Bill Maher’s 8½-minute monologue, largely about the advanced age of Joe Biden, aired on Real Time last night. His point: don’t let the opposition define you, and be who you really are. In Biden’s case, that’s being old, and Biden should, says Maher, “own it.” I’m not sure that would really work, though. Americans watch Biden, […]
Bill Maher’s weekly monologue
Bill Maher’s weekly monologue
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, television, TV shows Tags: 2024 presidential election
The Uncompetitive Urban Land Markets Theory of Everything
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, income redistribution, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
The Housing Theory of Everything has one of those wonderful self-explanatory titles. A good title matters. The recent and thorough essay explains how the anglosphere’s unnecessarily expensive housing affects, well, everything. Or at least almost everything.Zoning makes it too hard to build houses where people want to build. Urban containment policies block new subdivisions, so…
The Uncompetitive Urban Land Markets Theory of Everything
PETER WILLIAMS: RIP Newshub
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, financial economics, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, survivor principle Tags: media bias
Could anything have saved it? The real surprise is not that Newshub is going under but that it’s lasted this long. TV 3 started broadcasting in November 1989, almost 35 years ago. It was a different era. There was no Sky, no digital platforms and the new kid on the block was going head to head…
PETER WILLIAMS: RIP Newshub
CALLUM PURVES: National preparing to keep Labour’s 15% App Tax
03 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, public economics
Labour’s App Tax is a 15% sales tax paid for by the mum and dad accommodation providers, takeaway joints, and ride share drivers. The App Tax hits sole-traders who sell their services through an app or website such as Uber or Airbnb. It will add even more to the costs of living for every Kiwi…
CALLUM PURVES: National preparing to keep Labour’s 15% App Tax
Did Bush Lie About Iraq?
02 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Atomic weapons, Iraq
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Economics 101 explains why Newshub Bankrupted
02 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, industrial organisation, market efficiency, politics - New Zealand, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: creative destruction
Economics 101 explains why Newshub Bankrupted – it was the fault of its own journalists who should recognize they were the architects of their own demise. A thousand books and papers in economics and business strategy are about the topic of product differentiation – ensuring that what you sell is different from others in order…
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Economics 101 explains why Newshub Bankrupted
Labour’s legacy
01 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics
A Moment of Truth: Five Questions for Hunter Biden
01 Mar 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in the New York Post on the closed door deposition of Hunter Biden. After years of conflicting and evasive responses on these corruption allegations, Hunter Biden is now faced with a moment of truth.
A Moment of Truth: Five Questions for Hunter Biden
“Craven” and “Insurrectionists”: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Other Denounce the Supreme Court for Granting Review of Presidential Immunity
29 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted review of the presidential immunity question, but set an expedited schedule for the review of the question with oral argument scheduled for April. Former president Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Legal Scholars are extremely thankful for the Supreme Court’s Decision today to take up Presidential Immunity.” As I […]
“Craven” and “Insurrectionists”: MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Other Denounce the Supreme Court for Granting Review of Presidential Immunity
Productivity Commission gone tomorrow, Māori Health Authority gone in June – so what should we do with the Waitangi Tribunal?
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, health economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking
The Productivity Commission will cease operations tomorrow, to make way for the new Ministry for Regulation. On the same day, the Waitangi Tribunal will begin an urgent inquiry into the government’s proposal to disestablish the Māori Health Authority. But legislation passed under urgency by Parliament will result in the authority being shut down by the end […]
Productivity Commission gone tomorrow, Māori Health Authority gone in June – so what should we do with the Waitangi Tribunal?
“We Don’t Do That Here.”: Former NY Times Editor Blasts the “Gray Lady” for Bias and Activism
28 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: free speech, media bias, political correctness, regressive left
Former New York Times editor Adam Rubenstein has a lengthy essay at The Atlantic that pulls back the curtain on the newspaper and its alleged bias in its coverage. The essay follows similar pieces from former editors and writers that range from Bari Weiss to Rubenstein’s former colleague James Bennet. The essay describes a similar […]
“We Don’t Do That Here.”: Former NY Times Editor Blasts the “Gray Lady” for Bias and Activism
The US Housing Market Is Very Quickly Becoming Unaffordable
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: land supply, zoning
In a post from July 2021, I discussed housing affordability and “zoning taxes” — in other words, how land use restrictions such as zoning were driving up the cost of housing in some US cities. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and New York stood out as the clear outliers, with “zoning taxes” adding several multiples […]
The US Housing Market Is Very Quickly Becoming Unaffordable
Goodbye to the Productivity Commission
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice
The Productivity Commission closes its doors on Thursday and goes out of existence. There have been a couple of recent articles on the demise of the Productivity Commission, and the chair (Ganesh Nana) has even put out his own statement (not exactly compelling) on productivity, and policy options for improving New Zealand’s dismal performance. There […]
Goodbye to the Productivity Commission
Statewide Rent Control Being Considered in Washington
27 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economics of regulation, politics - USA, urban economics Tags: rent control
Five things to know about WA proposal to limit rent hikes | The Seattle Times Isn’t rent control one of the most studied economic experiments? And hasn’t it been shown to be, over the long term, a disaster for everyone involved? What does economic evidence tell us about the effects of rent control? | Brookings […]
Statewide Rent Control Being Considered in Washington
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Former PM Hipkins & Profs Bloomfield & Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated
27 Feb 2024 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
Why are we still talking about Covid when many countries – like the US – have moved on? Well the US economy is currently booming and ours is stuck in the mud. The reason has emerged over time. Although our response to the virus was to be commended in early 2020 when no-one knew what…
ROBERT MacCULLOCH: Former PM Hipkins & Profs Bloomfield & Baker should be held accountable for quoting statistics that have now been shown to be wrongly estimated
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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