The Harvard Club of New York is being accused of censorship after abruptly cancelling a book event featuring famed Harvard…
“Fight Fiercely Harvard”: Harvard Club of New York Cancels Dershowitz Book Event
“Fight Fiercely Harvard”: Harvard Club of New York Cancels Dershowitz Book Event
28 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Treasury on tax
27 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, public economics Tags: taxation and investment
I’ve never really been persuaded that it is a good idea for public servants to be giving speeches, unless perhaps they are simply and explicitly explaining or articulating government policy. If they are, instead, purporting to run their own views or those of their agency it is almost inevitable that we will be getting less […]
Treasury on tax
The explosive force of democratic expectations
26 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
Chris Trotter writes – Labour needs to defend itself. Winston Peters has made it very clear that he and his party are coming after Labour’s voters. Peters senses an avalanche of Labour support just waiting for a decent-sized detonator to set it sliding in NZ First’s direction. Labour’s leader, Chris Hipkins, should now brace himself […]
The explosive force of democratic expectations
Greens against the rule of law
25 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: rule of law
The Greens announced: Today, the Greens are announcing that a Green Government will commit to revoking any consents or permits handed out under the fast-track process for coal, Hardrock gold and seabed mining. This is the Greens saying that they will revoke consents and permits that were legally granted. This is the sort of behaviour…
Greens against the rule of law
The Flaw at the Core of the Supreme Court’s Uber Decision
25 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: creative destruction, employment law
Roger Partridge writes – The Supreme Court’s Uber judgment (Rasier Operations BV v E Tū Inc [2025] NZSC 162) has delivered clarity of a sort. The Court dismissed Uber’s appeal, upholding the finding that the drivers involved in the proceedings are employees when logged into the Uber app. Yet the decision is deeply flawed. The Court […]
The Flaw at the Core of the Supreme Court’s Uber Decision
Should We Privatise More Government Businesses?
24 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, financial economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, privatisation
Pragmatic analysis says maybe we should, but we should also consider nationalisation. We should certainly consider better regulation. Brian Easton writes – An earlier column argued that we should make the government’s net worth – the value of its assets less its liabilities – more prominent in fiscal policy. Net worth is also fundamental when we are […]
Should We Privatise More Government Businesses?
Guest Post: The Peasants are Revolting
23 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA
A guest post by Peter Lynn: Over the last 30 years, state sectors of Western democracies have expanded and senior level state employment, with its high pay, security and access to the levers of power became a magnet for the academically gifted, especially independence minded younger women. University educated they initially moved into ministries before…
Guest Post: The Peasants are Revolting
If this is employment law, the law needs to change
22 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, transport economics, urban economics Tags: employment law
Eric Crampton writes – Yesterday [November 17], the Supreme Court ruled that Uber did not merely facilitate connections between four drivers and their various passengers – as Uber has maintained. And that the four drivers were not contractors for Uber either. Instead, those drivers were Uber employees while logged into the app.
If this is employment law, the law needs to change
Bill Maher on how socialism is tainting the Democratic party
20 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows
This week’s comedy-and-news segment of Bill Maher’s “Real Time” explains why the creeping socialism of Democrats is good—but for Republicans. who wil exploit it to the max in attack ads. (We now have a socialist mayor of both NYC and Seattle.) Maher quotes Virginia’s new Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, saying that “If the party doesn’t…
Bill Maher on how socialism is tainting the Democratic party
Quotation of the Day…
19 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, income redistribution, industrial organisation, international economics, Milton Friedman, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: free trade, tariffs
Tweet… is from page 158 of Milton Friedman’s 1953 paper “The Case for Flexible Exchange Rates,” as this paper is reprinted in Friedman’s 1953 collection, Essays in Positive Economics: In brief, it [free trade] is desirable in its own right as one of the basic freedoms we cherish; it promotes the efficient use of resources…
Quotation of the Day…
Triggernometry debates sex with Neil deGrasse Tyson
18 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of crime, economics of education, gender, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Here we have the Triggernometry duo (Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster) questioning astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson about his views on gender (the full interview is here). Tyson seems quite agitated, loud, and even patronizing, but largely misses the points that gender-critical people are making. For example, he begins with his infamous argument that sex (or gender; he…
Triggernometry debates sex with Neil deGrasse Tyson
Justice by tikanga? Not for Kapa-Kingi, she prefers the colonial courts
17 Nov 2025 1 Comment
It is pretty funny to watch Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, the ousted Te Pāti Māori MP, trot off to the courts to challenge her expulsion from the party.
Justice by tikanga? Not for Kapa-Kingi, she prefers the colonial courts
The Last Gasp of the Climate Thought Police
17 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Climate cancelling had a good run — but my Cornell lecture showed its finally over
The Last Gasp of the Climate Thought Police
Trump Announces Defamation Lawsuit Against BBC
16 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: free speech, media bias, regressive left
President Donald Trump on Friday announced that he plans to file a defamation lawsuit against the BBC for up to…
Trump Announces Defamation Lawsuit Against BBC
Aussie Mainstream Opposition Formally Abandons Net Zero
15 Nov 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, economics of natural disasters, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - Australia
But still wants to stay in the Paris Agreement?
Aussie Mainstream Opposition Formally Abandons Net Zero
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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