Stuff reports: Senior ministers are emphatically rejecting claims from Māori, including actress Keisha Castle-Hughes, that Māori should be eligible for citizenship to Aotearoa New Zealand. The Waitangi Tribunal held an urgent hearing into the issue of citizenship, with many overseas-born Māori saying it is unfair and unconstitutional that Māori are being denied citizenship to the country […]
The answer is to promote citizenship
The answer is to promote citizenship
29 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law
Richard Brant and Lauren Butler: Reform UK’s Plans for “Getting Tough on Illegal Immigration”: From Legal Reset to Sunset
29 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in health and safety, International law, labour economics, law and economics Tags: British constitutional law, British politics, economics of immigration

On 26 August 2025 Nigel Farage (Leader of Reform UK) and Zia Yusuf (now Head of Policy at Reform UK) unveiled their plan titled, ‘Operation Restoring Justice’. Key points from the plan were also reiterated at the Next Step Conference on 05 September 2025. Reform UK address the topic of immigration in their plan, adding […]
Richard Brant and Lauren Butler: Reform UK’s Plans for “Getting Tough on Illegal Immigration”: From Legal Reset to Sunset
“Scientific truth must prevail”
29 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins is standing up for science against trans ideology: The slogan “trans women are women” is scientifically false and harms the rights of women, Richard Dawkins has said. In a new book, the evolutionary biologist warns that scientific truth must prevail over “personal feelings” and argues that academic institutions must defend facts above emotion. […]
“Scientific truth must prevail”
A ban on lying
29 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, politics, Public Choice Tags: British politics
A new law is going through Parliament to ban public officials from misleading the public. It sounds like a good idea, but it has the potential to spiral out of control very quickly. I’ve written about it for The Critic. The bear trap in the Public Office (Accountability) Bill is the unprecedented creation of a new…
A ban on lying
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive – Bulgarian Collapse I THE GREAT WAR Week 218
28 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War I
H1-B visa fees and the academic job market
28 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of education, international economic law, international economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: free trade, tariffs
Assume the courts do not strike this down (perhaps they will?). Will foreigners still be hired at the entry level with an extra 100k surcharge? I would think not,as university budgets are tight these days. I presume there is some way to turn them down legally, without courting discrimination lawsuits? What if you ask them […]
H1-B visa fees and the academic job market
Local body ticket drops Jewish candidate due to threats
28 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, politics - New Zealand Tags: Israel, political correctness, racial discrimination

Karin Horen is standing for the Takapuna Local Board. As you can see she was on the “A fresh approach” ticket. But they have dropped her suddenly. Why? Because Karin is Jewish. She was born in Israel and like all Israeli citizens served in her youth in the IDF, over 30 years ago. She has […]
Local body ticket drops Jewish candidate due to threats
Revisiting Empirical Macroeconomics with Robert Barro (Harvard Economics…
28 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, economic growth, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetary economics
Not-so-killer acquisitions
27 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, theory of the firm Tags: competition law
Eric Crampton writes – A lot of changes are coming in competition policy. Last week, the government announced a package of reforms that, overall, set the Commerce Commission on a more activist tack. One proposed reform will align New Zealand more closely with Australia’s regime, guarding against so-called ‘killer acquisitions’.
Not-so-killer acquisitions
Australia Recognises Palestine – But With Strings Attached the Media Won’t Tell You About
26 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, International law, politics - Australia, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror, West Bank
Steven Gaskell writes – Australia’s Labor government has made a historic move: it has formally recognised the State of Palestine. Foreign Minister Penny Wong framed the decision as a step towards peace and a two-state solution. The headlines blared “Australia recognises Palestine” but almost none of the mainstream outlets bothered to mention the fine print. […]
Australia Recognises Palestine – But With Strings Attached the Media Won’t Tell You About
Part I: Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
26 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, entrepreneurship, fiscal policy, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply

From a big-picture economic perspective, I worry most about the damage of high tax burdens on innovation, entrepreneurship, and investment. Those are things that generate enormous benefits for society, yet also things that are very sensitive to bad tax policy (specifically high marginal tax rates and the tax code’s bias against saving and investment). Sadly, […]
Part I: Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
Yes Minister Best of Series 3! | Yes Minister | BBC Comedy Greats
26 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in television, TV shows
What Do Managers Do?
26 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, managerial economics, organisational economics, personnel economics
Economists have been thinking for a long time about the operation of buying and selling in markets. However, they have traditionally spent less time studying what happens inside a firm–a setting in which forces of supply and demand are replaced by managerial decision-making. Anyone who has had both a good boss and bad boss knows…
What Do Managers Do?
Economics of Trade Sanctions
26 Sep 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, defence economics, development economics, economic history, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, international economics Tags: trade sanctions
The exercise of US foreign policy (along with the European Union and the United Nations) has been increasingly characterized by the use (or threat) of trade sanctions. What do we know about how such sanctions work? Gabriel Felbermayr, T. Clifton Morgan, Constantinos Syropoulos, and Yoto V. Yotov review the evidence in “Economic Sanctions: Stylized Facts…
Economics of Trade Sanctions
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