consistent Patterns:” Scientists Find No Evidence that Closing Schools Materially Reduced Transmission
27 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of information, health economics, liberalism, politics - USA Tags: economics of pandemics, free speech
For years, scientists and commentators who questioned COVID policies were censored, blacklisted, and canceled across the country. Many of these dissenting views have since been vindicated from the lab origins theory to the lack of efficacy of surgical masks to the opposition to the closure of schools. Now, a new study in the Journal of […]
“No Consistent Patterns:” Scientists Find No Evidence that Closing Schools Materially Reduced Transmission
Civil War in Finland and Ukraine I THE GREAT WAR Week 183
26 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Russian revolution, World War I
We Are Close To Blackouts Now–But What About 2030?
26 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics, climate activists, climate alarmism
We will no doubt muddle through again, but nobody in the media seems to be pointing to the elephant in the room; the fact that demand for electricity will start to rise rapidly as we transition to heat pumps and EVs.
We Are Close To Blackouts Now–But What About 2030?
Daron Acemoglu expects only a tiny macroeconomic impact of AI
26 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, unemployment
It would be fair to say that 2024 Nobel Prize winner Daron Acemoglu has been a bit of a sceptic about the impacts of generative AI (for example, see here). This scepticism is exemplified in a new paper forthcoming in the journal Economic Policy (ungated earlier version here). Acemoglu first notes that:Some experts believe that truly…
Daron Acemoglu expects only a tiny macroeconomic impact of AI
A Wartime Natural Experiment About Copyright
26 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, defence economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, war and peace Tags: patents and copyrights, World War II
One of the hardest questions in copyright policy is: “What would have happened otherwise?” When Disney lobbies for longer copyright terms or academic publishers defend high subscription fees, we struggle to evaluate their claims because we can’t observe the counterfactual. What would happen to creativity and innovation if we shortened copyright terms or lowered prices? […]
A Wartime Natural Experiment About Copyright
Net Zero Is Unstoppable–Says Ed Miliband
26 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics, climate activists, climate alarmism
By Paul Homewood Justin Rowlatt is not the only deluded clown, when it comes to Net Zero. The idiot Miliband has warned President Trump that Net Zero is unstoppable. The Telegraph report: Ed Miliband has warned Donald Trump that the rise of net zero is “unstoppable”, just hours after the President vowed to […]
Net Zero Is Unstoppable–Says Ed Miliband
Barrett-Lite: The Supreme Court Takes Up Major New Religion Clause Case With One Notable Exception
26 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of religion, politics - USA Tags: Freedom of religion, School choice
On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to review a potentially blockbuster religion clause case in Oklahoma Charter School Board v. Drummond. However, there is a catch. While the lawyers representing St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School may need every vote they can get in this heaving contested area, they may have to prevail without Justice […]
Barrett-Lite: The Supreme Court Takes Up Major New Religion Clause Case With One Notable Exception
Quotation of the Day…
25 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, industrial organisation, Milton Friedman
Tweet… is from page 224 of Milton & Rose Friedman’s great 1980 book, Free To Choose: What about the claim that consumers can be led by the nose by advertising? Our answer is that they can’t – as numerous expensive advertising fiascoes testify. One of the greatest duds of all time was the Edsel automobile,…
Quotation of the Day…
Koonin: Reckless Claim of Climate Emergency
25 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
Transcript Hubris is a Greek word that means dangerously overconfident. Based on my research, hubris fairly describes our current response to the issue of climate change. Here’s what many people believe: One: The planet is warming catastrophically because of certain human behaviors. Two: Thanks to powerful computers we can project what the climate will be […]
Koonin: Reckless Claim of Climate Emergency
How to Visit India for Normies
25 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, international economics Tags: India
In the comments to my post, India has Too Few Tourists, many people worried about the food, the touts and the poverty. Many of these comments are mistaken or apply only if you are traveling to India on the cheap as an adolescent backpacker (nothing wrong with that but I suspect the MR audience is […]
How to Visit India for Normies
Trump’s new sex and gender policy
25 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, law and order, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
If you want to see a compilation of all of Trump’s executive orders, you can find links here that will take you to the contents of the official orders. I’ve talked about the new rules on sex and gender before, but wanted to discuss them again, briefly. Click the screenshot below to see Trump’s EO […]
Trump’s new sex and gender policy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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