Max Rashbrooke has been kidnapped again to be replaced by a neoliberal doppelganger
08 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: privatisation
Jury nullification in the air for terrorists
08 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of crime, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: climate activists, juries
How Much Do Tariffs Raise Prices?
08 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tariffs
We break down how much of a tariff is ‘passed through’ to customersBy Jason Douglas, Anthony DeBarros and Danny Dougherty of The WSJ. Excerpts:”For example, a 10% tariff on shoes from China would raise their sticker price 4% or so, but on wine or olive oil from Italy, almost 10%.Why the difference? Tariffs aren’t the…
How Much Do Tariffs Raise Prices?
Driving a Stake Through Stakeholder Capitalism
07 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, politics - USA Tags: climate activists, greenwashing, regressive left
E, S, G does not cover core financial risks. We’re looking to assess financially-relevant environmental, social and governance factors, not financially-relevant financial factors.” Got that? Yup. It’s total hogwash.
Driving a Stake Through Stakeholder Capitalism
Down But Not Out: The Supreme Court Rules 5-4 Against the Freezing $2 Billion in USAID Funds
07 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, constitutional law
In an interesting 5-4 split, the Supreme Court has denied the Trump Administration’s application for a stay of a district court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Administration’s effort to freeze $2 billion in funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Administration is down by one vote but hardly out in the fight […]
Down But Not Out: The Supreme Court Rules 5-4 Against the Freezing $2 Billion in USAID Funds
Spoiling for a Fight: Why the Administration’s Loss Last Night May Be Not Just Expected But Welcomed
07 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, constitutional law
Late Saturday, D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that President Donald Trump violated federal law in firing Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel. Jackson’s decision is forceful, well-written, and challengeable under existing precedent. Indeed, it may have just set up an appeal that both presidents and professors have long waited for […]
Spoiling for a Fight: Why the Administration’s Loss Last Night May Be Not Just Expected But Welcomed
Should we ditch the word “gender”?
06 Mar 2025 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
I’ve written sentences like this many times: “While biological sex is a binary, gender in humans forms more of a spectrum.” But I was never really sure what “gender” meant. I know that it’s generally synonymous with “sex”, but that is clearly not what I meant when I spoke as I did above. What did […]
Should we ditch the word “gender”?
RICHARD PREBBLE: Letter of resignation from the Waitangi Tribunal
06 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, discrimination, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Hon Tama Potaka Minister of Maori Development 28 February 2025 Dear Minister, After careful consideration I must resign as a Member of the Waitangi Tribunal. The treaty is not just our founding document, it makes New Zealand unique. Two peoples peacefully agreeing to form a nation. Over the summer I have been reading Tribunal reports […]
RICHARD PREBBLE: Letter of resignation from the Waitangi Tribunal
Should we ditch the word “gender”?
06 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, economics of media and culture, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: conjecture and refutation, free speech, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
I’ve written sentences like this many times: “While biological sex is a binary, gender in humans forms more of a spectrum.” But I was never really sure what “gender” meant. I know that it’s generally synonymous with “sex”, but that is clearly not what I meant when I spoke as I did above. What did […]
Should we ditch the word “gender”?
This week’s Bill Maher clip
05 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, television, TV shows Tags: 2024 presidential election, 2028 presidential election
In this latest nine-minute comedy/news bit from Bill Maher’s “Real Time,” a show that included Rahm Emanuel and Fareed Zakaria, Maher suggests who the Dems should run for President and Vice-President in 2028. Ths clip, called “New Rule: The next Democratic Star” proffers a solution to the waning popularity of the Democratic Party and the […]
This week’s Bill Maher clip
Adrian Orr resigns
05 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, fiscal policy, inflation targeting, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, unemployment Tags: economics of pandemics, monetary policy
Adrian Orr has resigned as Reserve Bank Governor. I normally try to highlight the good as well as the bad when someone resigns, but I have to admit in this case I struggle. I welcomed his appointment in 2017. I noted the currency rose on his appointment and that he had a very good legacy […]
Adrian Orr resigns
Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism
05 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, budget deficits, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, health economics, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, unemployment Tags: economics of pandemics
That’s the title of a 2024 book by a couple of Australian academic economists, Steven Hamilton (based in US) and Richard Holden (a professor at the University of New South Wales). The subtitle of the book is “How we crushed the curve but lost the race”. It is easy to get off on the wrong […]
Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism
GRAHAM ADAMS: John Tamihere and Te Pāti Māori are in a world of pain
05 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
The government cutting Whānau Ora funding would be a crippling blow. For the longest time, it has been impossible to make Te Pāti Māori…
GRAHAM ADAMS: John Tamihere and Te Pāti Māori are in a world of pain
Our updated letter to the three ecology/evolution societies who claimed that sex was a spectrum
04 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: conjecture and refutation, free speech, gender gap, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
As I wrote on February 13, three important societies representing evolutionary biology, ecology, and systematics issued a grossly misleading statement aimed at the government. (It is dated February 5, but I don’t think it’s yet been sent): As I reported recently, the Presidents of three organismal-biology societies, the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), […]
Our updated letter to the three ecology/evolution societies who claimed that sex was a spectrum
RODNEY HIDE: Fight! Fight! Fight!
04 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in health economics, law and economics, liberalism, politics - New Zealand, transport economics Tags: economics of pandemics, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
It was shocking how the institutions we thought we could rely on crumbled like a stack of cards. The opposition, the media, the courts,…
RODNEY HIDE: Fight! Fight! Fight!
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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