Vice signalling is the opposite of virtue signalling, although it is not nearly as established as a technical term. Political scientists are more likely to discuss transgressive signalling, norm violation, incivility, performative transgression, or out-group hostility. Research on populism, for example, explicitly treats deliberate breaches of conventional standards of political behaviour as part of a political style. A […]
Vice signalling
Vice signalling
29 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of information, politics - USA Tags: signaling
#OTD
28 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, liberalism Tags: British politics, economics of slavery
Lord Mountbatten: The Assassination That Shook Britain and Ireland
28 Aug 2026 1 Comment
in economics of crime, law and economics Tags: British politics
On the morning of 27 August 1979, Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, a member of the British royal family and one of the most prominent figures of the twentieth century, was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). The bombing, carried out while Mountbatten was aboard his fishing […]
Lord Mountbatten: The Assassination That Shook Britain and Ireland
Could Eisenkot form a minority government?
28 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, Public Choice Tags: Israel
From Tal Schneider in the Times of Israel: Gadi Eisenkot lays groundwork for a minority government, if necessary, to oust Netanyahu. The head of Yashar, that party that has been leading most polls in the run-up to Israel’s general election (27 October), is exploring the possibility of forming a government with fewer than 61 affirmative […]
Could Eisenkot form a minority government?
Heinrich Himmler: Architect of the Holocaust
28 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, World War II
Heinrich Himmler, one of the most infamous figures of the Nazi regime, was born on October 7, 1900, in Munich, Germany. As a leading member of the Nazi Party and head of the SS (Schutzstaffel), Himmler played a pivotal role in orchestrating the Holocaust and implementing policies that led to the genocide of six million […]
Heinrich Himmler: Architect of the Holocaust
The Great Enrichment
28 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship Tags: The Great Enrichment
Opportunity knocks
27 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election
Good vibes all round – unless you’re a woman. It’s fair to say that the leader of the revamped Opportunity Party Quilae Wong is the best looking of all the political leaders contesting the 2026 New Zealand election.
Opportunity knocks
The Austrian Approach to Competition | Israel M. Kirzner
27 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation Tags: competition law
FAA Moves to Exempt Commercial Rocket Launches From Key Environmental Reviews
27 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, transport economics Tags: space
FAA moves to ensure regulatory processes serve genuine environmental interests rather than becoming a legal mechanism for undermining American space competitiveness. The post FAA Moves to Exempt Commercial Rocket Launches From Key Environmental Reviews appeared first on Watts Up With That?.
FAA Moves to Exempt Commercial Rocket Launches From Key Environmental Reviews
Great ad
26 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: 2026 general election
This is a very good ad. With the likely government of the left needing a four way coalition, one can only imagine how many of the nine taxes they’ll need to implement to fund all their promises. The post Great ad first appeared on Kiwiblog.
Great ad
The Future of Climate Science with Roger Pielke, Jr.
26 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of education, economics of natural disasters, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
This week we cover unemployment data, stadium subsidies, and how Americans feel about the U.S. economy right now. Our interview is with climate scientist and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Roger Pielke, Jr. We talk about climate science, academic politics, fossil fuels vs. renewables, and the future of energy policy. The post The Future of…
The Future of Climate Science with Roger Pielke, Jr.
Fanta and the Third reich
26 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany
Prior to the outbreak of the second world war, Coca-Cola’s only unqualified success on the international scene was its bottling operations in Nazi Germany. Sales records were being set year after year in that venue, and by 1939 Coca-Cola had 43 bottling plants and more than 600 local distributors in that country. Fanta originated as a result of difficulties importing Coca-Cola syrup into Nazi […]
Fanta and the Third reich
Do Minimum Wages Help Worker in Poor and Low-Income Families?
25 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economics of regulation, labour economics, minimum wage, poverty and inequality
We provide the first direct estimates of the effects of minimum wages on low-wage workers in families at different points of the distribution of income-to-needs, using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation, which oversamples low-income families. We find adverse – rather than beneficial – effects of minimum wages on the employment, hours,…
Do Minimum Wages Help Worker in Poor and Low-Income Families?
Whiskey taxes, revenue and voting by members of Congress in history
25 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, history of economic thought, Public Choice, public economics
See Revenue over reason: A case for home distilling by Ben Semark of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. After an excerpt from Semark’s article, I discuss how this relates to voting by congressmen on bills during the Federalist period, the subject of my Ph. D. dissertation.Excerpt from Semark:”Creating home-brewed spirits was not a niche or commercial practice…
Whiskey taxes, revenue and voting by members of Congress in history
Part II: Demographics + Entitlements = Europe’s Doom
25 Aug 2026 Leave a comment
in economic growth, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, population economics, public economics Tags: ageing society, European Union, population bust
The world’s most under-appreciated problem is demographic decline mixed with tax-and-transfer entitlement programs. Those two factors, when combined, are a massive problem. All of which is explained in my series on demographic change and fiscal crisis (see here, here, here, here, and here). Today, let’s focus on the problem in Europe, building on what I […]
Part II: Demographics + Entitlements = Europe’s Doom
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