The Australian Green party has proposed cancelling all student debt in Australia, as part of an aim for government to provide “free education for life”. However, free education is not free. In an article in The Conversation earlier this month, Bruce Chapman (Australian National University) makes a case against the claim that cancelling student debt…
Try as they might, the Australian Green party can’t make university education free
Try as they might, the Australian Green party can’t make university education free
25 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - Australia, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: College premium, regressive left
Popuphobia’s Javier Milei Problem
22 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in development economics, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, income redistribution, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, monetary economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, unemployment Tags: Argentina
My dear friend and colleague Dan Klein wrote this. He loves feedback, so please share your thoughts in the comments. And he’d especially appreciate reactions from friends Shikha Dalmia and Nils Karlson, which I’d definitely be glad to run.P.S. Dan asked me to link to the latest Milei news.I define popuphobe as someone who propagates…
Popuphobia’s Javier Milei Problem
Defying cries of “transphobia”, the Washington Post calls for debate on whether trans women should participate in women’s sports
22 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, sports economics Tags: free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
The good news is that the Washington Post, defying the inevitable cries that the paper is “transphobic”, is calling for a “respectful debate on trans women in sports”. This is, of course, because of the increasing number of biological men who identify as women (I prefer that jawbreaker to “trans women” because the latter plays […]
Defying cries of “transphobia”, the Washington Post calls for debate on whether trans women should participate in women’s sports
Hikoi organiser rebuffs Seymour while a bloke named Jones (no, not Shane) says he understands the Māori Party’s frustration
19 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Bob Edlin writes – Associate Justice Minister David Seymour “refused” Morning Report’s invitation to be interviewed on RNZ’s Morning Report, the day after the Treaty Principles Bill he is promoting had passed its first reading in Parliament after “a fiery debate and vote”. No matter. There were plenty of other people all too eager to […]
Hikoi organiser rebuffs Seymour while a bloke named Jones (no, not Shane) says he understands the Māori Party’s frustration
PNAS publishes an opinion piece arguing that the politicization of science is bad (contradicting the NAS President’s views)
13 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: affirmative action, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
I’m actually surprised that the article below was published in The Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS), one of the more high-quality science journals, just a tad below Science and Nature in prestige. It has had a reputation for being “progressive” (e.g., woke), one that I discussed last year when Steve Pinker had […]
PNAS publishes an opinion piece arguing that the politicization of science is bad (contradicting the NAS President’s views)
Ananish Chaudhuri: The sheer lunacy of contemporary progressive politics or How I became a right-wing extremist
11 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, economics of pandemics, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
With Kemi Badenoch taking over the leadership of Tories in the UK, newspapers have been replete with how this represents a radical turn to the right. Similar headlines appeared when Labour was booted from power in New Zealand. There was a time when I would have thought: “Shame. Why can’t these people not be more…
Ananish Chaudhuri: The sheer lunacy of contemporary progressive politics or How I became a right-wing extremist
November 8, 1939—Failed Assassination Attempt
09 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism Tags: Nazi Germany, World War II
On November 8, 1939, Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Munich. The attempt took place in the Bürgerbräukeller, a popular beer hall where he annually commemorated the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an early failed coup that Hitler had led in an attempt to seize power in Germany. The bomb was […]
November 8, 1939—Failed Assassination Attempt
Politics of identity politics proved
05 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics Tags: British politics, free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
The UK Conservative Party has a new leader : . . . On Saturday the Conservatives elected Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch as their leader to propel them to victory at the next general election. . . Born in Wimbledon, southwest London in 1980, after her parents decided she should be born in Britain with the best […]
Politics of identity politics proved
Quotation of the Day…
04 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, economics of slavery, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Tweet… is from page 390 of the 2016 second edition of Thomas Sowell’s excellent volume Wealth, Poverty and Politics (footnotes deleted; original emphases): People who seek to find blame, as distinct from causation, often also seek a localized source of evil to blame. Professor Paul Krugman, for example, refers to slavery as “America’s original sin.”…
Quotation of the Day…
The left hate grassroots organisations that they don’t own
04 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in election campaigns, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
The hysterical smears continue. Some on the left live in a fictional world where only organisations they agree with are grass roots organisations, and when an organisation succeeds they disagree with, their minds are so limited they think it must be due to overseas big money. Funnily enough they never scrutinise the organisations they like. […]
The left hate grassroots organisations that they don’t own
The Nation endorses Kamala Harris, but its interns object: “We cannot vote our way out of this genocide”
02 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Rawls and Nozick, war and peace Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, regressive left, useful idiots, war against terror
Well, I’ll be. The group of interns at the left-wing The Nation have objected to the magazine’s recent endorsement of Kamala Harris and published their gripes. Now why would that happen? We all know that many editors and reporters at the Washington Post objected to the paper’s failure to endorse Kamala Harris, but this kind of […]
The Nation endorses Kamala Harris, but its interns object: “We cannot vote our way out of this genocide”
Bezos on endorsements
01 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in industrial organisation, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, survivor principle Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, Freedom of the press, political correctness, regressive left
Jeff Bezos writes: In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not […]
Bezos on endorsements
Scott Alexander on the Progress Studies conference
25 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, liberalism, macroeconomics Tags: creative destruction
Here is one excerpt: Over-regulation was the enemy at many presentations, but this wasn’t a libertarian conference. Everyone agreed that safety, quality, the environment, etc, were important and should be regulated for. They just thought existing regulations were colossally stupid, so much so that they made everything worse including safety, the environment, etc. With enough political will, […]
Scott Alexander on the Progress Studies conference
Reflections on United Arab Emirates
23 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, energy economics, growth miracles, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, property rights, Public Choice Tags: Dubai, economics of immigration
On my way to India, I connected through Abu Dhabi, capital city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). During my one-day layover, I toured not only Abu Dhabi, but its more famous sister-city, Dubai. Here are my main thoughts.In Dubai, these are not empty words.Per-capita, UAE is the most amazing country I’ve ever seen. With…
Reflections on United Arab Emirates
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