If a Blogger accused immigrants of nicking houses & jobs off young native NZ’ers, causing them to leave the country, then we’d likely be prosecuted under anti-freedom of speech legislation. But seems our State-owned broadcaster, OneNews, can get away with it. After all, like the Reserve Bank, TVNZ can do what it wants. Its above…
OneNews blames immigration to NZ for emigration (of young Kiwis out of NZ). Maybe they’re leaving because our Media has depressed them?
OneNews blames immigration to NZ for emigration (of young Kiwis out of NZ). Maybe they’re leaving because our Media has depressed them?
20 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, population economics Tags: economics of immigration
RODNEY HIDE: My Journey
19 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
It’s been awhile since I have written. I have tried. But I have not had anything useful to say. My concern has always been public policy. What should the government do for the best result? My writing on the government was technical. Here’s what the government is doing. Here’s what they hope to achieve. Here…
RODNEY HIDE: My Journey
TVNZ hīkoi documentary needs a sequel
19 May 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economic history, law and economics, movies, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: native title
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account of 2004’s hīkoi from Cape […]
TVNZ hīkoi documentary needs a sequel
Debunking Bad Class Warfare and Debunking Nonsensical Class Warfare
19 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of education, entrepreneurship, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, Public Choice Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment

Like Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman is a French economist who promotes economically destructive class-warfare tax policy. He’s also infamous for dodgy data manipulation, as Phil Magness explains in this Reason discussion. The interview lasts for 64 minutes, and I recommend the entire discussion. Yes, that’s a lot of time, but Phil has encyclopedic knowledge and […]
Debunking Bad Class Warfare and Debunking Nonsensical Class Warfare
Sonoma State University President Suspended For Caving to Pro-Palestinian Protesters
18 May 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of education, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, law and order, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror

Sonoma State University President Mike Lee has been suspended after sending out an email yielding to the demands of pro-Palestinian students and faculty. In a Wednesday statement, California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia criticized Lee for “insubordination” and placed him on administrative leave. Lee had only been in the position for 20 months.
Sonoma State University President Suspended For Caving to Pro-Palestinian Protesters
Battery Arbitrage
18 May 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - USA Tags: solar power

Solar is powering a large share of California’s energy needs during the day and batteries are now powering a significant share at night. NYTimes: Since 2020, California has installed more giant batteries than anywhere in the world apart from China. They can soak up excess solar power during the day and store it for use […]
Battery Arbitrage
Two central banks
18 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, inflation targeting, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand Tags: monetary policy

Michael Reddell writes – I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s CPI had risen by 30.3 per cent […]
Two central banks
Getting Played: The Demolition of Cohen on Cross Examination Reveals “The Grift” to a New York Jury
18 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, 2024 presidential election

Below is my column in Fox.com on the approaching end of the Trump trial in Manhattan. With the dramatic implosion of Michael Cohen on the stand on Thursday with the exposure of another alleged lie told under oath, even hosts and commentators on CNN are now criticizing the prosecution and doubting the basis for any […]
Getting Played: The Demolition of Cohen on Cross Examination Reveals “The Grift” to a New York Jury
Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?
17 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, managerial economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle, theory of the firm, transport economics
The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people regard as worst case. It’s no wonder Ministry of Transport officials […]
Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?
HENRY ERGAS: Universities offer course in self-serving cowardice
17 May 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, laws of war, politics - Australia, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, useful idiots, war against terror
When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge could possibly arise: to be a hypocrite one has to know…
HENRY ERGAS: Universities offer course in self-serving cowardice
No, President Biden Did Not Commit an Impeachable Offense in Freezing the Arms Shipment to Israel
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, law and economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: 2024 presidential election, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror

Below is my column in USA Today on the effort to impeach President Joe Biden over his freezing of arms shipments to Israel. While one can strongly disagree with the policy or the motivation behind the action, it is not a high crime and misdemeanor in my view. Here is the column:
No, President Biden Did Not Commit an Impeachable Offense in Freezing the Arms Shipment to Israel
Netherlands government about to be formed, per reports
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics Tags: economics of immigration, The Netherlands
It is being reported (e.g., Politico, FT) that a coalition government is soon to be announced for the Netherlands, which a general election in late November. The government would consist of the following parties, with their seats noted: The far-right Freedom Party (PVV, 37), led by Geert Wilders, the center-right VVD (24), the Christian democratic/anti-establishment […]
Netherlands government about to be formed, per reports
Did Michael Cohen Commit Perjury in the Trump Trial?
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, 2024 presidential election

Below is a slightly expanded version of my column in the New York Post on the first day of cross examination for Michael Cohen. He still has one day of cross examination ahead of him on Thursday. With the government resting after Cohen’s cross examination, I believe that an honest judge would have no alternative […]
Did Michael Cohen Commit Perjury in the Trump Trial?
Unfixable: Michael Cohen Faces a Reckoning of Biblical Proportions on Cross Examination
14 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 US presidential election, 2024 presidential election

Below is my column in the New York Post on the first day of the examination of Michael Cohen. He is expected to start his cross examination today. How bad will it be? After lying to Congress, courts, banks, and most everyone else, it will be bad. Years ago, Cohen threatened a journalist and told […]
Unfixable: Michael Cohen Faces a Reckoning of Biblical Proportions on Cross Examination
Full-blown Financial Meltdown: Offshore Wind Industry’s Collapse Accelerates
14 May 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: wind power

America’s offshore wind industry is collapsing, both figuratively and literally. Offshore turbines have grown in capacity and size to the point where they simply collapse into the ocean. As do the financial prospects of those seeking to profit from them. One of the key players offshore – GE’s renewables division – backed up a solid […]
Full-blown Financial Meltdown: Offshore Wind Industry’s Collapse Accelerates
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