Buzz from the Beehive There’s plenty to raise a Health Minister’s blood pressure. Take – for example – news that Health New Zealand spent $72 million on contractors and consultants for a single IT project, in the lead-up to moving to get rid of over 1000 positions for IT employees. One recruitment company alone, Robert […]
So that’s what gets Reti riled – a National Public Health Service submission against McDonald’s setting up shop in Wanaka
So that’s what gets Reti riled – a National Public Health Service submission against McDonald’s setting up shop in Wanaka
30 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: nanny state, zoning
Marc Andreesen Gives Examples of Fascism
29 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: regressive left
Marc Andreessen is not as well known now as he was at the dawn of the Interwbbby age when he developed the world’s first widely used web browser that had a graphic interface, Mosaic, which was rapidly copied by everybody else. From that success he leveraged it into co-founding Netscape, whose software engineers contributed important Web […]
Marc Andreesen Gives Examples of Fascism
Jay Bhattacharya at the NIH
29 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, economics of pandemics
Trump has announced the appointment, so it is worth thinking through a few matters. While much of the chatter is about the Great Barrington Declaration, I would note that Bhattacharya has a history of focusing on the costs of obesity. So perhaps we can expect more research funding for better weight loss drugs, in addition […]
Jay Bhattacharya at the NIH
Gallup: Public Support for Gun Bans Craters
29 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: gun control
According to Gallup’s latest polling, support for a handgun ban has fallen to just 20 percent and support for an “assault weapons” ban has cratered to just 52 percent. Gun bans were a constant call from both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris over the last four years. President Biden often combined the […]
Gallup: Public Support for Gun Bans Craters
The Royal Commission on Covid-19 Report is a Repugnant, Unstructured Mishmash of Disinformation, Dressed up as a Single Source of Truth.
28 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
How can Professor Blakely, who is co-author of NZ’s Royal Commission Report into Covid, write a report critiquing our government’s approach to Covid when he was the intellectual architect of that approach? He co-authored the 2020 British Medical Journal article with Professor Michael Baker called, “Elimination could be the optimal response strategy for covid-19”. That…
The Royal Commission on Covid-19 Report is a Repugnant, Unstructured Mishmash of Disinformation, Dressed up as a Single Source of Truth.
A defense of the sex binary against Steven Novella’s “multidimensional” definition of sex
27 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left
At the CSICon meetings in Las Vegas this November, I gave a half-hour talk on the two aspects of evolutionary biology that have been most deeply misrepresented by ideologues: sex and race. “Progressives” maintain that sex is not binary but a spectrum, and also that “race and ethnicity are social constructs, without scientific or biological […]
A defense of the sex binary against Steven Novella’s “multidimensional” definition of sex
Maximum Progress on Progressivism
27 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: conjecture and refutation
If you are not yet a fan of Michael Huemer, you should be. Hyperbole is the worst thing in the universe, but I still affirm the following: Huemer’s The Problem of Political Authority is the best book on political philosophy. Huemer’s Ethical Intuitionism is the best book on meta-ethics. Huemer’s Knowledge, Reality, and Value is…
Maximum Progress on Progressivism
Centrist: Debbie Ngarewa-Packer admits Māori have ‘different rights’
26 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
The Centrist reports – In a Q&A interview with Jack Tame, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer acknowledged Māori have separate rights under Te Tiriti o Waitangi as tangata whenua. When pressed on whether this meant different standards of citizenship, she said, “We have different expectations and different rights, absolutely.”
Centrist: Debbie Ngarewa-Packer admits Māori have ‘different rights’
Small but promising change
26 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
Mark Mitchell released data on crime. The summary was: So a huge reduction in ram raids and modest reductions in violent crimes. Change takes time, and hopefully next year will see larger drops.
Small but promising change
New MIT course to indoctrinate students in all aspects of woke ideology that colonize medicine
26 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in economics of education, health economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
This new course, to be offered next spring at MIT, was first singled out on The Babbling Beaver site, which calls attention to “fake news” at the university that usually turns out, as in this case, to be real news. The Beaver said this about the course. Feminist theory, disability justice, critical race theory, queer […]
New MIT course to indoctrinate students in all aspects of woke ideology that colonize medicine
In which James Carville disappoints me
26 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
I’ve always been a big fan of James Carville, the political strategist who turned 80 last month. I love his Louisiana accent, his curmudgeonly behavior and pull-no-punches discourse, and his inevitable appearance on television wearing a Louisana State University shirt, the place he went to college (he was also in the Marines). You may remember […]
In which James Carville disappoints me
Try as they might, the Australian Green party can’t make university education free
25 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, politics - Australia, poverty and inequality, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking Tags: College premium, regressive left
The Australian Green party has proposed cancelling all student debt in Australia, as part of an aim for government to provide “free education for life”. However, free education is not free. In an article in The Conversation earlier this month, Bruce Chapman (Australian National University) makes a case against the claim that cancelling student debt…
Try as they might, the Australian Green party can’t make university education free
Justice Department Indicts Alleged Swatters of Turley, Members of Congress, and Others
25 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, law and order
Yesterday, I was notified by the Justice Department confirming that a recent swatting indictment includes the person or persons responsible for my own swatting a year ago. One of the defendants, Thomasz Szabo, was arrested a couple weeks ago.
Justice Department Indicts Alleged Swatters of Turley, Members of Congress, and Others
The Treaty Principles debate: Parliament is having a third go at addressing this conundrum
25 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, International law, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
Muriel Newman writes- ACT’s Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill was tabled in Parliament on November 7, and the first reading debate was held on November 14. The Bill was referred to the Justice Select Committee, where a closing date for submissions of 7 January 2024 has been set – full details can be found HERE. This […]
The Treaty Principles debate: Parliament is having a third go at addressing this conundrum
Automakers’ Costly Gamble on EVs: A Lesson in Ignoring Consumer Demand
25 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice, transport economics Tags: electric cars
Ultimately, the market will decide the winners and losers. Automakers that prioritize consumer satisfaction over government market manipulation will thrive, while those that gambled on an uncertain future may find themselves scrambling to survive. Tesla’s trajectory proves that it’s possible to innovate without compromising, and the rest of the industry would be wise to take notes.
Automakers’ Costly Gamble on EVs: A Lesson in Ignoring Consumer Demand
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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