
The Great Escape
02 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: life expectancies, The Great Enrichment, The Great Escape
Blackout Britain threat rises on collapse of Norwegian government
01 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics
By Paul Homewood Blackout Britain threat rises on collapse of Norwegian government Britain’s increasingly dangerous reliance on imported electricity has just gone up another notch with the collapse of Norway’s Government. The Telegraph reports:
Blackout Britain threat rises on collapse of Norwegian government
Can President Trump break the International Corporate Tax Cartel?
01 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in entrepreneurship, financial economics, fiscal policy, industrial organisation, International law, macroeconomics, politics - USA, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
From the Economist: The international tax system has long suffered from two related problems: firms go to great lengths to book profits in low-tax jurisdictions, and governments thus have strong incentives to compete with each other in cutting levies so as to attract investment [only a dirigiste would consider this a problem]. Hoping to forestall…
Can President Trump break the International Corporate Tax Cartel?
Reviewing Covid experiences and policies
01 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, health economics, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice Tags: economics of pandemics

Michael Reddell writes – I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. What […]
Reviewing Covid experiences and policies
THE LUMUMBA PLOT: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CIA AND A COLD WAR ASSASSINATION by Stuart A. Reid
01 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, development economics, economic history, economics of crime, growth disasters, International law, law and economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Congo, economics of colonialism

The early 1960s was a period of decolonization in Africa. European countries had come to the realization that the burden of empire no longer warranted the cost and commitment to maintain them, except in the case where it was suspected that the Soviet Union was building a communist base. One of the countries which was […]
THE LUMUMBA PLOT: THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE CIA AND A COLD WAR ASSASSINATION by Stuart A. Reid
Marianne Faithfull 29.12.46 – 30.1.24
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in Music
Marianne Faithfull, singer and actress, has died: . .Her story is a remarkable portrait of the rock and roll era. She was a doe-eyed poster girl of the 1960s, plucked from obscurity by the Rolling Stones’ manager at the age of 16 and given As Tears Go By, the first song ever written by Jagger […]
Marianne Faithfull 29.12.46 – 30.1.24
Trump Admin Moves To Toss Out Biden’s Fuel Economy Rules
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA, transport economics Tags: 2024 presidential election
Newly-confirmed Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy is already moving to overturn the Biden-Harris administration’s stringent fuel economy standards for vehicles.
Trump Admin Moves To Toss Out Biden’s Fuel Economy Rules
Minto’s Monsters
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror

After the resistance fighters broke out from Gaza there was a “second wave” of people who came through the fence and it appears this group were responsible for most of the war crimes committed on that day rather than fighters from the highly-disciplined resistance groups – John Minto, TDB, October 6, 2024 Does the guy in […]
Minto’s Monsters
Stephen Fry on how the faults of the Left promoted the rise of the Right
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, environmentalism, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, politics - USA, property rights Tags: Age of Enlightenment, British politics, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Here! I’ve been dealing with trivial stuff all day involving billing and the post office (the Black Hole of government agencies) and have had no time to right. Enjoy Stephen Fry’s hourlong talk on Triggernometry on why the American Left promoted the rise of the American Right. I’ve been saying that for a long time, […]
Stephen Fry on how the faults of the Left promoted the rise of the Right
When politicians campaign on competition, be very worried
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Armen Alchian, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, experimental economics, history of economic thought, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: competition law
Targeting big existing businesses may be tempting to politicians, but ensuring market openness will do more good Eric Crampton writes – It’s fair to say that economists like competition. It’s also fair to say that when politicians start talking about competition, economists ought to get a little bit nervous.
When politicians campaign on competition, be very worried
When did sustained economic growth begin?
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, poverty and inequality Tags: The Great Enrichment
The subtitle is New Estimates of Productivity Growth in England from 1250 to 1870, and the authors are Paul Bouscasse, Emi Nakamura, and Jón Steinsson. Abstract: We estimate productivity growth in England from 1250 to 1870. Real wages over this period were heavily influenced by plague-induced swings in the population. Our estimates account for these […]
When did sustained economic growth begin?
The capitalist revolution Africa needs
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought Tags: Africa
Economist: In the coming years Africa will become more important than at any time in the modern era. Over the next decade its share of the world’s population is expected to reach 21%, up from 13% in 2000, 9% in 1950 and 11% in 1800. As the rest of the world ages, Africa will become…
The capitalist revolution Africa needs
Erich Ludendorff: The Military Leader Who Warned of Germany’s Doom
30 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, World War I

Erich Ludendorff was a prominent German general during World War I, a key strategist in Germany’s military operations, and an influential political figure in the turbulent years that followed. He played a central role in shaping the German war effort, particularly in the later years of the conflict, and was instrumental in the development of […]
Erich Ludendorff: The Military Leader Who Warned of Germany’s Doom
Reviewing Covid experiences and policies
30 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, health and safety, health economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, macroeconomics, politics - Australia, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice Tags: economics of pandemics

I’ve spent the last week writing a fairly substantial review of a recent book (“Australia’s Pandemic Exceptionalism: How we crushed the curve but lost the race”) by a couple of Australian academic economists on Australia’s pandemic policies and experiences. For all its limitations, there isn’t anything similar in New Zealand. What we do have is […]
Reviewing Covid experiences and policies
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