
Simply Irresistible: Why Plugging Into Small Modular Reactors Makes Perfect Sense
12 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming

Listen to the wind and sun cult and you’d think that Small Modular Nuclear Reactors are a work of far-fetched Science Fiction. The reality is that some 200 small nuclear reactors are presently powering 160 ships and submarines all around the world, and have been for decades. None of which sits with the narrative pitched by […]
Simply Irresistible: Why Plugging Into Small Modular Reactors Makes Perfect Sense
How Mexico built a state (that was then, this is now)
12 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
Mexico in the nineteenth century presents a dramatic example of this problem. Mexico suffered extreme political instability and strife in the nineteenth century. There were 800 revolts between 1821 and 1875. Between independence in 1821 and 1900, Mexico had 72 different chief executives, meaning that the average term was only a little more than one […]
How Mexico built a state (that was then, this is now)
Stansbury and Summers on the declining bargaining power of labor
11 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
In one of the best papers of the year, Anna Stansbury and Larry Summers present what is to me the best non-“Great Stagnation” story of what has gone wrong, and I have read many such accounts. Here is their abstract: Rising profitability and market valuations of US businesses, sluggish wage growth and a declining labor […]
Stansbury and Summers on the declining bargaining power of labor
MURIEL NEWMAN: A Broken Country
11 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
The battlelines have been drawn. The campaign to win the right to govern New Zealand has begun. Four recent polls signal the tide is going out for Labour. The Roy Morgan poll has National on 31 percent, Labour on 24 percent, ACT on 18 percent, the Greens on 12.5 percent, New Zealand First on 5.5…
MURIEL NEWMAN: A Broken Country
EU reality check – waking up from hydrogen daydreams
11 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming

Credit: Scottish Power Hydrogen is no more the wonder gas than CO2 is the opposite. Apart from being very expensive to produce using so-called ‘green’ methods, it’s running into various obstacles elsewhere, such as absence of infrastructure. – – – Europe’s time spent sleepwalking to the tune of hydrogen lobbyists – draining funds and political […]
EU reality check – waking up from hydrogen daydreams
El Salvador and the elasticity of supply
11 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, industrial organisation, law and economics
Many of you have written in and asked what I think of president Bukele throwing all those gang members (and possibly others) in jail without much due process. I do hope to learn more about this, including possibly with a trip to El Salvador later this year. In the meantime, I say let’s put aside […]
El Salvador and the elasticity of supply
The Real Secret of Blue Zones
11 Sep 2023 Leave a comment

Netflix has a new documentary on Blue Zones, regions in the world such as Okinawa Prefecture, Japan; Nuoro Province, Sardinia, Italy; the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Icaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California, where people appear to live “extraordinarily long and vibrant lives.” What are the secrets of such blue zones and how can you live […]
The Real Secret of Blue Zones
New Mexico Governor Suspends Gun Rights in Albuquerque for “Public Health Emergency”
10 Sep 2023 Leave a comment

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday suspended laws that allow open and concealed carry of firearms in Albuquerque for 30 days after declaring a public health emergency. The order, in my view, is flagrantly unconstitutional under existing Second Amendment precedent. It could also be a calculated effort to evade a ruling by making […]
New Mexico Governor Suspends Gun Rights in Albuquerque for “Public Health Emergency”
School Choice Hypocrite
10 Sep 2023 Leave a comment

I’ve written about disgustingly hypocritical politicians who oppose school choice for poor families while sending their kids to private schools. President Obama President Obama’s Education Secretary Elizabeth Warren Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina Gov J.B. Pritzker of Illinois Now there is another hypocrite. The boss of the Chicago teachers union is a big opponents […]
School Choice Hypocrite
Thousands of NYC Rent-Controlled Apartments Sit Vacant
10 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory Tags: rent control
Here’s evidence, if anyone needs it, that rent control contributes to housing scarcity: a new report says that more than 13,000 rent-controlled apartments have been vacant for at least two years. Nearly 90,000 rent-controlled apartments were vacant in 2021 and more than 60,000 were still vacant in 2022. Manhattan apartment … Continue reading →
Thousands of NYC Rent-Controlled Apartments Sit Vacant
Wind & Solar ‘Transition’ Turns Trainwreck: Australians Face More Summer Blackouts
10 Sep 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming

Dry spells, spell hot summers in Australia, which spell load shedding and mass blackouts, whenever the sun sets and/or calm weather sets in. The summer of 2017/18 was a scorcher. Back then, load shedding caught power consumers short in South Australia, Victoria and NSW. Energy-hungry businesses such as aluminium smelters and even hospitals were forced […]
Wind & Solar ‘Transition’ Turns Trainwreck: Australians Face More Summer Blackouts

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