The just resigned Chair of the NZ Green Investment Fund (NZGIF) and Chancellor of Auckland University, Cecilia Tarrant, previously worked at Morgan Stanley Bank in New York, starting in 1997 and finishing in 2009. She’s a very nice person, a lawyer by training, and Structured Products expert, in particular on Mortgage Backed Securities. The collapse of…
Call in the Bailiffs: How the NZ Government’s Green Investment Fund Turned Itself Into an Unpleasant Predatory Lender and Debt Collection Agency.
Call in the Bailiffs: How the NZ Government’s Green Investment Fund Turned Itself Into an Unpleasant Predatory Lender and Debt Collection Agency.
16 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: solar power
Health insurance companies are not the main villain
16 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, health economics, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: health insurance
First of all, insurance companies just don’t make that much profit. UnitedHealth Group, the company of which Brian Thompson’s UnitedHealthcare is a subsidiary, is the most valuable private health insurer in the country in terms of market capitalization, and the one with the largest market share. Its net profit margin is just 6.11%… That’s only about half of […]
Health insurance companies are not the main villain
Proportionality in war
16 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace
The principle of proportionality in war, which suggests that the use of force should be commensurate with the objectives sought and the harm avoided, is rooted in humanitarian concerns. However, in the brutal realities of war, this concept is often impractical and can even prolong conflict, resulting in greater suffering. History and military strategy suggest […]
Proportionality in war
Democrats now about identity, not working class
16 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left
This graphic from Nate Silver is fascinating. Up until 2010, Democrats were mainly seen as representing the working class, but now they are mainly seen as standing for marginalised groups and only 11% now identify them as representing the working class. This partially led to Trump winning white working class voters in 2016, and a…
Democrats now about identity, not working class
#OTD a monopoly was born!?
15 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: competition law, creative destruction, merger law enforcement
Miliband bails out wind turbine factory
15 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming Tags: British politics, climate activists, wind power
By Paul Homewood h/t Paul Kolk Why does Miliband think he has the right to spend our money as he sees fit? Ministers have been forced to step in and rescue a wind turbine factory after collapsing demand for blades pushed it to near collapse. Wind turbine maker Vestas on Wednesday said […]
Miliband bails out wind turbine factory
British Government Climate Advisors Demand Everyone Live like Poor People
15 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: British politics, climate activists, climate alarmism
“… fly less, eat less meat and use public transport more often …”
British Government Climate Advisors Demand Everyone Live like Poor People
Jerusalem Surrenders – Bolsheviks Consolidate Control I THE GREAT WAR We…
15 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Russian revolution, World War I
OWEN JENNINGS: Banks Flout their Social Contract
14 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, financial economics, global warming, politics - New Zealand
For a civil society to work smoothly and effectively certain ‘social contracts’ need to have broad acceptance and be honoured by all individuals and groups. They are unwritten rules we tacitly observe. They provide a framework of understandings that allow us to live harmoniously. Some of these ‘rules’ or social contracts get defined or backed…
OWEN JENNINGS: Banks Flout their Social Contract
Democracy Briefing: First among equals? New Zealand First’s year in government
14 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
Bryce Edwards writes – For the governing coalition of National, Act and New Zealand First, its first year in power can be divided into three distinct periods. During the first phase, spanning from its formation in late November 2023 until early March, the coalition increased in popularity. This was the era of “the great rollback”, […]
Democracy Briefing: First among equals? New Zealand First’s year in government
New Study: Achieving A ‘Net Zero’ Emissions Policy Would Have A ‘Negligible’ 0.28°C Climate Effect
14 Dec 2024 1 Comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, development economics, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, growth miracles, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA
Cost-benefit analyses affirm it would be better to abandon Net Zero policy initiatives and instead “do nothing” about greenhouse gas emissions. New research finds CO2’s largest possible climate impact is “negligible.” The cumulative expected temperature change in doubling CO2 from 400 to 800 ppm is only 0.81°C at most, and this is “certainly not cause…
New Study: Achieving A ‘Net Zero’ Emissions Policy Would Have A ‘Negligible’ 0.28°C Climate Effect
It’s the Maori Party that is driving division
14 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: racial discrimination
New Zealand women got the vote in 1893; they got the right to stand for parliament a generation later in 1919. But there has never been a parliamentary party based on gender. That’s because most women do not put being female first and foremost in their lives. Their gender is an accident of birth. So…
It’s the Maori Party that is driving division
Warren’s “Warning”: Democratic Senator Explains Thompson was Murdered Because “You Can Only Push People So Far.”
13 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is under fire for her statement to Joy Reid on MSNBC explaining why Luigi Mangione allegedly murdered UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Warren explained that this was a “warning ” that “you can only push people so far.” After a public outcry, Warren walked back her statement. Yet, the statement captures the […]
Warren’s “Warning”: Democratic Senator Explains Thompson was Murdered Because “You Can Only Push People So Far.”
The NZ Green Investment Fund should be Liquidated for Losing Money that could’ve gone into alleviating Poverty.
13 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, environmentalism, financial economics, global warming, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking
Only a few months ago, the Chair of the NZ Green Investment Fund (NZGIF) and Chancellor of the University of Auckland, Cecilia Tarrant, visited my “Law and Economics” class. Why? She’s a lawyer who worked in “structured products” and “real estate finance” at Morgan Stanley in New York – and knows a Kiwi friend of…
The NZ Green Investment Fund should be Liquidated for Losing Money that could’ve gone into alleviating Poverty.
The People’s Front of Judea
13 Dec 2024 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand
Readers who have viewed The Life of Brian (as I have done 20 or so times) will recall how The People’s Front of Judea didn’t just battle the Romans, but also The Judean People’s Front who they regarded as splitters for not being pure enough. I have discovered the real life equivalent – the World […]
The People’s Front of Judea
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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