Robert Bartholomew writes: For millennia, indigenous cultures have accumulated a vast repository of information that has helped them to adapt and survive. Prior to European contact, the Quechua of the Andes used quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree to treat fevers. It later proved to be the first effective treatment for malaria. Salicin from […]
Ancient Wisdom vs Science
Ancient Wisdom vs Science
11 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
Tories Won’t Commit To Lift Petrol Car Ban
10 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, transport economics Tags: British politics
By Paul Homewood Mike Graham interviewed Matt Vickers, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, yesterday. At about 3hr 12 minutes in, the topic of Net Zero is raised. Vickers is asked whether the ban on petrol cars will be lifted – answer came there none! It is astonishing that no thought seems […]
Tories Won’t Commit To Lift Petrol Car Ban
A ceasefire in Gaza
10 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
Stuff reports: Celebration – tinged with anxiousness – has broken out in parts of Israel and Gaza after the announcement of a ceasefire deal between the warring parties. Israel has begun implementing the ceasefire deal in Gaza, after it reached an agreement with Hamas for the Palestinian militant group to release all the hostages it holds. Crowds in both […]
A ceasefire in Gaza
Is the earned income tax overrated?
09 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, Public Choice, public economics, welfare reform Tags: taxation and labour supply
This policy has been so popular with economists on a bipartisan basis, yet a recent piece in ReStud raises some doubts, as the wage subsidies induce many to drop out of school: As a complement to the federal earned income tax credit (EITC), some states offer their own EITC, typically calculated as a percentage of […]
Is the earned income tax overrated?
We do actually have a transformational government
09 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of regulation, law and economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, property rights
Governments of the left like to claim they are transformational, when they’re not. The Ardern Government achieved so little it was the opposite. They used wellbeing as a slogan, and did a couple of disastrous mergers. They spent a lot of money. To be fair the Clark Government did actually achieve some major stuff such […]
We do actually have a transformational government
Two tier justice
09 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in economics of crime, law and economics Tags: British politics, law and order
Guido Fawkes points out: The same judge who spared jail for a man who attacked someone burning a Quran with a knife gave a man a prison sentence for sending nasty email to John Bercow. Rule of lawyers in action… Judge Adam Hiddleston gave Moussa Kadri a 20-week prison sentence, suspended for 18 months. In Knightsbridge […]
Two tier justice
The Green Party Calls for the Abolishment of Private Landlords in the United Kingdom
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice Tags: British politics
On Sunday, the Green Party in the United Kingdom voted to “abolish” private landlords in a move that reaffirms the…
The Green Party Calls for the Abolishment of Private Landlords in the United Kingdom
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand
As I reported in September of last year, every entering student at New Zealand’s Auckland University was required to take an “indigeneity” course—and that includes prospective science majors. As I noted: . . . . at the University of Auckland—New Zealand’s most prestigious university—every student has to take a mandatory course related to indigenous knowledge, […]
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand
Jerry Coyne writes – As I reported in September of last year, every entering student at New Zealand’s Auckland University was required to take an “indigeneity” course—and that includes prospective science majors. As I noted: . . . . at the University of Auckland—New Zealand’s most prestigious university—every student has to take a mandatory course […]
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
Part II: Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
There are several visual ways of helping people understand how fiscal policy (and especially marginal tax rates) can change behavior. The philoso-raptor meme. The questioning worker. Supply-and-demand curves. The Wizard-of-Id parody. To augment these examples, I’ve started a series that is based on real-world examples. Part I of the series highlighted how the capital gains […]
Part II: Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
Claim: Renewable Australia will Have No Problem with Zero Generation Days
08 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - Australia Tags: solar power, wind power
A new study suggests blackouts will only happen sometimes, if we build enough batteries and overcapacity, and a hydrogen export industry.
Claim: Renewable Australia will Have No Problem with Zero Generation Days
The impact of taxes and transfers on inequality in New Zealand
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality
This week, my ECONS102 class covered inequality, and social security. Which is timely, because I have been meaning to blog about this Treasury Analytical Note from 2024, by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, for some time. Wright and Nguyen look at the distributional impact of taxes, transfers, and government spending (on healthcare and education).Importantly, they distinguish…
The impact of taxes and transfers on inequality in New Zealand
UN, EU, ICJ, Climate Cabal want to keep world’s poor impoverished
07 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in development economics, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics Tags: climate alarmism
Poor and developing nations need to band together, finance their own energy infrastructure, development, health and prosperity – and tell the carbon colonialists to take a hike.
UN, EU, ICJ, Climate Cabal want to keep world’s poor impoverished
Cassandra Somers-Joce: A New Chapter for Governmental Candour? The Public Office (Accountability) Bill
07 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, health and safety, health economics, labour economics, law and economics, Public Choice Tags: British constitutional law, British politics, Internet
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill was introduced into the House of Commons on 16 September 2025. It gives effect to the Labour Party’s 2024 Manifesto commitment to introduce a ‘Hillsborough Law’ which will ‘place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities and provide legal aid for victims of disasters or state-related deaths’. As the Government’s ‘Duty of […]
Cassandra Somers-Joce: A New Chapter for Governmental Candour? The Public Office (Accountability) Bill
The unraveling of Obamacare?
06 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA Tags: health insurance
Paul Krugman has a recent post defending the exchange subsidies and tax credits that the Republicans wish to cut, talking with Jonathan Cohn about the “premium apocalypse” (and here). Whether or not one agrees with Krugman normatively, the arguments if anything convince me that Obamacare probably is not financially or politically stable. To recap some […]
The unraveling of Obamacare?
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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