After the 2017 election, the brains of some folks on the NZ right seemed to melt. They imagined that Ardern was controlled by Davos, or the World Economic Forum, or the International Socialist Youth of which she had been President, or Soros. It was all just stupid. Labour had won the election, there were no conspiracies,…
Chris Trotter’s brain hasn’t melted
Chris Trotter’s brain hasn’t melted
13 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
The U.S. follows New Zealand: let’s teach indigenous “ways of knowing” in the science classroom!
13 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
The virus that has long infected New Zealand—the argument that indigenous “ways of knowing” should be taught alongside science in the science classroom—has now spread to America, with the help of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and its flagship journal, Science, often regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious venues. […]
The U.S. follows New Zealand: let’s teach indigenous “ways of knowing” in the science classroom!
BRIAN EASTON: Te Tiriti as a social contract
12 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, regressive left
Interpreting the agreement made at Waitangi as a social contract is a way to move forward on treaty issues (This column follows ‘Our Understandings Of Te Tiriti Has Evolved Organically’.) Brian Easton writes – Te Tiriti is in the form of a social contract of the sort that political theorists have discussed since the seventeenth […]
BRIAN EASTON: Te Tiriti as a social contract
The highly inconvenient Sir Apirana Ngata
10 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: constitutional law
Graham Adams writes — Sir Apirana Ngata has a pre-eminent place in the pantheon of Māori luminaries. He is widely regarded as a visionary leader who, in an illustrious political career, championed biculturalism when assimilationist policies were the norm. He energetically promoted Māori language and culture, and land reform. He was an MP for nearly […]
The highly inconvenient Sir Apirana Ngata
CHRIS TROTTER: Are you a leftist?
10 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, The fatal conceit, unintended consequences
Chris Trotter writes – THERE WAS A TIME when a leftist’s definition of “leftism” corresponded pretty closely to everybody else’s definition. The term identified a coherent worldview – to the point where knowing where someone stood on one issue enabled them to predict with surprising accuracy where they stood on a host of others. If […]
CHRIS TROTTER: Are you a leftist?
PETER WILLIAMS: Supreme Court decision astounding
09 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: climate activists
Three years ago a friend of mine who’s a District Court Judge asked me if I would be guest speaker at the annual DCJ shindig, scheduled that year for the Hilton in Taupo. Despite a feeling of significant intellectual inferiority, I accepted on the condition that all I would talk about were personal experiences from…
PETER WILLIAMS: Supreme Court decision astounding
DON BRASH: NATIONHOOD, Orewa, 2004
09 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
On February 1 Sean Plunket re-played the audio of Don Brash’s 2004 Orewa speech at The Platform. To listen to the entire speech, go here. Alternatively, the full text of the speech is reproduced below. Today Don reflects: “It’s very long – really far too long for a Rotary Club speech. I should have taken…
DON BRASH: NATIONHOOD, Orewa, 2004
The Conway speech
08 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, fiscal policy, inflation targeting, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, unemployment Tags: monetary policy
I’ve been rather tied up with other stuff for the last few weeks (including here) which is why I’ve not previously gotten round to writing about the first piece of monetary policy communications from our Reserve Bank this year. That was the “speech” by the Bank’s chief economist (and MPC) member Paul Conway given to […]
The Conway speech
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Labour hid developing welfare crisis
08 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, welfare reform Tags: child poverty, family poverty
Lindsay Mitchell writes- When National became government in 2008, Finance Minister Bill English’s determination to understand the extent of benefit-dependency led them to commission Taylor Fry to produce annual actuarial reports. These were duly published at the MSD website every year but ceased when the government changed in 2017. Now however, an Official Information request […]
LINDSAY MITCHELL: Labour hid developing welfare crisis
Once were a trading nation
07 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, international economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand
I’ve used here before the snippet from older books that in the decades before the Second World War it was generally accepted that New Zealand had the highest value of foreign trade per capita of any country. Estimates of historical GDP per capita suggest we also had among the very highest levels of real GDP […]
Once were a trading nation
#OTD
06 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, discrimination, economic history, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
📸 Look at this post on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/share/4VjbNNeEwSJ6ntfW/?mibextid=RXn8sy
BRIAN EASTON: Our understanding of Te Tiriti has evolved organically.
06 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, Internet, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Why try to stop that evolution? Brian Easton writes – In 1956, historian Ruth Ross presented her investigations of the treaty signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840 to a seminar concluding, ‘The [Māori and Pakeha] signatories of 1840 were uncertain and divided in their understanding of [Te Tiriti’s] meaning; who can say now what […]
BRIAN EASTON: Our understanding of Te Tiriti has evolved organically.
She Says She Wants A Revolution.
05 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: regressive left
Heads Up: Jeremy Corbyn’s greatest mistake was to give the ruling elites and their enablers advance warning that he was coming for their power, their purse, and their privilege. Candidate for the Green Party co-leadership, Chloe Swarbrick, appears to share Corbyn’s naïve assumption that those who own the system will sit idly by while a…
She Says She Wants A Revolution.
DON BRASH: WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO WE WANT TO BE?
03 Feb 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, discrimination, economic history, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left
Last Sunday, the Sunday Star-Times recalled on its front page the “fiery debate” triggered by my speech to the Orewa Rotary Club just 20 years earlier. Articles by several authors in the same paper brought the debate up-to-date and warned of the dangers of ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill, which the National Party’s coalition agreement with…
DON BRASH: WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO WE WANT TO BE?
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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