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 […]
Roger Partridge writes: A new submission to the Committee from banking experts Andrew Body and Simon Jensen provides fresh evidence of these costs. Their analysis shows the Reserve Bank’s capital rules add between 0.25 and 0.375 percentage points to mortgage rates compared with Australia. For a million-dollar mortgage, that means between $2,500 and $3,750 in […]
Newsroom has a summary of taxpayer money spent on Mt Ruapehu: How often have we been told this is the final assistance. We are now deep into the sunk cost fallacy.
The government’s commitment to the Paris Accord has garnered opposition from farmers and farming organisations. Federated Farmers is not supportive: The Government’s announcement today of a 2035 climate target of a 51-55% emissions reduction has signed New Zealand up for a decade more of planting pine on productive land, Federated Farmers meat and wool chair […]
Chris Lynch Media reports – Health Minister Simeon Brown says he will demand an explanation from the Pharmacy Council over its competence standards for pharmacists, which have been described as “deeply disturbing.” It follows inquiries to his office by chrislynchmedia.com over the standards, published on 15 June 2023 and enforced from 1 April 2024, which require […]
Conspiracy theories and science denial are two phenomena that often intersect, influencing public discourse and societal trust in authoritative knowledge sources. This essay explores their connection, elucidates the psychological and social mechanisms underpinning them, and provides examples to demonstrate how these two manifestations of skepticism reinforce each other, often with deleterious consequences. The Connection At […]
The NZ Herald’s Editor has declared its journalists will be promoted or fired on the basis of factors like how many clicks they get on their articles. Yes, the Herald is now officially “click bait”. We’re trying to avoid the mistake of writing shallow nonsense at this Blog. So on that note, here’s a somewhat…
Peter Dunne writes – MMP was expected to break the old Parliamentary duopoly of National and Labour and lead to far more inclusive and diverse political debate. Certainly, the increase in the number of parties in Parliament has spread the range of views being heard in the House, but it is doubtful that this has […]
The post below is in text or can be viewed as two video clips. You may find the content confronting but as Rodney says it is, ” … representative of the 196 page Navigating the Journey for Year 9s.” Sex Ed in New Zealand schools hypersexualises kids and further confuses them in their identity and…
The Herald reports: Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March says Prime Minister Christopher Luxon needs to step in after NZ First leader Winston Peters made allegedly “xenophobic” comments about him. Act leader David Seymour has come to the Green MP’s defence, saying “we’ve got to stop obsessing over when people arrive” in New Zealand. But Luxon has this…
The Herald reports: Daman Kumar – the 18-year-old threatened with deportation to India despite living in New Zealand all his life – has been offered residency. Green Party immigration spokesman Ricardo Menéndez March told the Herald he was informed of the development by Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk’s office this afternoon. Menéndez March wrote to the minister last week, […]
A guest post by Sir Roger Douglas: Michael Littlewood’s ‘Guest Post’ for David Farrar on pensions, and his belief that our social welfare system is fit for purpose and doesn’t need change, reminded me of why New Zealand is currently well on the way to bankruptcy, and why our brightest young people are leaving the […]
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
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