The People’s Champion vs The People’s Prosecutor: It is the news media’s job to elicit information from politicians – not to prosecute them. Peters’ promise to sort out TVNZ should be believed. If he finds himself in a position to carry out his threat, then it will only be because the angry majority has had […]
CHRIS TROTTER: The angry majority
CHRIS TROTTER: The angry majority
05 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
The problems of a tax-free threshold
05 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand, public economics
Jim Rose details the problems with a tax-free threshold for the NZ Taxpayers Union. Running one that’s revenue-neutral means you have to increase marginal rates further up. Increasing marginal rates to fund inframarginal transfers mightn’t make the most sense. And there are better ways of targeting support, if that’s what you want to do. He writes:The introduction…
The problems of a tax-free threshold
‘Green’ Energy Nirvana Collides With Brutal Reality: Wind & Solar Are Pointless
05 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming
The world runs on luck and credit. The wind and solar ‘industries’ are running out of both. What might have sounded a little hopeful 20 years ago, sounds utterly ridiculous today. Talk about an all-wind and sun-powered future these days smacks of a mixture of delusion and desperation. Wind turbine manufacturers are bleeding cash, with […]
‘Green’ Energy Nirvana Collides With Brutal Reality: Wind & Solar Are Pointless
Let’s Spend More Money on Something We Have to Give Away to Get People to Use It!
05 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in transport economics, urban economics
Kansas City voters sensibly rejected spending money on light rail at least seven times. But that common sense apparently didn’t extent to streetcars, which are an even dumber idea than light rail as streetcars are slower than buses, far more expensive, and can’t get out of their own way if … Continue reading →
Let’s Spend More Money on Something We Have to Give Away to Get People to Use It!
“There Is A Design Problem In Climate Policy” Featuring Dr. Roger Pielke Jr.
05 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, economic growth, economics of natural disasters, macroeconomics
On Wednesday in Denver, we had the pleasure of joining Dr. Roger Pielke Jr. (UC Boulder) and Chris Wright, CEO and Chairman of Liberty Energy for a live discussion as part of Liberty Energy’s “Liberty and Energy” Presentation Series. Roger is a Professor in the Environmental Studies department at the University of Colorado Boulder and […]
“There Is A Design Problem In Climate Policy” Featuring Dr. Roger Pielke Jr.
China and Migration
05 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
I am not bullish about China’s economy. Even 10 or more years ago, when many people thought China was going to be the economic superpower of the 21st century, I poured cold water on those predictions. Simply stated, China suffers from too much bad economic policy. Is it as bad as it was during Mao’s […]
China and Migration
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks (2006)
05 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
Perhaps the worst war plan in American history. (Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, page 115) ‘It failed utterly.’ (Verdict of Marek Belka, Prime Minister of Poland which contributed troops to the coalition, describing the entire American project to invade and ‘liberate’ Iraq, p.347) Bad assumptions The US Army invaded Iraq on 20 March […]
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks (2006)
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (2006)
05 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
‘Yee-haw is not a foreign policy.’ (Hand-written sign in the bar of the British compound of the Green Zone, Baghdad) Why America invaded Iraq In March 2003 the US Army, accompanied by forces from the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’, invaded Iraq with the aim of overthrowing Saddam Hussein. The architects of the invasion, US […]
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (2006)
The House Crack Suicide Squad: The Ouster of McCarthy Captures the Politics of Our Times
04 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
In Monty Python’s film, “The Life of Brian,” the lead character hangs hopelessly on the cross when a small army arrives to rescue him. His relief is short-lived as Otto, the leader, promptly announces that they are the crack suicide squad trained to kill themselves “within 20 seconds.” The scene came to mind yesterday as […]
The House Crack Suicide Squad: The Ouster of McCarthy Captures the Politics of Our Times
Paris under the Swastika – Collaboration and Resistance – On the Homefro…
04 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in defence economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: France, World War II
Checking out Carmel Sepuloni’s campaign claims
04 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
Radio NZ reports that Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni was on the campaign trail in Christchurch yesterday defending her government’s performance. She said that: “Her government had seen higher numbers of beneficiaries moving into jobs …” Yet the numbers on a Jobseeker benefit continue to climb. Technically her assertion may be true but it’s…
Checking out Carmel Sepuloni’s campaign claims
Fighting ideological repression by the Authoritarian Left
04 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
I don’t know how Anna Krylov manages to sustain a successful career as an accomplished and honored theoretical and quantum chemist at the University of Southern California—while at the same time turning out long and thoughtful pieces that attack the ruination of science by the Authoritarian Left. She was, for example, the main author of […]
Fighting ideological repression by the Authoritarian Left
Why Sweden Isn’t an Example of Socialism
04 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, macroeconomics, welfare reform Tags: Sweden
When I meet Americans who self-identify as “socialists,” it is quite uncommon for them to advocate the abolition of private property and the “collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods”–which is the dictionary definition of socialism. Instead most of the American “socialists” I meet favor a more…
Why Sweden Isn’t an Example of Socialism
Certified
04 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
If a drug or medical device has already gone through the regulatory gauntlet at the FDA and Australia, or in the UK and Canada, or the EU and Taiwan, or Switzerland and Singapore, does it seem all that likely that Medsafe’s going to find anything that everyone else missed?Sure, Medsafe has ‘expedited’ processes for drugs…
Certified
Some charts on our underperforming economy
04 Oct 2023 Leave a comment
in economic growth, macroeconomics
It is election season, and since the performance of the economy enables (or disables) so much of what political parties want to do, or to spend, it is worth having a look at a few charts. There have been plenty on inflation this year, and plenty of fiscal policy in just the last few weeks. […]
Some charts on our underperforming economy
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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