Our estimates indicate that the AfD’s vote share would shrink by as much as 75% if the CDU adopted its immigration stance. These results suggest that the electoral success of populist parties is strongly linked to genuine policy preferences, rather than being driven solely by dissatisfaction with political elites or protest voting. That is from […]
German political parties remain too far from the median voter
German political parties remain too far from the median voter
21 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in international economic law, international economics, International law, labour economics, labour supply, politics, Public Choice Tags: economics of immigration, Germany
In defence of inequality
20 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, human capital, poverty and inequality
An excellent speech by the President of the University of Austin on inequality: But on the heels of America’s quarter-millennium since the Declaration of Independence, I want to do something a bit unfashionable: I want to defend inequality. Of course, all men are created equal. But all men are not the same. We have unequal…
In defence of inequality
Better Permitting and More Building: Possible?
20 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, environmental economics, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
It seems natural enough, at least based on US experience, to believe that building and permitting are in a natural opposition: that is, stronger permitting means less building. Zachary Liscow has been looking for a way out of this opposition. He spells out some of his thoughts in “Reforming Permitting to Build Infrastructure” (Hutchins Center…
Better Permitting and More Building: Possible?
More unsubstantiated assertions of indigenous “science” in New Zealand
19 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
Predator Free NZ (“PFZ”, and “NZ” is New Zealand) is apparently a science-oriented trust whose goal—a worthy one—is to keep non-native predators, such as the common brushtail possum, out of New Zealand, as they destroy native wildlife and have other bad effects on the ecosystem. (The possum, for example, destroys native New Zealand birds and…
More unsubstantiated assertions of indigenous “science” in New Zealand
Germany Faces Challenging Winter Of Power Outages As Energy Supply Struggles
18 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in energy economics Tags: Germany
Germany’s Energy Crisis: A Look At What’s Ahead Symbol image created by Grok 3 AI The head of transmission system operator Amprion, Christoph Müller, warns that Germany’s energy supply is facing a challenging winter due to a lack of power plant capacity as the nuclear and planned coal continue to get phased out. The This…
Germany Faces Challenging Winter Of Power Outages As Energy Supply Struggles
Moving on Up
18 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, poverty and inequality, welfare reform
James Heckman and Sadegh Eshaghnia have launched a broadside in the WSJ against the Chetty-Hendren paper The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects. It’s a little odd to see this in the WSJ but since the Chetty-Hendren paper has been widely reported in the media, I suppose this is fair game. […]
Moving on Up
Guardian is AGAIN forced to correct false claim on ICJ ruling
18 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
As we wrote in a post last week, a Guardian article by their Beirut correspondent William Christou (“US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry“, 5 Sept) included the following erroneous claim: In an interim judgment in January 2024, the ICJ ruled that the claim of genocide was “plausible”… As we’ve noted in communications […]
Guardian is AGAIN forced to correct false claim on ICJ ruling
We Can’t Value ‘Ancient Wisdom’ Over Scientific Fact
18 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, health economics, liberalism
Robert Bartholomew writes – Over the past decade there has been an explosion of interest in indigenous knowledge. The United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa have been at the forefront of the movement to integrate ‘ancient wisdom’ with modern science and decision-making by applying it to everything from public health to climate change. […]
We Can’t Value ‘Ancient Wisdom’ Over Scientific Fact
More corporate welfare for airlines
18 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, survivor principle, transport economics
The Government announced: The Coalition Government will support at risk regional air routes with up to $30 million in loans from the Regional Infrastructure Fund for small passenger airlines, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones and Associate Transport Minister James Meager say. “Reliable air services are critical for the economic and social wellbeing of regional New […]
More corporate welfare for airlines
The United States vs. Europe, Part IV
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
PRESCOTT on quality adjusted medical price indexes
17 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, Edward Prescott, health economics, macroeconomics
Alarmists Fail to Refute Realistic Climate Report
17 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
They shoot, they miss, we score. David Wojick reports on the laughable failure of alarmists in his CFACT article Attack on DOE Climate Report is a comedy of criticism. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. The DOE science report saying the impact of CO2 on climate is exaggerated was quickly followed by […]
Alarmists Fail to Refute Realistic Climate Report
A blueprint for better Government
17 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
The NZ Initiative has put out a great report proposing a much more efficient structure for both Cabinet and the wider Executive. NZ currently has 81 ministerial portfolios, 28 ministers and 43 executive agencies. By comparison Ireland has 15 Ministers and 18 departments. The Initiative propose a Cabinet of 15 Ministers, being: Incidentally I proposed […]
A blueprint for better Government
Ferris doubled down on his racism
16 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: racial discrimination
The Herald reports: Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris has doubled down on social media comments he made last week which led to “racist” allegations and an apology from his party. In a new Instagram video, Ferris said it is “unacceptable” for people of other ethnicities to campaign to “take a Māori seat from the […]
Ferris doubled down on his racism
Short (?) review: “Sex is a spectrum”
16 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Reading time: Whatever. . . You’ll probably guess from the title of this short (150-page) book by Agustín Fuentes (Princeton University Press) that I am not keen on its thesis, and you’d be right. In fact, the thesis is nothing new, even if you have read Fuentes’s article about it in Natural History and Scientific […]
Short (?) review: “Sex is a spectrum”
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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