TweetHere’s a letter to a new correspondent. Mr. H__: Thanks for your email. You write, in response to this post of mine, that I am “too quick at second guessing the president and his administration on its determination of the trade behaviors of other countries.” You say that I “owe the administration the benefit of…
They Don’t Deserve the Benefit of the Doubt
They Don’t Deserve the Benefit of the Doubt
17 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: free trade, tarrifs
Reform’s trolling policy
17 May 2026 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics Tags: British politics, economics of immigration
The Guardian reports: A Reform government will not put any migrant detention facilities in any constituency with a Reform MP. Nor will we put them where Reform controls the council. And of the remaining areas, we will prioritise Green controlled parliamentary constituencies and Green controlled councils to locate the detention centres. Put simply, if you…
Reform’s trolling policy
Review of “Reagan: His Life and Legend” by Max Boot
17 May 2026 Leave a comment
Max Boot’s long-awaited “Reagan: His Life and Legend” was released two weeks ago. Boot is an author, historian and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His 2018 “The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography. For a modern president who […]
Review of “Reagan: His Life and Legend” by Max Boot
Bigger than Ben Hur
16 May 2026 1 Comment
in Austrian economics, economics of regulation, health economics, industrial organisation, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand Tags: black markets, economics of smoking
Radio NZ reports: Deakin University associate criminology professor Dr James Martin told RNZ the Australian approach had relied on enforcement to suppress the black market. “This has been really ineffective,” he said. “We’ve got between 50-60 percent of all tobacco and nearly all vaping products in Australia now come from criminal suppliers, and it’s generated…
Bigger than Ben Hur
The Sting in the India Trade Deal
16 May 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of regulation, international economic law, international economics, International law, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: India, preferential trading agreements
A Constitutional Trojan Horse: advancing change through political stealth Trade Minister Hon Todd McClay has announced that the New Zealand-India free trade agreement has been signed and that the formal parliamentary treaty scrutiny process is now under way. The full text of the agreement is now public and has been referred to Parliament’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee […]
The Sting in the India Trade Deal
An affront to democracy?
16 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: climate activists, constitutional law
Mike Smith, the climate activist suing six of New Zealand’s largest companies over greenhouse gas emissions, is unhappy. On Tuesday, the Government announced it will amend the Climate Change Response Act 2002 to stop cases like his and others like it. Smith calls the move “an affront to democracy.” He has the wrong end of the […]
An affront to democracy?
Disaster? NYT Op-Ed on Demoting the Climate Pitch
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism
This essay is capitulation to catastrophe…. Don’t talk about it, then the public won’t know about it, then you can’t run for office on it and the country won’t act on the emergency. The post Disaster? NYT Op-Ed on Demoting the Climate Pitch appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
Disaster? NYT Op-Ed on Demoting the Climate Pitch
Strategic overhangs and ways to prevent them in MMP systems
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, politics - New Zealand
In mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral systems, an “overhang” seat can result if a party wins more seats via the nominal tier (of, typically, single-seat districts) than it would be entitled to if a regular proportional-representation (PR) systems were used.
Strategic overhangs and ways to prevent them in MMP systems
Review of “Ted Kennedy: A Life” by John A. Farrell
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of education, economics of media and culture, politics - USA
Ted Kennedy: A Life by John A. Farrell 752 pages Penguin Press Published: Oct 2022 “Ted Kennedy: A Life” is John Farrell’s just-released biography of the youngest son of Joseph P. Kennedy. Farrell is a former correspondent for The Boston Globe who has written biographies of Tip O’Neill and Richard Nixon (a Pulitzer Prize finalist […]
Review of “Ted Kennedy: A Life” by John A. Farrell
The Māori political class is failing its people
15 May 2026 Leave a comment
On Monday, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi announced publicly she was leaving Te Pāti Māori to form the Te Tai Tokerau Party. The announcement was framed in the language of mana motuhake, regional self-determination, and wahine leadership. It was, she said, the approach she and her team decided was best for them.
The Māori political class is failing its people
Why it is unlikely Waititi’s thinking about one-term government and the Maori Party will be realised
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
Rawiri Waititi is absolutely correct when he says there will be no one-term government without Te Pati Māori. At no point since the last election have Labour and the Green Party been polling strongly enough to contemplate forming a government without the inclusion of Te Pati Māori. And even if Te Pati Māori were to […]
Why it is unlikely Waititi’s thinking about one-term government and the Maori Party will be realised
Review of “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century” by Beverly Gage
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, politics - USA
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage 864 pages Viking (Penguin Random House) Published: Nov 2022 One of 2022’s most notable new biographies is Beverly Gage’s long-awaited “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.” Gage is a professor of American history at Yale University […]
Review of “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century” by Beverly Gage
A good idea for supermarket competition
14 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, urban economics Tags: competition law, land supply, zoning
The Spinoff reports: Both Labour and National governments have considered the idea of breaking up the big two but ultimately decided against it. A 2023 analysis by MBIE suggested forcibly breaking up the supermarkets could cost as much as $3.8 billion over 20 years, mostly due to the loss of economies of scale. It could make wholesale and distribution…
A good idea for supermarket competition
Bill Maher’s newest rule: young people and political violence
13 May 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, television, TV shows
This week Bill Maher’s comedy-and-news bit is about the “Assassination Generation,” referring to all the young men who kill or commit arson for ideological reasons. As we know, a big proportion of young people (about 40%) think that political violence is sometimes warranted. As you might expect, Maher deplores this behavior and the ideas behind…
Bill Maher’s newest rule: young people and political violence
Three Months In: EPA’s Endangerment Finding Repeal Has Quietly Become a Legal Fight, not a Scientific One
12 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice
For all the talk of finally relitigating the underlying climate science, the EPA’s final rule does almost none of that. It does not argue that greenhouse gases fail to qualify as pollutants. It does not litigate model sensitivities, the surface temperature record, attribution methodology, or any of the empirical questions that WUWT contributors and others…
Three Months In: EPA’s Endangerment Finding Repeal Has Quietly Become a Legal Fight, not a Scientific One
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