Utopia, you are standing in it!

No two Accessions are the same. That of King Edward VII in 1901 was characterised by widespread confusion regarding custom and practice, for Queen Victoria’s succession to the Throne had long ago faded from the public consciousness. This time, the ‘official mind’ was better prepared and the major difference between the Accession of King Charles III in 2022 and that of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in February 1952 was its visibility. By comparing the ceremonial surrounding these Accessions (and some others), this article reveals developments in what Walter Bagehot called the “dignified” constitution over the past seven decades.

Demise of the Crown

Before traditional black-bordered notices were affixed to the gates of Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the announcement of Queen Elizabeth’s death was posted on Twitter. By law, the Accession of King Charles III was immediate, yet the precise moment of both Accessions is…

What’s dressed up as “progress” these days increasingly looks and sounds like a drift back to our Dark Age of misery, poverty and ignorance.

Anyone who still thinks wind turbines and solar panels equate with Earthly salvation, is more than just a little confused. But that’s the very point and purpose of those pushing the so-called inevitable ‘transition’ to an all wind and solar powered future.

As in days gone by, the model rests on inventing new forms of fear and firmly instilling them. And then following up with the promise of redemption through sacrifice and worship; albeit worshipping wind turbines and solar panels, instead of saints and idols.

The faithful readily subscribe to the myth and the mantras, merrily chanting them in the Twitterverse, trumpeting their peculiarly smug sense of superiority to the world at large.

Hot tip: if it looks like a cult and sounds like a cult, it’s a…

Stardate: Unknown (traditionally 2268)
Original Air Date: January 12, 1968
Writer: David P. Harmon, Gene L. Coon
Director: James Komack

“Put the bag on him!”

About a hundred ago, the starship Horizon visited the planet Sigma Iotia II and it was lost shortly after departure. News of the ship’s disappearance has only just reached the Federation as the distress call was made from this distant corner of the galaxy from an old-fashioned radio system. The Horizon came to this planet prior to the advent of the Prime Directive which directs Starfleet not to interfere with evolving cultures and planets. At the time, Iotian culture was in the beginnings of industrialization, and Spock claims Iotians are extremely intelligent and “somewhat imitative.” Now, the Enterprise has been sent to Sigma Iotia II where it remains in standard orbit.

Kirk communicates with the “Boss” Bela Okmyx (Anthony Caruso)…

The interest paid on most bank checking and savings account is still very low. Bank of America is paying 0.01-0.04% (i.e., practically zero) on savings accounts, and 0.05% (still nearly zero) on a 10-month CD. You can get over 2%, but mainly by opening an account with some little outfit you have never heard of. Money market funds are offering a little over 2%.

Courtesy of the Fed and its rate-raising, the interest on 6-12 month Treasury bills is now around 4%. Here is a graph of all Treasury bill/bonds (interest rate versus how long till bonds mature). So: Instead of leaving money in a bank account or in your broker’s money market fund, I suggest you take that money, transfer it to a brokerage account (e.g. at Vanguard or Schwab or Fidelity for low fees);  then use that money to buy T-bills. Most brokerages have a simple, automated process…

Today begins a new series examining the titles of Royalty and Nobility within the British Monarchy.

I will begin by defining what a monarchy is and also the role of the sovereign King or Queen. Although this definition of monarchy can also fit that of an Emperor, reigning Grand Duke or Prince, in this instance it defines a King or Queen Regnant.

King is the title given to a male monarch. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Common Germanic *kuningaz. The Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas.

King George VI of the United Kingdom

A monarch is a head of state for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power in the…

The lamps went out across Europe in 1914, 1939 and now they’re going out, again. This time, thanks to a maniacal obsession with intermittent wind and solar.

Wishful thinking, combined with ideological zealotry has left Britain’s energy supplies in tatters. Germany is in the same boat, and for the same reasons.

A few months from now, with hundreds of thousands freezing in the dark – either victims of power rationing or victims of crushing power prices, that they can no longer afford – households and businesses will, no doubt, come to reflect on the source of their misery. And plenty of them will be looking for the villains responsible.

As Tony Lodge reports below, the targets of what will soon become a wave of public opprobrium are in full view. They might need to start thinking about an escape route, if the current mood in Britain is any guide.

We…

Back in 2011, I wrote a post arguing that

self-defense (including collective self-defense) is justified only to the extent of restoring the status quo ante bellum. That is, having defeated an aggressor, a country is not justified in seizing territory, unilaterally exacting reparations or imposing a new government on its opponent. Conversely, and regardless of the alleged starting point, countries not directly involved should never recognise a forcibly imposed transfer of territory or similar attempt to achieve advantages through war.

What does this claim mean in the context of the war in Ukraine? In my view, it means that the Ukrainian government and its international supporters should seek a ceasefire in which Russia withdraws its forces to their positions of 23 February, without conceding any Russian claims regarding annexations or (if they still operate after the sham referendums) the Luhansk and Donetsk separatist republics.

It is already evident that…

Spoiler alert: the reason the wind and solar transition must fail is calm weather and sunset. So much, so simple and obvious.

No country has ever powered itself entirely on wind and solar; no country ever will.  Anyone telling you otherwise, is either a lunatic or they’re in on the greatest economic and environmental fraud, of all time.

Push them on the hopeless and inherent intermittency of wind and solar and you’ll hear mumblings about giant batteries, as if they’re not only cheap, but readily available – at a scale that will cure the problem in the blink of an eye.

Pure delusion, to be sure. Physics and economics mean that the grid-scale storage of electricity will remain a pipe dream.

The Wall Street Journal’s James Freeman taps into a report from the Manhattan Institute’s Mark Mills which details just how dangerous the wind and solar delusion is.

Why the…

I was always a bit ambivalent on the idea of a public holiday to mark the death (and life) of Her Late Majesty: there were (and are) better, cheaper, and more enduring things that could (have) been done. And the more so when the day chosen seems less to do with Queen Elizabeth (whose funeral and burial were a week ago) and more to do with the Prime Minister’s schedule. But here we are.

It seemed like a good day to potter in the old data and see how things went, in terms of relative economic performance, for the independent countries of which the Queen was monarch throughout her reign – the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Back in 1952 there were a few others – South Africa, Pakistan, and (as it then was) Ceylon. The other current realms (PNG, the Solomons, Belize, and so on) were not…

I am a big fan of Bjørn Lomborg but not for the reasons you think. Most Lomborg fans highlight the Skeptical Environmentalistas their preferred work. I admire How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place. The logic in that book is elegantly simple for an economist as it argues for dealing with the world’s problems using cost-benefit analysis. After all, you cannot deal with every problem and priorities must be set according to which priority is most likely to generate massive benefits.

Obviously, some nuances can be made. For example, I am inclined to think that a sizable share (but not the majority) of the cost of climate change can be dealt with by encouraging economic development. As Richard Tol argued in thisReview of Environmental Economics and Policy article, “poverty reduction complements greenhouse gas emissions reductions”. However, this criticism is one that…

Italy votes in general elections today. The Brothers of Italy is expected to be the largest party, in a pre-electoral alliance with the League and Forza Italia that may end up with a substantial majority of seats in both houses.

The electoral system is similar to that used in 2018 in that it is mixed-member majoritarian despite having just over 60% of seats elected in the party-list proportional component of the system. In an important sense, however, this year’s version is even more majoritarian–the size of both chambers has been reduced substantially. Other things equal–as they are–a smaller assembly is less proportional (or “permissive” to small parties). And when you combine a relatively majoritarian system with a smaller assembly, you get a more majoritarian system overall. The new Chamber of Deputies, at 400 seats, is closer to the cube root law expectation for a country the size of…