The Press reports: A secondary teachers’ union is hiring an expert to develop guidelines for dealing with the rise in far-right extremism in the classroom. The successful applicant will be paid $10,000 to write “specific advice and guidelines for the membership on dealing with extremism in the classroom”. Do they mean Marxist extremists? I suspect…
Why is the PPTA not worried about far-left extremism?
Why is the PPTA not worried about far-left extremism?
15 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of education, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
Tehran Rose: Will Far-Left Influencers Face Charges in Rallying America’s Enemies?
14 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, Iran, regressive left
Below is my column in The Hill on the controversies involving far-left influencers rallying support for Iranian and anti-American interests.…
Tehran Rose: Will Far-Left Influencers Face Charges in Rallying America’s Enemies?
Survey: Democrats Turning Heavily in Favor of Socialism
05 Jul 2026 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - USA
For many of us who were raised in liberal, Democratic families, the infusion of socialist, anti-free-speech, and anti-Semitic elements into…
Survey: Democrats Turning Heavily in Favor of Socialism
Nine Tweets Ripping Mamdani’s Economically Illiterate Expansion of Rent Control
28 Jun 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, income redistribution, law and economics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, urban economics Tags: rent control

I’ve written several columns (here, here, here, here, and here) detailing the folly of rent control. And now that New York City’s dilettante socialist mayor has proposed to expand rent control, I thought about doing the same thing. But I noticed so many clever comments on Twitter/X that I decided on a different approach. Here […]
Nine Tweets Ripping Mamdani’s Economically Illiterate Expansion of Rent Control
The Hollowing of the Political Centre
27 Jun 2026 1 Comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: voter demographics
Across the Western democracies, the political centre is under pressure. The populist right is rising, especially in Europe and the United States, while younger voters are showing renewed interest in socialism, or at least in much more interventionist economic policies. The result is not that the centre has vanished, but that it has lost much […]
The Hollowing of the Political Centre
In UK politics, is Andy Burnham an unelectable Jeremy Corbyn 2.0?
21 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics Tags: British politics
I’ll treat this as a comparison of political positioning, leadership style, and electability rather than a slogan. I’ll check the current context first, since both Burnham and Corbyn’s roles/reputations can shift with recent Labour politics. Not really. Andy Burnham is better seen as a soft-left, regionalist, pragmatic Labour populist — not “Jeremy Corbyn 2.0.” The […]
In UK politics, is Andy Burnham an unelectable Jeremy Corbyn 2.0?
A Nordic Nightmare for AOC
19 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economic history, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply

In 2015, I wrote a column entitled “A Nordic Nightmare for Bernie Sanders.” Today, let’s do something similar, but this time I’ll explain why economic data from northernmost Europe is bad news for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I’m motivated to address the issue because I just saw this tweet about how Scandinavian-Americans are much richer than their […]
A Nordic Nightmare for AOC
The History of Greenpeace: The Evolution of Green Extremism
14 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of climate change, economics of crime, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, International law, law and economics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: climate activists, nuisance suits
The era of unchecked “activism” that masks itself as science while practicing inhumane sabotage is reaching its end. We are witnessing the slow, painful process of reality catching up to the Greenpeace propaganda. And frankly, it’s about time. The post The History of Greenpeace: The Evolution of Green Extremism appeared first on Watts Up With…
The History of Greenpeace: The Evolution of Green Extremism
Hayekian Literary Criticism
09 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, Marxist economics, movies, television
In economics, Marx is relegated to the history of thought as his ideas were an economic dead end and a political disaster. Yet Marx-influenced literary criticism is a dominant mode of analysis in nearly every English department in the country. It’s not that the English professors are all Marxists, it’s that even the non-Marxists reach…
Hayekian Literary Criticism
Turning point in identity politics
06 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: British politics, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
The Australian Editorial, 6 June 2026 The death of British university student Henry Nowak, 18, on a Southampton street as police were handcuffing him after he was stabbed by a cold-blooded murderer – who had falsely accused Nowak of racism – should be a turning point in the destructive ideologies of Critical Race Theory and identity […]
Turning point in identity politics
NZ First’s foray into transgender issues might be ethically dubious, but politically it could be a winner
27 May 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights Tags: 2024 presidential election, sex discrimination

One political advertisement stood out from the thousands that blitzed the US presidential campaign of 2024. It inflicted enormous damage on the Democratic Party’s flagbearer, Kamala Harris. The ad’s central tagline deployed just two sentences: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.” Former President Bill Clinton urged the Harris Campaign to come back […]
NZ First’s foray into transgender issues might be ethically dubious, but politically it could be a winner
The Case Against Socialism, Part V
24 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth disasters, growth miracles, macroeconomics, Marxist economics Tags: North Korea, South Korea

As far as I know, Matt Mitchell and I are not related, but we both have a low opinion of socialism. He covers a lot of ground (defining socialism, the role of prices, socialism’s death toll, and the myth of Nordic socialism) in this 15-minute interview. Matt does such a good job that I didn’t […]
The Case Against Socialism, Part V
Grow the Pie, Skip the Sermon
08 May 2026 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, health economics, history of economic thought, liberalism, Marxist economics

In a recent Substack essay, “The progress movement needs a better theory of progress,” Brink Lindsey argues that the progress movement has settled for too thin a vision. It focuses on wealth creation and technological advance, he says, when it should adopt a “fuller conception of progress”—one that promotes “spiritual welfare” and thicker accounts of…
Grow the Pie, Skip the Sermon
Forthcoming – Cuban Infant Mortality and Longevity: Health Care or Repression?
05 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, health economics, Marxist economics, transport economics Tags: Cuba, life expectancies
I have received news that a short article submitted to Health Policy & Planning has been accepted for publication. In the article, I argue that the statistics regarding Cuba’s health care are distorted by the incentives generated by the target system under which physicians must operate (at the threat of penalties). To meet their targets, they re-categorize […]
Forthcoming – Cuban Infant Mortality and Longevity: Health Care or Repression?
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