The World Bank and other Western institutions retreat from fossil fuel finance has created a significant geopolitical opportunity for China. China is willing to finance fossil fuel projects in Africa and the developing world and reap the strategic benefit of control of energy infrastructure in many countries.
World Bank Reduces Emissions, Not Poverty
World Bank Reduces Emissions, Not Poverty
12 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: climate alarmism
More judicial activism
11 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law, crime and punishment, law and order, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Roger Partridge writes: When Parliament says gang insignia “is forfeited to the Crown,” citizens are entitled to assume those words mean what they say. Yet on 11 August the District Court ruled otherwise. Judge Lance Rowe directed that a Mongrel Mob vest, seized under the Government’s new Gangs Act 2024 and forfeited following a guilty plea, should nevertheless […]
More judicial activism
Te Pāti Māori
10 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
Still the same entitled grifters breaking the rules and achieving nothing
Te Pāti Māori
We do actually have a transformational government
09 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of regulation, law and economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, property rights
Governments of the left like to claim they are transformational, when they’re not. The Ardern Government achieved so little it was the opposite. They used wellbeing as a slogan, and did a couple of disastrous mergers. They spent a lot of money. To be fair the Clark Government did actually achieve some major stuff such […]
We do actually have a transformational government
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand
As I reported in September of last year, every entering student at New Zealand’s Auckland University was required to take an “indigeneity” course—and that includes prospective science majors. As I noted: . . . . at the University of Auckland—New Zealand’s most prestigious university—every student has to take a mandatory course related to indigenous knowledge, […]
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, politics - New Zealand
Jerry Coyne writes – As I reported in September of last year, every entering student at New Zealand’s Auckland University was required to take an “indigeneity” course—and that includes prospective science majors. As I noted: . . . . at the University of Auckland—New Zealand’s most prestigious university—every student has to take a mandatory course […]
University of Auckland set to make mandatory “indigeneity” courses optional, as students considered them a waste of time and money
Claim: Renewable Australia will Have No Problem with Zero Generation Days
08 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - Australia Tags: solar power, wind power
A new study suggests blackouts will only happen sometimes, if we build enough batteries and overcapacity, and a hydrogen export industry.
Claim: Renewable Australia will Have No Problem with Zero Generation Days
The impact of taxes and transfers on inequality in New Zealand
08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality
This week, my ECONS102 class covered inequality, and social security. Which is timely, because I have been meaning to blog about this Treasury Analytical Note from 2024, by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, for some time. Wright and Nguyen look at the distributional impact of taxes, transfers, and government spending (on healthcare and education).Importantly, they distinguish…
The impact of taxes and transfers on inequality in New Zealand
The unraveling of Obamacare?
06 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA Tags: health insurance
Paul Krugman has a recent post defending the exchange subsidies and tax credits that the Republicans wish to cut, talking with Jonathan Cohn about the “premium apocalypse” (and here). Whether or not one agrees with Krugman normatively, the arguments if anything convince me that Obamacare probably is not financially or politically stable. To recap some […]
The unraveling of Obamacare?
Bill Maher’s New Rules
05 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, politics - USA, television, TV shows
Bill Maher is on a winning streak with his 7-8-minute politics and comedy bits on his “Real Time” show. Here’s the one from yesterday, called “New Rule: Long Division”: This one’s about gender (he means “sex”), with Maher saying “Until the Democrats come to grips with that, they’ve not going to have much success winning […]
Bill Maher’s New Rules
The terrible US fiscals
03 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - USA, Public Choice
Bryce Wilkinson writes: Imagine that your family spent twice as much as it earned last month. Around the kitchen table, the mood would be grim and the bank’s patience likely wearing thin. In August 2025, the United States federal Government spent over twice its income, US$689 billion ($1.152 trillion) versus receipts of US$344b. Even doubling […]
The terrible US fiscals
Carole Hooven in Tablet on binary sex
03 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, gender gap, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Dr. Hooven (“Carole” to me) has a new piece in Tablet (click headline below to read for free) explaining why all sensible biologists see sex as a binary defined by two (and only two) types of gametes. Perhaps you’ll already be familiar with some of her arguments in the article below (click to read), as […]
Carole Hooven in Tablet on binary sex
Te Pāti Māori deep in the kaka after messy divorce from Toitū Te Tiriti
02 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Political divorces are never pretty, and the split between Te Pāti Māori and Toitū Te Tiriti is proving no exception.
Te Pāti Māori deep in the kaka after messy divorce from Toitū Te Tiriti
Against Cancel Culture
02 Oct 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Cancel culture has emerged as one of the most prominent features of the digital age, celebrated by some as a form of grassroots justice but increasingly criticised as a destructive force. Far from fostering accountability, cancel culture corrodes civil discourse, punishes disproportionately, and undermines the very values of free expression and fairness it claims to […]
Against Cancel Culture
Understanding Financial Instability in Argentina
01 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, international economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - USA Tags: Argentina
Earlier this month, shortly after some depressing results in a regional election in Argentina, I was interviewed by Patrick Young. In this clip, I express concern Argentine voters will backslide to Peronism. As one might expect, some people are concerned the Peronist victory in the Buenos Aires regional election could be a harbinger of bad […]
Understanding Financial Instability in Argentina
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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