Was Germany Really Starved Into Surrender in WW1? (Documentary)
20 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, international economics, International law, laws of war, resource economics, transport economics, war and peace Tags: Germany, World War I
The impact of Fox News on American democracy
20 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, industrial organisation, econometerics, applied price theory Tags: media bias, 2016 US presidential election, 2008 presidential election, 2012 presidential election, 2020 presidential election, 2024 presidential election
In yesterday’s post, I noted a number of opportunities for research on the economics of social media. At least one of those opportunities intersected with the impact of traditional media. So, I was interested to read this new article by Elliott Ash, Sergio Galletta, Matteo Pinna (all ETH Zurich), and Christopher Warshaw (George Washington University), published…
The impact of Fox News on American democracy
“Leading Legal Constitutional Scholars”: Biden Again Cites Liberal Professors for an Absurd Constitutional Claim
20 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - USA Tags: constitutional law

In his final week as president, Joe Biden again invoked liberal professors to justify a plainly absurd constitutional argument by declaring that the 28th Amendment is now ratified. By invoking “leading legal constitutional scholars,” Biden only added redundancy to absurdity in claiming that the Equal Rights Amendment is now law. Unfortunately, this pattern has been […]
“Leading Legal Constitutional Scholars”: Biden Again Cites Liberal Professors for an Absurd Constitutional Claim
I See Dead Amendments: President Biden Issues Otherworldly ERA Declaration
19 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: constitutional law, sex discrimination

Below is my column in Fox.com on President Joe Biden’s last-minute declaration that the 28th Amendment is now part of the United States Constitution. It appears that our president sees dead amendments, but that is not the greatest thing that should worry you. Here is the column:
I See Dead Amendments: President Biden Issues Otherworldly ERA Declaration
US Federal Reserve withdraws from global regulatory climate change group
19 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - USA

The Fed, which some claim is an unconstitutional body anyway, has noticed the US is changing its leader, so has performed a political manoeuvre by deciding that from now on ‘greening the financial system’ – whatever that means – is somebody else’s problem, officially at least. The decision follows on from various leading banks leaving […]
US Federal Reserve withdraws from global regulatory climate change group
Bill Maher’s latest monologue: the L.A. fires and progressive politics
19 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of natural disasters, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: climate alarmism
After a vacation hiatus, Bill Maher is back with a monologue called, “New rules: political firestorm.” Here he parses blame for the L.A. fires between unavoidable causes (no rain, lots of brush) and avoidable ones (blockheaded politicians). The latter, he says, involves cuts in the firse-department budget, stolen or nonfunctional hydrants, empty reservoirs, exposed power […]
Bill Maher’s latest monologue: the L.A. fires and progressive politics
No Tech Workers or No Tech Jobs?
19 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice

Several recent tweets(xeets) about tech talent re-ignited the conversation about native-born STEM workers and American policy. For the Very Online, Christmas 2024 was about the H-1B Elon tweets. Elon Musk implies that “elite” engineering talent cannot be found among Americans. Do Americans need to import talent? What would it take to home grow elite engineering […]
No Tech Workers or No Tech Jobs?
Quotation of the Day…
19 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of love and marriage, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, unemployment

Tweet… is from page 53 of the late, great Harold Demsetz’s excellent 2008 book, From Economic Man to Economic System: Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus differed in their forecasts of mankind’s future. Smith (1776), in his Wealth of Nations, offered an optimistic view, basing this on his understanding of the new economic system that began…
Quotation of the Day…
Congestion charges work
19 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, politics - USA, transport economics Tags: congestion charging, road pricing
Radio NZ reports: Traffic in Manhattan’s central business district fell by 7.5 percent last week and 273,000 fewer cars entered the borough’s central business district after the first congestion pricing fee in the US took effect on 5 January, New York City transit officials said on Monday. The fee was designed to reduce traffic and raise billions […]
Congestion charges work
Assassination Attempt on Lenin – Chaos in Romania I THE GREAT WAR Week 182
18 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Russian revolution, World War I
Canada’s missing entrepreneurs
18 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, regulation Tags: Canada
From John Ruffalo.
Canada’s missing entrepreneurs
Natural Diamonds Had a Rough Year—Some Hope to Restore Their Shine
18 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, market efficiency, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
Lab-grown diamonds are gaining share, but they might be getting too cheap and largeBy Jinjoo Lee of The WSJ. Excerpts:”After a postpandemic surge in demand in 2021 and 2022, natural-diamond prices are down about 8% compared with the first quarter of 2020, while lab-grown diamond prices are down 75%” [if they are substitutes for each…
Natural Diamonds Had a Rough Year—Some Hope to Restore Their Shine
Biden Uses Last-Minute AI Executive Order To Force More Green Energy Onto The Grid
18 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA, resource economics Tags: solar power, wind power
The executive order is another eleventh-hour move in what appears to be an effort to stymy President-elect Donald Trump’s energy agenda, which is expected to include a vast expansion of oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters. Biden announced a ban Monday for future offshore oil and gas activity across 625 million acres of the outer continental shelf, citing a law that could prevent a successive administration from easily reversing the policy.
Biden Uses Last-Minute AI Executive Order To Force More Green Energy Onto The Grid
Further proof the Council just made things worse
17 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle
Stuff reports: Reading Cinemas is set to return to Wellington after it was revealed on Tuesday night that the cinema chain’s owner, Reading International, intends to undertake a redevelopment of the old building. The company has entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement with Prime Property Group, with part of the deal including a seismic upgrade […]
Further proof the Council just made things worse

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