Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in libertarianism, Murray Rothbard
Here’s my plan: I’ll lead off each discussion of Murray Rothbard’s For a New Liberty with (a) a brief summary of the chapter of the week, and (b) some critical comments. But this is your book club, so in the comments feel free to not only to discuss my summary and critique, but any thoughts…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 1
07 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
Juliet Moses writes at Quillette: The furore surrounding the storied Adelaide Writers Festival, the longest-running and largest literary festival in Australia and one that receives significant taxpayer funding, has made international headlines. Our drama ostensibly begins when the Festival’s board disinvites Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian writer with Palestinian heritage. Its climax sees a cultural…
The Adelaide Writers Festival
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, law and economics, economics of crime Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
The New Zealand public learned today that Tauranga double murderer Anthony Doyle has been released on parole after serving 20 years. It turns out he was freed before the New Year. Doyle blasted a couple to death with a shotgun under a bridge near Tauranga in 2005 after a dispute over a drug debt. He […]
Double murderer has been freed on parole – but would he have been jailed if the Maori Party had been running things 20 years ago?
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, health economics, politics - USA Tags: price discrimination
Pharmaceuticals have high fixed costs of R&D and low marginal costs. The first pill costs a billion dollars; the second costs 50 cents. That cost structure makes price discrimination—charging different customers different prices based on willingness to pay—common. Price discrimination is why poorer countries get lower prices. Not because firms are charitable, but because a…
Trump’s Pharmaceutical Plan
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics
Here’s what caught my eye in research over the past week:Mati et al. find that the Russia-Ukraine war resulted in an immediate 21 percent reduction in the daily growth rate of the Euro-Ruble exchange rate, and that the steady-state effect translates to a 26 percent reduction in growthMasuhara and Hosoya review the COVID-19-related performance of…
This week in research #112
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law
Labour and Te Pāti Māori competed in the drama stakes airing their dirty laundry Waitangi Day is an annual time of remembrance, renewal, grievance, self-flagellation, and competing narratives. The summer ritual at the Treaty Grounds is part civic commemoration, part political theatre, and part family reunion. It is also, the ultimate testing ground for the […]
Waitangi 2026: the year of in-fighting on the Left
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: age of empires, Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, economics of slavery, regressive left
Today we celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi – a day which should be called Emancipation Day. For on the 6th of February 1840, slavery became illegal in New Zealand. The granting of British citizenship to Maori freed the slaves in law (the practice took a while longer to end) Slavery was not…
New Zealand Emancipation Day
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
In last Waitangi Day’s NZ Herald column, I argued that New Zealand’s sovereignty was not created in a single moment in 1840 but built over generations through practical governance, with Māori and Pākehā participating together. This year’s column takes the next step: asking where that sovereign authority now resides – and what that means for how we […]
The Crown versus The People: Reclaiming New Zealand’s democratic story
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - USA, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
The death tax presumably is the most destructive tax on a per-dollar-collected basis, but I suspect the capital gains tax is in second place. Like the death tax, the capital gains tax is pure double taxation, thus exacerbating the tax code’s bias against saving and investment. And the capital gains tax is particularly foolish since […]
Part I(b): Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
06 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: China, free trade, free trade agreements, tariffs
New Zealand was the first Western developed country to sign a free trade agreement with China, and it came into force in 2008. At the time, the New Zealand government estimated an increase in exports to China of between NZ$225 million and NZ$350 million (between US$180 million and US$280 million), and Ministry of Foreign Affairs…
The economic impacts of the 2008 NZ-China Free Trade Agreement
05 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, International law, war and peace Tags: Germany, World War I, World War II
05 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in economic history, economics of climate change, economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, movies, politics - USA Tags: climate activists, climate alarmism
Jan. 24 marked the 20th anniversary of the release of Al Gore’s alarmist global warming movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” Gore has surfed the movie and climate alarmism to a net worth estimated at $300 million and a Nobel Peace Prize.
STEVE MILLOY: 20 Years After ‘An Inconvenient Truth’
05 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, international economics, politics - USA Tags: free trade, tariffs
One of the predictions made by economists when President Trump announce the start of his freewheeling tariff policies in April 2025 was that the costs of the tariffs would ultimately be passed through to consumers, leading to overall higher inflation. Well, President Trump has been tossing out tariff threats, keeping some and withdrawing others. However,…
Tariffs and Inflation: Where Are We?
04 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of religion, liberalism, politics - New Zealand Tags: Freedom of religion
About this time a week ago, the New Zealand Police released a statement to report that two people had died in a helicopter crash north of Wellington earlier in the day. Work was under way to recover the deceased and to examine the crash scene, near the Battle Hill regional park. The statement included: Police […]
Iwi ensure respect is shown to a crash site – but how are the beliefs of crash victims and their families respected?
Econ Prof at George Mason University, Economic Historian, Québécois
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Res ipsa loquitur - The thing itself speaks
In Hume’s spirit, I will attempt to serve as an ambassador from my world of economics, and help in “finding topics of conversation fit for the entertainment of rational creatures.”
Researching the House of Commons, 1832-1868
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“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert”. - J Robert Oppenheimer.
The truth about the great wind power fraud - we're not here to debate the wind industry, we're here to destroy it.
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Economics, public policy, monetary policy, financial regulation, with a New Zealand perspective
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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