My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament should not hesitate to take. But first a quick recap. The…
ROGER PARTRIDGE: HOW TO REIN IN AN ACTIVIST SUPREME COURT
ROGER PARTRIDGE: HOW TO REIN IN AN ACTIVIST SUPREME COURT
22 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: constitutional law, rule of law
Do Me a Personal Favor: Please Pre-Order *Build, Baby, Build* Now
22 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: land supply, zoning
I started writing Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation, in the early weeks of Covid. Now, with the kind cooperation of the Cato Institute, my second non-fiction graphic novel releases on May 1, 2024. That’s less than six weeks away.The official coverPlease forgive my laughable arrogance, but I assure you that…
Do Me a Personal Favor: Please Pre-Order *Build, Baby, Build* Now
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
21 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: affirmative action, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
As you know, I go back and forth on the question of affirmative action for college and professional-school admissions, and even after I thought I’d settled on a view (i.e., give some preference to minorities among those equally qualified for admission), it still keeps changing. After I read the long New York Times piece below […]
Nikole Hannah-Jones on reparations for descendants of slaves
GARY JUDD KC: On judicial imperialism
19 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights
Why judges must ‘stay in their lane’ This article with minor differences was published by The Law Association’s Law News on 15 March 2024 Provoked by the Supreme Court’s decision in Smith v Fonterra and others [2024] NZSC 5, Professor James Allan, Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland, a Canadian who taught law at…
GARY JUDD KC: On judicial imperialism
Politics is Ugly
18 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror, World War II
My Dad once told about how the famous British General Bernard Montgomery was asked after WWII whether he might like to go into politics and he declined, saying: War is a dirty business, but politics, by gum! I’ve never looked into the story to see if it’s apocryphal but given that politics appears at the […]
Politics is Ugly
Marriage Fundamentalism: Professor Criticizes Marriage as an Institution Built on “White Heteropatriarchal Supremacy”
17 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
George Mason Professor Bethany Letiecq is at the center of a firestorm of controversy over his article in the Journal of Marriage and Family declaring that the institution of marriage plays a key role in white supremacy. In considering what she labels “marriage fundamentalism,” Letiecq lashes out at the “two-parent married family” model. It is the […]
Marriage Fundamentalism: Professor Criticizes Marriage as an Institution Built on “White Heteropatriarchal Supremacy”
Oh Canada: The Parliament Moves to Impose Potential Life Imprisonment for Speech Crimes
16 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
We have previously discussed the unrelenting attacks by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his allies on free speech. There has been a steady criminalization of speech, including even jokes and religious speech, in Canada. Now, the Canadian parliament is moving toward a new change that would allow the imposition of life imprisonment on those […]
Oh Canada: The Parliament Moves to Impose Potential Life Imprisonment for Speech Crimes
The Tsar Abdicates – Baghdad Falls I THE GREAT WAR Week 138
16 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, war and peace Tags: Russian revolution, World War I
Bonus Quotation of the Day…
15 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, liberalism, Marxist economics
Tweet… is from page 434 of the final (2016) volume – Bourgeois Equality – of Deirdre McCloskey’s soaring trilogy on the essence of bourgeois values, on their transmission, and on their essential role in modern life: Zero-sum is the default in thinking about my gain and thine. It is the chief error in economic thinking…
Bonus Quotation of the Day…
A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex
14 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
On March 8, I wrote a critique of this article, which appeared in American Scientist (click sceenshot to read): When I wrote my piece, I had grown weary of people making the same tired old arguments against the sex binary, arguments like saying that sex isn’t binary because male orangutans come in two forms (“flanged” […]
A good refutation of a bad article on the supposed “spectrum” of sex
Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments
13 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Really? Do I have to rebut the same arguments about the definition of biological sex again? Well, here in American Scientist is a group of two anthropologists, one anatomist, and a gender-and-sexuality-studies professor, all telling us that there is no clear definition of sex, using the same tired old arguments to rebut the gamete-based sex […]
Once again: the claim that sex is non-binary, but there are no new arguments
“Banning Books is Never the Answer”: RuPaul’s “No Censorship” Bookstore Lasted Just Three Days
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
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
10 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, economics of crime, economics of education, economics of love and marriage, gender, income redistribution, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: 2024 presidential election, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
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
The Russian February Revolution 1917 I THE GREAT WAR Week 137
09 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, liberalism, Marxist economics, Public Choice, rentseeking, war and peace Tags: Russian revolution, World War I
The tohunga suppression myth that won’t die
08 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, cranks, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Graham Adams writes — Jonathan Swift’s observation in 1710 that “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it” seems entirely apt for last week’s parliamentary debate on disestablishing the Māori Health Authority. No fewer than three MPs — MPs Cushla Tangaere-Manuel (Labour), Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke (Te Pāti Māori), and Steve Abel (Greens) — referred to […]
The tohunga suppression myth that won’t die
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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