100 Years of Rent Control in Sweden

Bet On It reader Vanja Månborg knows a lot about rent control in Sweden. If you think Sweden is a country of thoughtful technocrats where government intervention works well, reading his guest post may make you think again. Here’s Vanja:Sweden has had rent control regulations since 1917 with less than two decades of pause between…

100 Years of Rent Control in Sweden

The Tsar Abdicates – Baghdad Falls I THE GREAT WAR Week 138

An Open Letter to Nobel-laureate Economist Angus Deaton

TweetProf. Angus Deaton Princeton University Prof. Deaton: Over the years I’ve learned much from your writings, and I regard your 2013 The Great Escape as one of the most important books published in the past 15 years. So I was quite surprised and disappointed to read that you, as you say, are now “much more…

An Open Letter to Nobel-laureate Economist Angus Deaton

The RCT Agenda

Randomized Controlled Trials: Could you be any more scientific? The book I’m now writing, Unbeatable: The Brutally Honest Case for Free Markets, insists that the randomistas of the economics profession actually have a thinly-veiled political agenda. Namely: To get economists to humbly serve the demagogues that rule the world instead of bluntly challenging their unabated…

The RCT Agenda

Claim: Social Science can Solve the Climate Crisis

Making do with less: “… We can repair and recreate our relationships with the Earth and the consumption that has gotten us to this point. …”

Claim: Social Science can Solve the Climate Crisis

Reading deal – rare media bouquet

Both Matt Nippert of the NZ Herald and Tom Hunt of The Post deserve a bouquet for their analyses of the truly remarkable deal between the Wellington City Council (WCC) and the troubled American Cinema company Reading. For this who don’t know, Reading owns a large (more than 14, 000 square metres or 1.4 hectares) […]

Reading deal – rare media bouquet

“Banning Books is Never the Answer”: RuPaul’s “No Censorship” Bookstore Lasted Just Three Days

It took just three days. After drag performer RuPaul announced the creation of a “no censorship” Allstora bookstore, censorship was back with a vengeance after many on the left learned that free speech meant that opposing views might be sold at the site.  While the sentiment was appealing, it became intolerable when activists noted that […]

“Banning Books is Never the Answer”: RuPaul’s “No Censorship” Bookstore Lasted Just Three Days

Not Bridgeable

In the last few years, especially after I started writing for this blog, I got more than a few comments about the need for bi-partisanship, not hating out ideological, let alone political opponents. What was notable about this was that they all came from the Right of the political spectrum. The Left seem quite happy […]

Not Bridgeable

TV layoffs not a threat to democracy

A few weeks ago I joined some contemporaries by abandoning the near sixty year habit of watching nightly TV news. I dropped it because I felt it did not give me real information that I had not acquired from other media sources, including some I pay for – The Economist, the NZ Herald, The Atlantic […]

TV layoffs not a threat to democracy

Using procurement for political ends gives you worse prices.

Over 20 years ago, some middling economists (cite) estimated that the Small Business Set-Aside program reduced Forest Service Timber prices by 15%.  By limiting the potential pool of available bidders to only smaller lumber mills, you get less competition and worse prices. Now San Francisco is re-learning that lesson.  In 2016, it refused to do…

Using procurement for political ends gives you worse prices.

The Russian February Revolution 1917 I THE GREAT WAR Week 137

Sick Joke: Nothing ‘Green’ About California’s All Electric Vehicle Mandates

There’s nothing wrong in theory about all-Electric Vehicles. But, if they really were a sensible substitute for petrol or diesel-powered vehicles, they’d already be jumping off the shelves. Except, for some strange reason, they aren’t. There’s plenty of irony attached to the all-EV cult: the world’s largest EV charging station is run entirely using diesel […]

Sick Joke: Nothing ‘Green’ About California’s All Electric Vehicle Mandates

Even Lowerer Hutt

One annoying thing about writing a Saturday column for the Stuff papers is never knowing whether a piece will show up in print.I’d thought this one was a banger. I’ll be talking about related issues tomorrow night as part of a panel for A City for People. 🟨🟪 Our speaker line up has dropped! 🟪🟨Join us on…

Even Lowerer Hutt

Gaelic Price Control

Here is a nice video on the experience with price control in Ireland and Scotland.  Hat tip: Marginal Revolution

Gaelic Price Control

DON BRASH: PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH FROM THE NEW GOVERNMENT SO FAR

Last week, Housing Minister Chris Bishop gave perhaps the most important speech by the new Government since the election.   In a speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, he said he wanted the ratio of house prices to median household income to more than halve to between 3 and 5 over the next 10…

DON BRASH: PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH FROM THE NEW GOVERNMENT SO FAR

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