Air New Zealand scraps its 2030 carbon emissions target, saying solutions are costly and scarce
01 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, politics - New Zealand, transport economics

By Paul Homewood From the Independent: Air New Zealand scrapped its 2030 carbon emissions reduction targets on Tuesday, citing lags in producing new planes, a lack of alternative fuel and “challenging” regulatory and policy settings. The move by the national carrier — one of New Zealand’s biggest companies by revenue — was the highest-profile […]
Air New Zealand scraps its 2030 carbon emissions target, saying solutions are costly and scarce
Unsettling the settler colonial university: a “feminist decolonization” of higher education in New Zealand
01 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, conjecture and refutation, free speech, philosophy of science, political correctness, regressive left

This link was sent to me by a despondent (and of course anonymous) New Zealander with the comment, “This is now unstoppable in NZ.” It’s from the Times Higher Education site, and the authors are Mahdis Azarmandi and Sara Tolbert, both on the Faculty of Education of New Zealand’s University of Canterbury. Click screenshot to […]
Unsettling the settler colonial university: a “feminist decolonization” of higher education in New Zealand
Will Israel Collect The Reward?
01 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, laws of war, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: 2024 presidential election, Israel, Middle-East politics, regressive left, war against terror

After all, the Yanks were offering one, $5 million, for the Hizballah opertive Fuad Shukr (also known as Hajj Mohsin) because he was connected to the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 241 people, mainly US Marines as it targeted their barracks. And now the Israelis have taken him out because he’d ordered a drone attack […]
Will Israel Collect The Reward?
Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism and Intellectuals
01 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, history of economic thought, macroeconomics
See Socialists, Knowledge of History and Agency. These are letters to the editor of The WSJ in response to an article about socialism by Joseph Epstein. The one below reminded me of a 1992 article by Robert Samuelson in Newsweek. “Joseph Epstein’s “Socialists Don’t Know History” (op-ed, May 30, 2019) on the abysmal historical knowledge…
Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism and Intellectuals
The Testimony of Toshio Tono—Evil of the Japanese Imperial Army
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Japan, World War II
Wellington rates skyrocket
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, environmental economics, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics
The Post reports: Many Wellington City home owners have received a nasty surprise after new rates costs came out with increases higher than the already-eye-watering planned increases. My rates have gone up over $900 a year, or just over 20%. This is not due to more investment in water infrastructure. This is due to the […]
Wellington rates skyrocket
SKIES OF THUNDER: THE DEADLY WORLD WAR II MISSION OVER THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by Caroline Alexander
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: China, World War II
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(Flying “the Hump” in World War II. The Curtiss C-46 Commando was a mainstay for those operations, conducted over the Himalayan foothills where there was no emergency landing strip.) The term “Over the Hump” is a concept that seems lost to history. When applied properly it embodies the American effort to supply the Nationalist Chinese […]
SKIES OF THUNDER: THE DEADLY WORLD WAR II MISSION OVER THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by Caroline Alexander
Frank DiTraglia on how to read econometrics papers
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in econometerics, history of economic thought
Reading economics research papers is hard work when you are doing it for the first time as a graduate student. That’s why I try to get as many undergraduate students as possible engaged in some ‘inspectional reading’ (a term I learned from Marc Bellamare’s book Doing Economics, which I reviewed here), through the Waikato Economics Discussion…
Frank DiTraglia on how to read econometrics papers
Biden Abandons the Court . . . and His Last Inviolate Principle
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election, constitutional law

Below is my column in the New York Post on President Joe Biden’s call to reform the Supreme Court by ending lifetime tenure for Supreme Court justices. Here is the column:
Biden Abandons the Court . . . and His Last Inviolate Principle
The Minimum Wage, Rent Control, and Vacancies or Who Searches?
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, econometerics, economic history, economics of regulation, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, minimum wage, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, unemployment, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, regressive left, rent control

In an interesting new paper Federal Reserve economists Marianna Kudlyak, Murat Tasci and Didem Tüzemen look at what happens to job vacancy postings when the minimum wage increases. The vacancy data in our analysis come from the job openings data from the Conference Board as a part of its Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) data series. […]
The Minimum Wage, Rent Control, and Vacancies or Who Searches?
The economics of the falling total fertility rate in New Zealand
31 Jul 2024 Leave a comment
in human capital, labour economics, labour supply, politics - New Zealand, population economics Tags: ageing society, economics of fertility

Earlier this week, I was interviewed by Paul Brennan on Reality Check Radio, on New Zealand’s declining birth rate. You can listen to the interview here. We didn’t have time to go through all of the questions I was given beforehand, so I thought I would add some points here, along with some links to…
The economics of the falling total fertility rate in New Zealand
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