Shane Jones deserves full support for his round-arm swing at the Waitangi Tribunal which is now fiddling about with a constitutional inquiry and deciding who can take part in it. A clause in New Zealand First’s coalition agreement with the National Party commits the government to amending the Waitangi Tribunal’s legislation so that the body…
MICHAEL BASSETT: SHANE JONES DESERVES SUPPORT ABOUT THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
MICHAEL BASSETT: SHANE JONES DESERVES SUPPORT ABOUT THE WAITANGI TRIBUNAL
31 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
Seymour raises tax and Treaty issues in his “state of the nation” speech (which has not been posted on the Beehive site)
29 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law
Buzz from the Beehive Just one statement has been posted on the government’s official website since Attorney-General Judith Collins announced the appointment of a new High Court Judge late last week. It deals with education and the government’s aims to get better results from school students.
Seymour raises tax and Treaty issues in his “state of the nation” speech (which has not been posted on the Beehive site)
Water metering – a small piece of silver buckshot
25 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle Tags: economics of networks, privatization
Chris Parker at Treasury sometimes quips that there are no silver bullets for solving housing in NZ, only pieces of silver buckshot. Basically you’ve got to do a lot of things to solve the problem; any one of them on their own won’t do it. I was on RNZ’s The Panel yesterday afternoon (here, from around…
Water metering – a small piece of silver buckshot
January 24, 1679: King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland dissolves the English Cavalier Parliament
25 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, Public Choice Tags: British history, constitutional law
The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from May 8, 1661 until January 24, 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Like its predecessor, the Convention Parliament, […]
January 24, 1679: King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland dissolves the English Cavalier Parliament
Will Milei succeed in Argentina?
22 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, income redistribution, labour economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, monetary economics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: Argentina
I give him a 30-40% chance, which is perhaps generous because I am rooting for him. Bryan Caplan, who is more optimistic, offers some analysis and estimates that Milei needs to close a fiscal gap of about five percent of gdp. I have two major worries. First, if Milei approaches fiscal success, the opposing parties […]
Will Milei succeed in Argentina?
MICHAEL BASSETT: TV ONE’S BEAT-UP ON THE TREATY AND THE KING’S HUI
21 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
Last Friday night, TV One’s lead item on the 6pm news was a story by reporter Te Aniwa Hurihanganui. She had scored a leaked piece of advice not yet considered by Cabinet that was intended to warn ministers in the new government that they would run into trouble with Maori if they backed David Seymour’s…
MICHAEL BASSETT: TV ONE’S BEAT-UP ON THE TREATY AND THE KING’S HUI
Avoiding scrutiny
19 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economics of bureaucracy, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: monetary policy
Regular readers will recall that I have, intermittently, been on the trail of the approach taken to the selection (and rejection) of external MPC members when the current crop were first appointed in 2019. I have been pursuing the matter since a highly credible person who was interested in being considered for appointment told me that […]
Avoiding scrutiny
Deirdre McCloskey: What Is Classical Liberalism? | Robinson’s Podcast #145
17 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, history of economic thought, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, political change, Public Choice, public economics
The Right and Wrong Way to Reduce Poverty, Part II
16 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
In Part I of this series, I explained that the War on Poverty, launched by Lyndon Johnson and expanded by other profligate presidents, has been bad news for both taxpayers and poor people. More specifically, I shared some academic research showing how it led to a big increase in dependency on government. Let’s expand on […]
The Right and Wrong Way to Reduce Poverty, Part II
Professional Sports and the Lack of Local Economic Payoffs
15 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, econometerics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, sports economics, urban economics
I’m a sports fan, which in this case may represent a conflict of interest, because it means I’m conflicted about public subsidies going to sports stadiums. The economic evidence on this point is pretty clear: such subsidies can transfer how people spend their entertainment dollars from one area of a city to another, but the net…
Professional Sports and the Lack of Local Economic Payoffs
David Friedman: What is Anarcho-Capitalism? | Robinson’s Podcast #160
12 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, David Friedman, development economics, economics of climate change, economics of crime, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, Rawls and Nozick
Zwolinski on the UBI
11 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, Public Choice, public economics, welfare reform Tags: negative income tax, universal basic income
Philosopher Matt Zwolinski, co-author of Universal Basic Income: What Everyone Needs to Know, was a core member of the old Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog, which shut down in 2020. Now’s he’s singledly-handed revived the BHL brand on his new Bleeding Heart Libertarian substack. Matt recently published a critique of my response to Chris Freiman on…
Zwolinski on the UBI
JOHN RAINE: Ministerial Spring Cleaning and the Parable of the Rowing Eight
05 Jan 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics
Matthew Hooton’s recommendation that Nicola Willis cut the cost of the Public Service by 25% (NZ Herald 22nd December) reminded me of a story. Years ago, the engineering community was getting fired up about new Japanese business and manufacturing efficiency methods, and “kaizen” (continuous improvement) and “just in time” were being bandied about. At the…
JOHN RAINE: Ministerial Spring Cleaning and the Parable of the Rowing Eight
190308 [Webinar] Consistent Economic Policy and Economic Development
29 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, business cycles, defence economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of information, Euro crisis, fiscal policy, fisheries economics, global financial crisis (GFC), great recession, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, inflation targeting, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, monetary economics, Public Choice, public economics, unemployment
Friedman and Schwartz agreed with Anderson, Tollison and Shughart on the public choice origins of the Great Contraction!
28 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, business cycles, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, great depression, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: monetary policy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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