It seems as if a few times every week, I see a headline about President Trump announcing a new tariff or repealing a tariff, sometimes involve many countries and sometime just a few. However, it is not at all clear that any president has a right to alter tariffs. This question was raised before Trump…
Economists on the Trump Tariffs Supreme Court Case
Economists on the Trump Tariffs Supreme Court Case
07 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, international economic law, international economics, International law, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: free trade, tarrifs
Te Pāti Māori’s future: in the House, or on the streets?
05 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
Chris Trotter writes – Te Pāti Māori’s consistent failure to participate in the day-to-day business of Parliament is telling. Citizens availing themselves of the consultative machinery of Parliament, select committees in particular, report Te Pāti Māori no-shows with a regularity strongly suggestive of its non-participation being more of a feature than a bug. The argument that […]
Te Pāti Māori’s future: in the House, or on the streets?
The TPM putsch is on
04 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
David Farrar writes – Back on September 12 I blogged: Reliable sources tell me this is much bigger than I realised. There is a huge split in TPM, basically between the Tamihere aligned MPs and the rest. I have been told that some existing MPs are facing deselection, and that this is behind what we are […]
The TPM putsch is on
Bill Gates Returns to Energy Pragmatism
03 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism
Alex Epstein reports regarding Bill Gates latest statement downplaying climate doomsterism, and reminds us that he hasn’t changed his mind so much as he is now able to speak freely. For example, watch this short video of Bill Gates in 2019. Alex Epstein posted his conversation with Fox News Will Cain: Why Bill Gates is […]
Bill Gates Returns to Energy Pragmatism
David Seymour exposes the fraud of the anti-colonial crusade
02 Nov 2025 1 Comment
ACT Leader David Seymour hit the nail on the head with his latest post about the Kapa-Kingi’s and Te Pāti Māori.
David Seymour exposes the fraud of the anti-colonial crusade
Does the state need to own houses to help families?
01 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, law and economics, Public Choice, market efficiency, industrial organisation, managerial economics, organisational economics, public economics, property rights, urban economics, applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy Tags: state ownership, public housing
A good report from the NZ Initiative that looks at whether ownership of state houses is the best way to help low income NZ families with housing. Some key extracts: That $29,000 per unit estimated cost is not the cost of income related rents – they are the same regardless of whether the state or […]
Does the state need to own houses to help families?
Capital gains tax: how Hipkins has abandoned policy soundness for a symbolic gesture
01 Nov 2025 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, income redistribution, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and investment
Peter Dunne writes – In 1994 the then Labour Opposition resolved to introduce a new top tax rate of 39 cents in the dollar. The reason for the policy was purely political, not fiscal. Labour was shedding votes to Jim Anderton’s left-wing Alliance at the time and wanted to do something symbolic to staunch the flow. […]
Capital gains tax: how Hipkins has abandoned policy soundness for a symbolic gesture
The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials
31 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, law and order, racial discrimination
In a great paper, The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials, Shamena Anwar, Patrick Bayer and Randi Hjalmarsson exploit random variation in the jury pool to estimate the effect of race on criminal trials. The authors have data from nearly 800 trials in two Florida counties. On any given day, a jury pool is randomly […]
The Impact of Jury Race in Criminal Trials
Guardian, Sky, ITV erase pro-Hamas views of British man facing US deportation
30 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, law and economics, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, media bias, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
The Guardian (“ICE detains British journalist after criticism of Israel on US tour“), Sky News (“Anger after British commentator held by ICE in US… The post Guardian, Sky, ITV erase pro-Hamas views of British man facing US deportation appeared first on CAMERA UK.
Guardian, Sky, ITV erase pro-Hamas views of British man facing US deportation
How the British establishment votes
29 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in politics Tags: British politics
An interesting poll at Electoral Calculus, where a 2,000 person poll of the British Establishment was done. They found: It would be interesting to do the same poll here. Very telling. Hating your country’s history! The post How the British establishment votes first appeared on Kiwiblog.
How the British establishment votes
Te Pāti Māori’s campaign truck repossessed
28 Oct 2025 1 Comment
Shiny on the outside, rotten at the core
Te Pāti Māori’s campaign truck repossessed
NZ may be on the cusp of another measles outbreak – what happened in 2019 should be a warning
28 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: anti-vaccination movement, vaccines
Anna Howe, Emma Best and Rachel Webb write – The recent confirmation of new measles cases unconnected to international travel suggests the highly contagious disease has likely started spreading through communities, according to Health New Zealand. This is a stark reminder of the pending danger of a larger measles outbreak. To prevent transmission once the measles virus […]
NZ may be on the cusp of another measles outbreak – what happened in 2019 should be a warning
Teslas and virtue flaunting
27 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - USA, transport economics, urban economics Tags: electric cars, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
I have been waiting for several weeks for this first car—a Tesla sedan (or whatever you call it)—to show up on my block again. It finally did, as I wanted to photograph it. First, the back (license plate number redacted): And, just to the left of the plate is this sticker: For zero emissions AND […]
Teslas and virtue flaunting
Why it’s not stupid to criticize aspects of leftist ideology that pollute science
27 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
I’m getting tired of virtue-flaunting miscreants who yammer about our anthology The War on Science (Lawrence Krauss, ed.). Their beef? By and large, the 32 chapters by 39 authors discuss the negative effects of woke ideology on science, effects that come largely from inside science: scientists themselves, journals, publishers, university programs, and so on. And, […]
Why it’s not stupid to criticize aspects of leftist ideology that pollute science
Not bad for first time
26 Oct 2025 Leave a comment
The Post reports: About one in five ACT local candidates won the seats they stand for and party leader David Seymour says he’s happy more weren’t successful because now they can stand to run for Parliament. “In some cases, I was kind of hoping they wouldn’t get elected so we can run them next year,” […]
Not bad for first time
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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