There is an interesting controversy brewing in California after four California university professors threatened a political candidate, Richard Lucas, for…
Professors Behind the California Wealth Tax Threaten Possible Legal Action Against Critic
Professors Behind the California Wealth Tax Threaten Possible Legal Action Against Critic
11 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
Superannuation affordability options
09 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in economic growth, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of immigration, ageing society, population bust
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith at The Spinoff asked me what I thought the options might be for dealing with rising superannuation costs. Her story’s here, along with comment from Max Rashbrooke and Shamubeel Eaqub. My most-preferred option is ongoing increases in immigration rates, coupled with shifting to CPI-indexation of super benefits and indexing the age of eligibility to healthy…
Superannuation affordability options
Who gets in on Labour’s List?
08 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election
Labour have released their party list. People want to know who is likely to get in as a List MP. First how many overall seats will they get? On the average of the public polls it is 39. Then it is how many electorates will they win? Well purely on applying the current party vote…
Who gets in on Labour’s List?
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Ignorance
07 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, financial economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, market efficiency, politics - USA, regulation, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
Everyone in Washington seems to agree that artificial intelligence must be governed. The only real dispute is who gets the steering wheel. Congress? Federal agencies? State legislatures? Some newly minted task force with a long acronym and a taste for reporting requirements? That debate is already too narrow. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on…
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Ignorance
Let’s not celebrate copyright law extension
06 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, law and economics, property rights, Music Tags: patents and copyrights
The Herald reports: The Government is introducing sweeping changes to copyright law, which will see songs like I See Red by Split Enz, Dragon’s April Sun in Cuba and Hello Sailor’s Gutter Black enjoy extended copyright protection. Copyright protection for these songs would expire in the next two years without the law change. As they should. It was released 48 years…
Let’s not celebrate copyright law extension
A “View from the East Wing”: Jill Biden’s Fantasy Book Tour
06 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: constitutional law
Below is my column in the New York Post on the latest claims of former First Lady Jill Biden on…
A “View from the East Wing”: Jill Biden’s Fantasy Book Tour
Minnesota Mob Blindness: St. Paul Prosecutor Drops All Charges Against City Church Demonstrators
05 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
Minnesotans are familiar with the perils of “snow blindness,” a temporary blindness caused by overexposure to ultraviolet rays from the…
Minnesota Mob Blindness: St. Paul Prosecutor Drops All Charges Against City Church Demonstrators
The Free Palestine party shows that political advertising for parliamentary parties should not be taxpayer funded
05 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: 2026 general election, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left
A new political party “Palestine Free from the River to the Sea” are explicitly saying that “Our purpose in creating a party is not to seek power, but to raise awareness. If we can reach 500 members quickly we will qualify for government funding to be used in campaign advertising. Every cent will go towards…
The Free Palestine party shows that political advertising for parliamentary parties should not be taxpayer funded
My Opening Statement for the UATX Caplan-Jones Immigration Rematch
04 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in liberalism, libertarianism, politics - USA, labour economics, development economics, applied price theory, labour supply, growth disasters Tags: economics of immigration
Garett Jones is the best critic of immigration in all of social science. In fact, it’s not even close. To the best of my knowledge, he is the only such critic who has seriously tried to show that the social costs of immigration are even more astronomical than the social benefits of immigration. In fact,…
My Opening Statement for the UATX Caplan-Jones Immigration Rematch
Net Zero Just Cut Aussie Wheat Production by 50%
03 Jun 2026 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - Australia
Too bad all those Aussie oil refineries had to close. The post Net Zero Just Cut Aussie Wheat Production by 50% appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
Net Zero Just Cut Aussie Wheat Production by 50%
Inclusion of UNDRIP in India FreeTrade Agreement
03 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, law and economics, economics of regulation, constitutional political economy, property rights, international economics, economic history Tags: constitutional law
Oral submissions to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee
Inclusion of UNDRIP in India FreeTrade Agreement
Lord Cooke’s Indictment
02 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law
This column was first published in LawNews on 1 June 2026. It continues a series examining the Supreme Court’s departure from the constitutional limits of judicial power. * Roger Partridge writes – The debate about New Zealand’s Supreme Court has been framed as a question about the current court – its composition, its appointments, its judicial philosophy. This column […]
Lord Cooke’s Indictment
Jamieson Greer’s Ignorance of Economics and History Is Alarming
02 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle Tags: free trade, tarrifs
TweetHere’s a letter to F&D Magazine, a publication of the IMF. Editor: U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer wrote more than 2,100 words about trade yet managed to get correct approximately nothing (“Economics for the Real Economy,” June 2026). Just listing his errors would take nearly as many words, so I here address only one of…
Jamieson Greer’s Ignorance of Economics and History Is Alarming
Brazil’s Google News Case and the Art of Not Letting Go
01 Jun 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: competition law
Some legal cases age like wine. Others age like browser tabs left open too long. Brazil’s Google News inquiry belongs firmly in the latter category. On April 3, Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) announced that its Tribunal had unanimously decided to send a seven-year-old administrative inquiry concerning Google’s use of journalistic content—whether for…
Brazil’s Google News Case and the Art of Not Letting Go
New Rule from Bill Maher: Let’s be Frank
31 May 2026 1 Comment
in politics - USA, television, TV shows
Here’s the latest opinion/comedy bit from Friday’s Real Time show with Bill Maher, with the episode called “Let’s be frank.” Maher starts out by citing the recent Democratic Party Autopsy (here) about why the party lost the Presidency and Congress in 2024. But he then faults both parties for having politicians in office who won’t…
New Rule from Bill Maher: Let’s be Frank
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments