For the last eight years or so, going back before the pandemic, Mexico’s economy has been growing at 1% per year or less, which is barely faster than the population of Mexico has been growing. It is a fact of arithmetic that an upper-middle-income country, as Mexico is classified by the World Bank, will not…
Slow Growth: Mexico Edition
Slow Growth: Mexico Edition
23 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, labour economics, Public Choice Tags: Mexico
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
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
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
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
How Reform Happens
30 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, Public Choice
What determines whether and how regulations are reformed? We use a newly constructed data set of 3,590 successful and failed regulatory reforms in 189 countries, between 2005 and 2022, to address this question. We document that regulations have become more business friendly in some regulatory domains but not others. We also show that regulations are…
How Reform Happens
La Marxista: Mamdani Pledges to Open First City-Run Store with Projected $30 Million Initial Cost
15 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle, urban economics Tags: New York City, state ownership
Mayor Zohran Mamdani used his “First 100 Days” speech this week to announce that he has kept his promise to…
La Marxista: Mamdani Pledges to Open First City-Run Store with Projected $30 Million Initial Cost
Oil and monetary policy
10 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, defence economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, financial economics, history of economic thought, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, unemployment, war and peace Tags: 1973 oil crisis, monetary policy, oil shocks
I didn’t have too much problem with either the Reserve Bank Governor’s speech a couple of weeks ago on a framework for how monetary policy might deal with the oil shock, or with this week’s OCR review release from the Monetary Policy Committee. It was really all very orthodox stuff, much as any of the […]
Oil and monetary policy
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 7
28 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, libertarianism, Murray Rothbard, Public Choice Tags: signaling
SummaryIn this chapter, Rothbard makes the case for the abolition of public schooling. While he somewhat surprisingly views Friedman’s voucher system as “a great improvement over the present system in permitting a wider range of parental choice and enabling the abolition of the public school system,” Rothbard will settle for nothing less than the separation…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 7
Javier Milei Week, Part III: Good Economic Policies, Good Economic Results
25 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, growth disasters, Public Choice Tags: Argentina
Part I of this series reviewed the horrible economic conditions that plagued Argentina when Javier Milei took office. Part II looked at Milei’s spending restraint and some of the subsequent improvements in fiscal outcomes. For today’s column, let’s focus on what Milei has achieved in areas other than fiscal policy, and it will be based […]
Javier Milei Week, Part III: Good Economic Policies, Good Economic Results
103 ways for local government to save money
17 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics
The Taxpayer’s Union has done a report listing 103 ways local government can save money. Some of the more significant ones which I support are: The post 103 ways for local government to save money first appeared on Kiwiblog.
103 ways for local government to save money
Cost Overruns Are Bad for Taxpayers, Good for Insiders
14 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, Public Choice
My First Theorem of Government is the simple observation that insiders are the biggest beneficiaries of government. I was motivated to release that theorem because bad news for taxpayers is good news for bureaucrats, consultants, contractors, lobbyists, and politicians. A classic example is the Department of Education in Washington, which has squandered more than $2.6 […]
Cost Overruns Are Bad for Taxpayers, Good for Insiders
Covid-19 Royal Commission report released
10 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in Alfred Marshall, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: economics of pandemics
The Royal Commission has released their second and final report. Some key aspects: Simeon Brown points out: The post Covid-19 Royal Commission report released first appeared on Kiwiblog.
Covid-19 Royal Commission report released
The Hidden Cost of Hard-to-Fire Labor Laws: Why European Firms Don’t Take Risks
08 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, labour economics, law and economics, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics, property rights, Public Choice, theory of the firm, unemployment Tags: creative destruction, employment law, European Union, Germany
In our textbook, Modern Principles, Tyler and I write: Imagine how difficult it would be to get a date if every date required marriage? In the same way, it’s more difficult to find a job when every job requires a long-term commitment from the employer. In two new excellent pieces, Brian Albrecht and Pieter Garicano…
The Hidden Cost of Hard-to-Fire Labor Laws: Why European Firms Don’t Take Risks
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 4
02 Mar 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Murray Rothbard, privatisation, Public Choice
Update: I’m doing a Substack Live today on You Have No Right to Your Culture with the Boyd Institute’s Peter Banks. 4 PM ET.SummaryThis is the shortest chapter of the book, just six pages long. Rothbard makes a laundry list of what he calls “the major problem areas of our society” and argues that government…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 4
‘Disaster’! Climate groups slam Germany for scrapping renewable heating law
27 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, Public Choice, urban economics Tags: Germany
“Habeck’s heating hammer” set to bite the dust. Maybe net zero zealotry is not the complete answer to modern energy supply after all, despite what its supporters keep claiming. – – – A revision of an existing law will now allow homeowners to use oil and gas as heating fuel instead, says Euronews. Germany’s government […]
‘Disaster’! Climate groups slam Germany for scrapping renewable heating law
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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