Will France Opt for Bernie Sanders-Style Taxation?

Some folks on the left have a deep-seated resentment of successful investors, entrepreneurs, business owners, and other high-income people. They want to hit them with confiscatory tax rates, even if the tax is so punitive that the government doesn’t wind up with more revenue. Heck, some of them are so consumed by hate and envy […]

Will France Opt for Bernie Sanders-Style Taxation?

MICHAEL BASSETT: DEALING WITH TODAY’S SMALL, RAUCOUS, CRAZY MAORI FRINGE

Anyone watching and trying to understand last Sunday’s Q&A where Jack Tame interviewed Debbie Ngarewa-Packer will realise that she seems to be beyond reason. Tame tried to examine bits of her blather and her obvious misuse of words, but she immediately slithered like an eel under a rock and made louder assertions about how Maori “korero”…

MICHAEL BASSETT: DEALING WITH TODAY’S SMALL, RAUCOUS, CRAZY MAORI FRINGE

Lessons from the UK

There are many lessons for New Zealand in last week’s British election result, which saw the 14-year reign of the Conservative Party ending in a crushing defeat. While the number of seats won by Labour appeared to indicate a huge swing to the left in support of Sir Keir Starmer’s Party, that isn’t the case […]

Lessons from the UK

Robert Swetlic: For Constitutional Clarity, Should Angela Rayner be Named First Secretary of State? 

Barely 24 hours after Labour’s victory at the polls, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s top team of MPs began to line the path to No. 10 Downing Street, hoping to have their shadow portfolios translated into long-awaited ministerial roles.  First among the parade of MPs was Angela Rayner, who was appointed Secretary of State for Housing, […]

Robert Swetlic: For Constitutional Clarity, Should Angela Rayner be Named First Secretary of State? 

The Genuine Legal Conflict for School Boards

There is media fuss today around the resistance of schools in terms of excluding students excluded from other schools. The NZ Herald highlights statistics that 100s of schools appear to be reluctant and three remain outright resistant. The article highlights the legal obligation for schools to accept students in their zone. This can be ordered […]

The Genuine Legal Conflict for School Boards

Universities and the Treaty

Grant Duncan writes: University management should take note of that, as there have been unrealistic efforts to force poorly defined “Treaty obligations” into teaching and research. For example, one university is now telling its academic staff that all curricula should, as a high priority, be “designed, developed and delivered in authentic partnerships with Māori [and] […]

Universities and the Treaty

BBB in the NYT

I pitch Build, Baby, Build in today’s New York Times. No illustrations, but a bunch of cool graphs cooked up by Sara Chodosh of the NYT data analytics team. The original title was “The Panacea Policy,” but now it’s “Yes in My Backyard: The Case For Housing Deregulation.” And for you, dear readers, it’s ungated!…

BBB in the NYT

Biden’s Desperate Vote-Buying Proposal for Nationwide Rent Control

I’m not a political pundit, but I’m guessing that yesterday’s despicable assassination attempt on Donald Trump increases the likelihood that he reclaims the White House. That’s probably not good news for trade policy (though Biden has been just as bad), but it will be very good news for housing policy. Not because of what Trump […]

Biden’s Desperate Vote-Buying Proposal for Nationwide Rent Control

Market Preserving Federalism in the USA

One of my favorite economic journal articles is by Barry Weingast and has the short title “Market Preserving Federalism” (MPF). In this paper, Weingast lays out the conditions necessary for two tenuous equilibria: A) Federalism  & B) Federalism that preserves a market economy.  Given that we just celebrated Independence Day in the USA, it seems […]

Market Preserving Federalism in the USA

DON BRASH: ANOTHER OUTSTANDING SPEECH FROM CHRIS BISHOP

Four months ago, I described a speech by Chris Bishop in his capacity as Minister of Housing as perhaps the most important speech given by any Government minister since the election last year.   He’s just given another, arguably even more important, laying out in words of one syllable what the Government plans to do…

DON BRASH: ANOTHER OUTSTANDING SPEECH FROM CHRIS BISHOP

“The First Amendment is Out of Control”: Academic and Media Figures Rally Against Free Speech

Below is my column in Fox.com on renewed attacks on free speech and the apologists for this anti-free speech movement, including most recently comedian Jon Stewart. From moves to amend the First Amendment to mocking those being targeted, the left is pushing back at polls and efforts to restore free speech values. Here is the […]

“The First Amendment is Out of Control”: Academic and Media Figures Rally Against Free Speech

Bryan Caplan on YIMBY in the NYT

Here is one excerpt: What few appreciate is that the overregulation of housing has blocked a classic American path: moving to a higher-wage part of the country to secure a better life. A paper by the economists Peter Ganong and Daniel Shoag shows that housing costs now routinely outweigh wage gains: While janitors and waiters do indeed […]

Bryan Caplan on YIMBY in the NYT

‘Goes Beyond the Limits’: Judge Throws Out Blue City’s Climate Case Against Oil Giants

…simply a way to get in the back door what they cannot get in the front door,” Brown wrote in the ruling.

‘Goes Beyond the Limits’: Judge Throws Out Blue City’s Climate Case Against Oil Giants

Is France about to demonstrate “ideal” semi-presidentialism in action?

The outcome of the French assembly election of 2024 appears to have set up a situation that could be described as the “ideal” way that semi-presidential systems are meant to operate, based on how such governance models were articulated by their original theorists.

Is France about to demonstrate “ideal” semi-presidentialism in action?

Zoning Matters for Rising Housing Costs, Especially After 1980

From a new working paper “The Price of Housing in the United States, 1890-2006” by Ronan C. Lyons, Allison Shertzer, Rowena Gray & David N. Agorastos (emphasis added): “Zoning was adopted by almost every city in our sample during the 1920s. We see a slightly steeper gradient over the next two periods (coefficients of .48 […]

Zoning Matters for Rising Housing Costs, Especially After 1980

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