Dr Oliver Hartwich writes – Last week, an Uber driver surprised me in a conversation about the recent Court of Appeal decision classifying four Uber drivers as employees rather than contractors. My driver was blunt. He has no desire to be an employee. He values his flexibility to take breaks and drive when and where […]
Uber ruling – driving in the wrong direction
Uber ruling – driving in the wrong direction
09 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, occupational regulation, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: employment law, Uber
Employers are reluctant to admit workers work because they are paid wages
09 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics

https://www.facebook.com/groups/774813624767808/permalink/829599789289191/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT
The Fall of Riga – 11th Battle of the Isonzo River I THE GREAT WAR Week 163
09 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War I
Recovering from New Zealand’s worst ever economic decision: The cancellation of the Kirk Government’s superannuation scheme
08 Sep 2024 1 Comment
in economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics
EEconomists wonder about the “New Zealand paradox”, which is that New Zealand under-performs economically given its policies, institutions, natural resources, educated people, and compliance with trade and other multi-lateral agreements. Our economic reforms from the mid-1980s and on were textbook economic theory and yet the real-world results disappointed. However, New Zealand has different policy settings […]
Recovering from New Zealand’s worst ever economic decision: The cancellation of the Kirk Government’s superannuation scheme
Hunter Biden Discovers There is No “Nicer” Way to Say “I’m Guilty”
08 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election

Below is my column in Fox.com on the Hunter Biden guilty plea. The plea proved vintage Hunter Biden for all of the wrong reasons. The effort to plead guilty without admitting guilt left him looking like the most privilege person since Marie Antoinette. However, it was consistent with a bizarre criminal defense that never seemed […]
Hunter Biden Discovers There is No “Nicer” Way to Say “I’m Guilty”
From the comments, on moving to the suburbs
07 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics - USA, transport economics, urban economics
As Ed Banfield observed, the flight to the suburbs pre-dated the car because people prefer cheaper housing and more space: “The first elevated steam railroads were in New York in the 1870s, and twenty years later every sizable city had an electric trolley system. Railroads and trolleys enabled more people to commute and to commute […]
From the comments, on moving to the suburbs
Walz not making sense
07 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Tim Walz, the Democratic candidate for US Vice President, made a highly incoherent–even embarrassing–statement in an interview with a media outlet in Michigan. It started off well enough. Well, I think first and foremost what we saw on October 7 was a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They have certainly, and […]
Walz not making sense
Top notch DomPost op-ed #OTD on bloody cyclists
07 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in environmentalism, politics - New Zealand, transport economics


The Assassination of President William McKinley
07 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA

The 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, was assassinated on September 6, 1901, during a public event at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley was attending a reception at the Temple of Music, where he was greeting members of the public as part of his duties at the exposition, a grand […]
The Assassination of President William McKinley
Hunter Biden Loses Game of Chicken With Himself
06 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election

Below is my column in the New York Post on the sudden guilty plea from Hunter Biden in his federal tax case. It was not the plea but the timing of the plea that was the surprise. What is missing is any cognizable legal strategy in waiting until the first day of the trial to […]
Hunter Biden Loses Game of Chicken With Himself
Transwomen and sex offending
06 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, gender, law and economics Tags: crime and punishment, free speech, law and order, political correctness, regressive left

Friedman vs Stiglitz: Estonia and Poland vs. Argentina and Venezuela
06 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: Argentina, Chile, Poland, regressive left, Venezuela

About 10 days ago, i showed that Milton Friedman was a much better economist than Joseph Stiglitz by comparing Chile (which followed Friedman’s ideas) and Venezuela (which followed Stiglitz’s ideas). It was a slam-dunk win for Friedman. Chile started poor and has become relatively prosperous. The opposite happened in Venezuela, which started relatively prosperous and […]
Friedman vs Stiglitz: Estonia and Poland vs. Argentina and Venezuela
Volvo ditches electric car plans
06 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, transport economics Tags: electric cars

By Paul Homewood h/t Philip Bratby Volvo has ditched plans to sell only electric cars by 2030 amid waning demand for battery powered vehicles. The Swedish carmaker blamed the move on changing market conditions, amid fears many of the public continue to prefer petrol and diesel models. It comes as major […]
Volvo ditches electric car plans
Week 314B – The End of World War Two – WW2 – September 2, 1945
05 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: World War II
Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress After Slavery
05 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, economic history, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: economics of slavery, racial discrimination
This paper studies the long-run effects of slavery and restrictive Jim Crow institutions on Black Americans’ economic outcomes. We track individual-level census records of each Black family from 1850 to 1940, and extend our analysis to neighborhood-level outcomes in 2000 and surname-based outcomes in 2023. We show that Black families whose ancestors were enslaved until […]
Jim Crow and Black Economic Progress After Slavery
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