Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
31 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of education, International law, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
My friend Maarten Boudry, a Belgian philosopher, has been increasingly demonized for his heterodox views, especially on the Hamas/Israel war, since he is sympathetic to Israel (he isn’t Jewish). In the latest post on his Substack site, also published in condensed form in The Jewish Chronicle, Maarten recounts how there is a near-unanimity among European…
Maarten Boudry on the policing of academia
31 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics
In Aberdeen, the warning sirens are no longer coming from offshore rigs but from the unions themselves. A recent study cited by the GMB union paints a stark picture: the North Sea’s offshore workforce, roughly 115,000 strong today, could be slashed to around 57,000 by the early 2030s if Britain’s headlong rush to Net Zero…
How Labour Betrayed Britain’s Working Class in the Name of Net Zero
31 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: 2028 presidential election
Politico reports: Gavin Newsom is fully embracing his status as his party’s foremost podcast bro. … It got off to a polarizing start last March, with a succession of friendly interviews with conservative influencers like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. And while the headlines that tended to enrage Democrats have fallen off, the California governor’s […]
Newsom talking across the aisle
31 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in politics Tags: British politics
Following some recent, high-profile, political defections, Alfie Steer and Dr Emma Peplow have delved into the History of Parliament’s Oral History archive to explore historical cases of MPs changing their party affiliations: their causes, motivations and wider significance. Political defections, commonly known in Westminster parlance as ‘Crossing the Floor’, have been a phenomenon in Parliament…
Crossing the Floor: Tales from the Oral History Project
31 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate activists
Lomborg has performed a valuable service in exposing the economic wreckage of Net Zero and the hollowness of green utopianism. But by clinging to the premise that climate change must ultimately be “solved” through policy-directed and publicly funded innovation, he gives credence to the very worldview he criticises. His halfway house reassures moderates, comforts elites,…
The Bjorn Lomborg Conundrum: Sceptic but Not Quite
31 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, industrial organisation Tags: creative destruction, The Great Enrichment
When a truly great new invention appears, people rarely greet it with the reverence that hindsight later bestows. Instead, they squint at it through the lens of the familiar. They ask: What is this like? And because it is not like anything they already know, they underestimate it. History is littered with inventions that, at […]
The initial underappreciation of great inventions
30 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: France, taxation and labour supply
Olivier Blanchard writes: The French are not lazy. They just enjoy leisure more than most (no irony here) And this is perfectly fine: As productivity increases, it is perfectly reasonable to take it partly as more leisure (fewer hours per week, earlier retirement age), and only partly in income. He has follow-up points and clarifications…
Are the French lazy?
30 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order, regressive left
Te Pāti Māori says it wants to abolish prisons by 2040.
No wonder Te Pāti Māori wants to abolish prisons when Māori make up most of the inmates
30 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, macroeconomics Tags: taxation and investment, taxation and labour supply
Unless you’re a policy wonk, I realize “exciting” may not be the right word to describe new developments in public-finance economics. For nerds, however, three economists at the Joint Committee on Taxation have some important new research on the Laffer Curve. The study, authored by Rachel Moore, Brandon Pecoraro, and David Splinter, concludes that the […]
Exciting New Research on the Laffer Curve
30 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War II
29 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking Tags: age of empires, economics of colonialism
29 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of natural disasters, politics - New Zealand
The picture is firming up, and it’s devastating. Six people are dead at the foot of Mount Maunganui because, over four critical hours on the morning of 22 January, New Zealand’s emergency management system failed. Not just failed, but failed repeatedly, in ways that now look systemic. And what’s becoming clearer with each new revelation […]
How authorities failed campers at Mount Maunganui
28 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
No, it’s not just a lump of rock. The National Public Health Service has been getting along – it seems – on a wing and a prayer. The Platform’s Tina Nixon drew PoO’s attention to the spiritual side of the service’s daily rituals and routines in an interview with Act MP Todd Stephenson. This prompted […]
Health workers are kicking off their day with a karakia, but Act MP ensures it is in their own time and not compulsory
28 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, politics - New Zealand
I shared the video of Don Brash’s 2004 Orewa speech earlier.
The full text of Don Brash’s Orewa speech (2004)
28 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, regulation, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: rent control
This is what I’m seeing: + 2.4 million rent-controlled apartments in a city with a massive housing shortage and 1.4% vacancy rate. + A huge % of these tenants are wealthy, white boomers using the units as pieds-a-terres while they spend their weekends and summers elsewhere. + Meanwhile, the government is using rent control to…
Michelle Tandler on NYC rent control
A History of the Alt-Right
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
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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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
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