The Post reports: Nearly a third of the Callaghan Innovation’s $149 million Covid-era research and development loan book is in arrears, including $21.5m linked to 63 failed or insolvent businesses, as the agency enters its final months before disestablishment. Callaghan Innovation – a government entity set up to make businesses around the country more innovative…
Callaghan failure
Callaghan failure
14 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: industry policy, picking losers
Piketty’s Eco-Marxist Utopia: Why Degrowth and Global Redistribution Will Trap the Poor in Poverty
13 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, fiscal policy, global warming, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism, regressive left
The world’s poor deserve better than another utopia designed for them by the globalist intelligentsia. They deserve cheap energy, open markets, secure property rights, and the freedom to industrialise on terms they choose for themselves. That is what worked in East Asia. It is what will work in South Asia, Africa and Latin America. And…
Piketty’s Eco-Marxist Utopia: Why Degrowth and Global Redistribution Will Trap the Poor in Poverty
Professors Behind the California Wealth Tax Threaten Possible Legal Action Against Critic
11 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
There is an interesting controversy brewing in California after four California university professors threatened a political candidate, Richard Lucas, for…
Professors Behind the California Wealth Tax Threaten Possible Legal Action Against Critic
Superannuation affordability options
09 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in economic growth, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of immigration, ageing society, population bust
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith at The Spinoff asked me what I thought the options might be for dealing with rising superannuation costs. Her story’s here, along with comment from Max Rashbrooke and Shamubeel Eaqub. My most-preferred option is ongoing increases in immigration rates, coupled with shifting to CPI-indexation of super benefits and indexing the age of eligibility to healthy…
Superannuation affordability options
Absurdity Alert: Writing About Germany’s Economic Decline Without Mentioning Green Energy Policies
02 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, macroeconomics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Argentina, Germany
I was astounded in 2020 when I read an article in the New York Times about the economic catastrophe in Venezuela and there was not a single mention of socialism. And I was even more astounded in 2024 when the NYT published another article about Venezuela’s economic misery and once again didn’t mention socialism. Today’s […]
Absurdity Alert: Writing About Germany’s Economic Decline Without Mentioning Green Energy Policies
Jamieson Greer’s Ignorance of Economics and History Is Alarming
02 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: free trade, tarrifs
TweetHere’s a letter to F&D Magazine, a publication of the IMF. Editor: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer wrote more than 2,100 words about trade yet managed to get correct approximately nothing (“Economics for the Real Economy,” June 2026). Just listing his errors would take nearly as many words, so I here address only one of…
Jamieson Greer’s Ignorance of Economics and History Is Alarming
Europe’s War on Wealth
29 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, occupational choice, P.T. Bauer, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: European Union
Given the relative economic weakness that plagues most European nations (documented here, here, here, here, and here), a top priority for policy makers should be to improve incentives for wealth creation. But that assumes politicians care about the prosperity of citizens. Based on a new report from the European Commission, the answer is no. Instead of […]
Europe’s War on Wealth
Schumpeter comes to Wellington
27 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
(And what we can learn from the Luddites) In 1987 Telecom New Zealand employed about 25,000 people. By 1997 it employed under 8,000. A single corporation shed 17,000 jobs in a decade, in a country of 3.3 million. The cost of Telecom’s long-distance calls fell by 60 per cent between 1987 and 1992. The decade that followed […]
Schumpeter comes to Wellington
Are Living Standards Higher in France or Mississippi?
25 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, income redistribution, labour economics, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: France
Earlier this month, in Part V of my series on the U.S. vs. Europe (previous versions available here, here, here, and here), I shared a chart showing the OECD calculations of “Actual Individual Consumption.” The AIC numbers are designed to give people an apples-to-apples comparison of living standards. I’m re-sharing the chart today, and I’ve […]
Are Living Standards Higher in France or Mississippi?
Liberal Economists Score an Own Goal Against Bezos
25 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, fiscal policy, James Buchanan, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics
Jeff Bezos tweeted: Yes, the United States has the most progressive tax system in the world. The top 1% pay 40% of taxes, the bottom 50% pay 3% of taxes. We can make it even more progressive by zeroing out taxes on the bottom half. It’s a small amount of the total tax revenue but…
Liberal Economists Score an Own Goal Against Bezos
Scotland 2026: A normal election for its MMP design
24 May 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, Public Choice Tags: Scotland
The electoral system used for the Scottish Parliament is more restrictive than the Westminster parliamentary electoral system, and recognizing this characteristic is key to understanding the result of this election.
Scotland 2026: A normal election for its MMP design
The (Amusingly) Destructive Economics of Wealth Taxation
24 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
I’ve shared several columns (here, here, here, here, and here) reviewing scholarly research on the harmful economic impact of wealth taxation. From now on, however, I think I’ll simply share this clever video from the folks at Reason. The video uses humor to make very important points about how a wealth tax would diminish incentives […]
The (Amusingly) Destructive Economics of Wealth Taxation
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 13
24 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of regulation, environmental economics, environmentalism, history of economic thought, law and economics, Murray Rothbard, property rights, Public Choice
SummaryThis chapter, on “Conservation, Ecology, and Growth,” is an early statement of free-market environmentalism. It begins by ridiculing leftists’ decades of contradictory complaints about capitalism: “Stagnation; deficient growth; overaffluence; overpoverty; the intellectual fashions changed like ladies’ hemlines,” and quoting one of Schumpeter’s best lines:Capitalism stands its trial before judges who have the sentence of death…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 13
Iceland’s Superb Private Retirement System
17 May 2026 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, labour economics, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Iceland
Over the years, I’ve written about the successful private retirement systems in jurisdictions such as Australia, Chile, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Netherlands, the Faroe Islands, Denmark, Israel, and Sweden. Today’s column will add to the collection because we’re going to look at Iceland’s remarkable system of personal retirement accounts. We’ll start with two charts. Here’s a […]
Iceland’s Superb Private Retirement System
Three Months In: EPA’s Endangerment Finding Repeal Has Quietly Become a Legal Fight, not a Scientific One
12 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice
For all the talk of finally relitigating the underlying climate science, the EPA’s final rule does almost none of that. It does not argue that greenhouse gases fail to qualify as pollutants. It does not litigate model sensitivities, the surface temperature record, attribution methodology, or any of the empirical questions that WUWT contributors and others…
Three Months In: EPA’s Endangerment Finding Repeal Has Quietly Become a Legal Fight, not a Scientific One
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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