The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people regard as worst case. It’s no wonder Ministry of Transport officials […]
Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?
Is it time to take the Interislander away from Kiwirail?
17 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, industrial organisation, law and economics, managerial economics, politics - New Zealand, privatisation, property rights, Public Choice, survivor principle, theory of the firm, transport economics
New York restaurants find a new way to respond to the minimum wage
17 May 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, entrepreneurship, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage
The New York Times (paywalled, but also available here) reported last month:At Sansan Chicken in Long Island City, Queens, the cashier beamed a wide smile and recommended the fried chicken sandwich.Or maybe she suggested the tonkatsu — it was hard to tell, because the internet connection from her home in the Philippines was spotty.Romy, who…
New York restaurants find a new way to respond to the minimum wage
HENRY ERGAS: Universities offer course in self-serving cowardice
17 May 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of education, law and economics, laws of war, politics - Australia, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, useful idiots, war against terror
When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge could possibly arise: to be a hypocrite one has to know…
HENRY ERGAS: Universities offer course in self-serving cowardice
No, President Biden Did Not Commit an Impeachable Offense in Freezing the Arms Shipment to Israel
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, law and economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: 2024 presidential election, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror
Below is my column in USA Today on the effort to impeach President Joe Biden over his freezing of arms shipments to Israel. While one can strongly disagree with the policy or the motivation behind the action, it is not a high crime and misdemeanor in my view. Here is the column:
No, President Biden Did Not Commit an Impeachable Offense in Freezing the Arms Shipment to Israel
Netherlands government about to be formed, per reports
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, politics Tags: economics of immigration, The Netherlands
It is being reported (e.g., Politico, FT) that a coalition government is soon to be announced for the Netherlands, which a general election in late November. The government would consist of the following parties, with their seats noted: The far-right Freedom Party (PVV, 37), led by Geert Wilders, the center-right VVD (24), the Christian democratic/anti-establishment […]
Netherlands government about to be formed, per reports
Nanny state
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, health economics, public economics Tags: economics of smoking
Did Michael Cohen Commit Perjury in the Trump Trial?
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 presidential election, 2024 presidential election
Below is a slightly expanded version of my column in the New York Post on the first day of cross examination for Michael Cohen. He still has one day of cross examination ahead of him on Thursday. With the government resting after Cohen’s cross examination, I believe that an honest judge would have no alternative […]
Did Michael Cohen Commit Perjury in the Trump Trial?
What Unites Zero Carbon and Pro-Hamas? Anti-Modernity
16 May 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, useful idiots, war against terror
Brendan O’Neill makes the connection in his Telegraph article Queen Greta has exposed the truth about the green movement. Shape-shifting is so easy because the underlying motive is disdain for modern society. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. So, Greta Thunberg has a new cause. She’s found a new crusade to throw her weight […]
What Unites Zero Carbon and Pro-Hamas? Anti-Modernity
Business Freeze: Germany’s Last Solar Panel Manufacturers Finally Crushed
15 May 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, global warming, industrial organisation, survivor principle Tags: Germany, solar power
Germany’s costly and chaotic wind and solar transition has served up plenty of casualties. Large numbers of energy intensive manufacturers have already bailed out – chasing cheap power prices in places like the US and Singapore. Now, in a rather ironic twist, its solar panel manufacturing industry has all but thrown in the towel. Notwithstanding […]
Business Freeze: Germany’s Last Solar Panel Manufacturers Finally Crushed
Wind Industry Always Knew That Wind Turbine Noise Exposure Causes Adverse Health Effects
15 May 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, health economics Tags: wind power
The wind industry has worked very hard to cover up sleep deprivation and other adverse health effects caused by turbine-generated low-frequency noise and infrasound. It started with the woefully inadequate, indeed, utterly irrelevant noise standards written by the wind industry; and the institutional corruption that: a) allowed those standards to become the “benchmarks” in the first […]
Wind Industry Always Knew That Wind Turbine Noise Exposure Causes Adverse Health Effects
Unfixable: Michael Cohen Faces a Reckoning of Biblical Proportions on Cross Examination
14 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2016 US presidential election, 2024 presidential election
Below is my column in the New York Post on the first day of the examination of Michael Cohen. He is expected to start his cross examination today. How bad will it be? After lying to Congress, courts, banks, and most everyone else, it will be bad. Years ago, Cohen threatened a journalist and told […]
Unfixable: Michael Cohen Faces a Reckoning of Biblical Proportions on Cross Examination
Full-blown Financial Meltdown: Offshore Wind Industry’s Collapse Accelerates
14 May 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: wind power
America’s offshore wind industry is collapsing, both figuratively and literally. Offshore turbines have grown in capacity and size to the point where they simply collapse into the ocean. As do the financial prospects of those seeking to profit from them. One of the key players offshore – GE’s renewables division – backed up a solid […]
Full-blown Financial Meltdown: Offshore Wind Industry’s Collapse Accelerates
Propaganda Flip: Renewables Cult Claim They Never Said Wind & Solar Would Be Cheap
14 May 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, global warming Tags: solar power, wind power
The wind and solar industries are struggling to win the hearts and minds of householders and businesses being belted by skyrocketing power prices. Built on lies and run on subsidies, it comes as no surprise that the truth about heavily subsidised and chaotically intermittent wind and solar would eventually work its way to the surface. […]
Propaganda Flip: Renewables Cult Claim They Never Said Wind & Solar Would Be Cheap
Legal Absurdities in Climate Policy: A Critical Review of Tilak Doshi’s Analysis
14 May 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, law and economics Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
Such simplifications in judicial decisions risk setting dangerous precedents where policies are shaped not by empirical evidence but by judicial interpretations of contested scientific theories.
Legal Absurdities in Climate Policy: A Critical Review of Tilak Doshi’s Analysis
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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