When I’m in Britain or Ireland, one of my favourite sightseeing trips is to visit medieval castles. Even the ruined ones are fun to visit. Actually, maybe the ruined ones are more fun to visit, because you get to imagine what they would have looked like in their heyday. Britain and Ireland are full of castles,…
The economics of castles
The economics of castles
10 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, defence economics, economic history
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 11
10 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, history of economic thought, libertarianism, Murray Rothbard, transport economics, urban economics
SummaryIn this chapter, Rothbard advocates the abolition of publicly-owned streets and roads:Abolition of the public sector means, of course, that all pieces of land, all land areas, including streets and roads, would be owned privately, by individuals, corporations, cooperatives, or any other voluntary group ings of individuals and capital.He begins by explaining that in a…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 11
The Gerrymander Debacle in Virginia Leaves the Democratic Party with a Dangerous Agenda
09 May 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: constitutional law
Below is my column in the New York Post on the decision of the Virginia Supreme Court to nullify the…
The Gerrymander Debacle in Virginia Leaves the Democratic Party with a Dangerous Agenda
Harrison R. Tyler (1928 – 2025)
09 May 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: life expectancies
Harrison Ruffin Tyler – the last living grandson of the 10th president John Tyler – died this past Sunday evening, May 25th at the age of 96. Harrison Tyler was a businessman, a chemical engineer and a passionate preservationist. In the mid-1970s Harrison purchased, and spent years restoring, Sherwood Forest Plantation, America’s longest framed home […]
Harrison R. Tyler (1928 – 2025)
The UK Labour slaughter
09 May 2026 Leave a comment
in politics Tags: British politics
The scale of losses for UK Labour in their local elections is beyond massive. So far it is: I predicted at the end of 2025 that Starmer would not survive the year. I think that is still looking a good prediction. The post The UK Labour slaughter first appeared on Kiwiblog.
The UK Labour slaughter
Stuff confirms what I said six months ago about TPM
09 May 2026 Leave a comment
Stuff reports: Back on 28 November I blogged: I understand that Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke is consulting her electorate over the next two weeks on whether she should remain with Te Pati Maori under its current leadership. Only took six months for others tp catch up 🙂 With Kapa-Kingi sitting in a limbo-land not quite in, but…
Stuff confirms what I said six months ago about TPM
German Instrument of Surrender
08 May 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, World War II
The “German Instrument of Surrender” actually refers to two documents. The first was signed in Reims, France, on May 7, 1945, and the second—a more formal “definitive” version—was signed in Berlin on May 8, 1945, to satisfy the Soviet Union’s demand for a ceremony in the captured German capital. Below is the text of the […]
German Instrument of Surrender
Grow the Pie, Skip the Sermon
08 May 2026 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, health economics, history of economic thought, liberalism, Marxist economics
In a recent Substack essay, “The progress movement needs a better theory of progress,” Brink Lindsey argues that the progress movement has settled for too thin a vision. It focuses on wealth creation and technological advance, he says, when it should adopt a “fuller conception of progress”—one that promotes “spiritual welfare” and thicker accounts of…
Grow the Pie, Skip the Sermon
A Hiccup in a Price War
08 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, transport economics
Many antitrust economists are wary of the efficacy of predatory pricing, the strategy of pricing below costs to drive a competitor out of a market. The usual counter-argument is that, for it to work, the inevitable losses this will entail must be recouped after the rival has exited. Recoupment requires higher prices … that can…
A Hiccup in a Price War
The supply-side story behind falling meth prices in New Zealand
08 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of crime, health economics, law and economics
Chris Wilkins, Marta Rychert, and Robin van der Sanden (all Massey University) wrote an article in The Conversation last month about the price of methamphetamine:Methamphetamine has become dramatically cheaper over the past seven years, even as authorities report record seizures, according to the latest New Zealand Drug Trends Survey.The annual online survey of over 8,800…
The supply-side story behind falling meth prices in New Zealand
Do Market Reforms Cause Growth?
08 May 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, econometerics, economic growth, economic history, history of economic thought, labour economics, macroeconomics, unemployment
Do market-oriented reforms cause economic growth? This paper revisits this question using a cross-country panel of reform episodes identified from various changes in well-known economic freedom and structural reform indices. We exploit the timing of reforms using distributed-lag and event-study frameworks that trace the dynamic response of per-capita GDP. We find little evidence of immediate…
Do Market Reforms Cause Growth?
BSA to go
07 May 2026 Leave a comment
The Herald reports: The Government will disestablish the Broadcasting Standards Authority after deeming the media regulator’s role “doesn’t make sense” amid an evolving industry. Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith today confirmed the Government had agreed a process to wind down the BSA and “investigate self-regulation options”. The Government had been considering the future of…
BSA to go
The population bust
07 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of love and marriage, gender, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, population economics Tags: ageing society, population bust
IPCC Admits Apocalyptic Climate Scenarios Are “Implausible” – Meaning Most Media Scare Stories Over Last 15 Years Are Officially Junk
06 May 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of natural disasters, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
Purely anecdotal, but the BBC seems to have moderated its wilder climate stories of late with the “Climate” topic on its News site relegated to the second tier of subjects. The post IPCC Admits Apocalyptic Climate Scenarios Are “Implausible” – Meaning Most Media Scare Stories Over Last 15 Years Are Officially Junk appeared first on…
IPCC Admits Apocalyptic Climate Scenarios Are “Implausible” – Meaning Most Media Scare Stories Over Last 15 Years Are Officially Junk
Mauthausen Liberated
06 May 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, war and peace Tags: Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, World War II
On 5 May 1945, Mauthausen Concentration Camp was liberated by the US Army. Just a simple poem to commemorate that day. In Mauthausen’s shadow, where darkness did dwell,In the heart of despair, where horrors did swell,There came a day of courage, a day of light,When the chains of oppression were shattered in flight. From the […]
Mauthausen Liberated
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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