According to the NZ Herald this morning: “Former Prime Minister Helen Clark has described the departure of former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern from politics as “devastating for women around the world”.” Not this one. But then very little devastates me beyond the loss of a loved person or pet. Or dwelling on the suffering of…
Why I disagree with Helen Clark
Why I disagree with Helen Clark
20 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in economics of education, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
The Greens’ weekend gift to the government
19 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economic growth, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, wealth tax
Roger Partridge writes – The Greens’ coronation of Chlöe Swarbrick at last weekend’s AGM delivered a manifesto for economic transformation that would make Soviet economists nostalgic for their glory days.
The Greens’ weekend gift to the government
How unproportional might the next Parliament be?
19 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
MMP is meant to deliver a proportional Parliament. That is how it is designed, and how it was sold. There is one aspect to it though that can make Parliaments unproportional. It is overhang seats – when a party wins more electorates than their share of the party vote would entitle them to. We have […]
How unproportional might the next Parliament be?
Some New York Dems Starting To Realize Climate Targets Are Too Extreme
19 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate alarmism
Some New York Democrats are sounding the alarm over the state’s climate goals, arguing that New York should delay implementing some of its stringent green energy mandates.
Some New York Dems Starting To Realize Climate Targets Are Too Extreme
No Pierogi For You: Dershowitz Denied Food in Martha’s Vineyard Over His Political Views
18 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left, religious discrimination
Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz appears to be living through a remake of the Seinfeld Soup Nazi episode. However, Dershowitz is facing a new culinary menace in Martha’s Vineyard. Chef Krem Miskevich has barred the famed lawyer from buying pierogis because of his political views . . . and liberals are applauding him for it. Welcome to Pierogi […]
No Pierogi For You: Dershowitz Denied Food in Martha’s Vineyard Over His Political Views
Lawrence Krauss interviews Carole Hooven
17 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
This is one of the twenty-odd interviews that Lawrence Krauss conducted to support the new book he edited, The War on Science, comprising essays about the pollution of academia by ideology. (Nearly all of us indict ideology from the Left, though many of us, including me, admit that the Right is currently a bigger threat to […]
Lawrence Krauss interviews Carole Hooven
For a de minimus threshold for mergers
16 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: competition law, merger law enforcement
I’ve spent the last couple of days at the Competition Law and Policy Institute’s annual workshop.Webb-Henderson’s Lucy Wright made a good case for a de minimus threshold for merger controls. Small mergers could have a safe harbour, or mergers in markets of insufficient NZ importance.If we need to set a monetary threshold for a market…
For a de minimus threshold for mergers
FERC Must Seize the Supreme Court’s Energy Opportunity
15 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: nuisance suits
The Court has provided the legal framework. FERC must provide the will to use it.
FERC Must Seize the Supreme Court’s Energy Opportunity
Treasury states what we all knew
14 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, health economics, income redistribution, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of pandemics
The Herald reports: A new Treasury paper has criticised the last Government for overspending during the pandemic, leaving the country with a high level of public debt that makes it vulnerable to future shocks. The paper calculated the total cost of the pandemic at about $66 billion. It put the total fiscal contribution to the […]
Treasury states what we all knew
Judge Crushes Charleston Climate Case
14 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: nuisance suits
EID covers the legal thrashing visited upon Charleston plaintiffs seeking a judgment punishing Big Oil for their role in climate misfortunes. The article is Judge Shuts Down Charleston Climate Case, Warns of “Boundless” Liability. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. A South Carolina judge has dismissed Charleston’s climate lawsuit, delivering a decisive setback […]
Judge Crushes Charleston Climate Case
“Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”: Trump Takeover Renews Questions Over D.C. Crime Data
13 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
Washington, D.C. is a city that has long spun statistics to the point that they become more fable than fact. It reaffirms the famous view that there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The line is the perfect warning to the unwary about politicians citing statistics. The quote itself is widely misrepresented as the work […]
“Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”: Trump Takeover Renews Questions Over D.C. Crime Data
The Climate Beat Goes On
13 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: climate alarmism
My response to 10 questions from the Associated Press on the DOE CWG report
The Climate Beat Goes On
Former Minister refuse to appear before Covid-19 Royal Commission
13 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
The former Ministers spent $60 billion of taxpayers’s money and imposed massive restrictions on New Zealander’s rights as part of the Covid-19 response. They are now refusing to answer questions on their decision making, unless it is done in secret, rather than in public. This is such a huge contempt for the public. They were […]
Former Minister refuse to appear before Covid-19 Royal Commission
A Final Attempt to Explain My Disagreement With John Lott on Trump’s Tariffs
13 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: tarrifs
TweetHere’s a follow-up letter to a new correspondent. Mr. K__: Thanks for your follow-up email, and no need to apologize for what you call your “continued confusion about tariffs as taxes.” It’s I who apologize for communicating unclearly. So, especially because you’re not the only person who I managed to confuse, I’ll take one more…
A Final Attempt to Explain My Disagreement With John Lott on Trump’s Tariffs
Tenth Circuit: Parents Do Not Have Right to Override Ban on Gender Transitioning of Minors
12 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
The Tenth Circuit handed down a notable opinion this week in Poe v. Drummond, upholding Oklahoma’s law prohibiting gender transition procedures for anyone under eighteen. The opinion by Judge Joel Carson (joined by Judges Harris Hartz and Gregory Phillips) concluded that parental rights do not trump a state’s determination of what are safe treatments for […]
Tenth Circuit: Parents Do Not Have Right to Override Ban on Gender Transitioning of Minors
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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