The Herald reports: More than half of the $257 million loan book held by the Government entity formerly known as the Provincial Growth Fund is considered to be at risk of impairment or default. The surge in at-risk loan advances made by Crown Regional Holdings (CRH) – a vehicle used by the Government to warehouse […]
Stop the corporate welfare
Stop the corporate welfare
22 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, rentseeking
The inherited power supply crisis
21 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in energy economics, politics - New Zealand
The Herald reports: An influential collection of business and consumer organisations are calling on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to fix the “broken” energy sector. In a letter published in today’s Sunday newspapers titled “Our energy market is broken”, Luxon was told the country was running out of gas, new electricity generation is taking an age, […]
The inherited power supply crisis
PETER WILLIAMS (on behalf of the Taxpayers’ Union): The Nats are considering keeping Te Mana o te Wai
21 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, resource economics Tags: constitutional law
Peter Williams writes – The Taxpayers’ Union has been alerting supporters about the “Te Mana o te Wai” (literally meaning the mana of the water) requirements, which are still applicable to local councils’ environmental planning/consenting. It is becoming clear that the Coalition Government is continuing down Labour’s path of undemocratic and costly co-governance due to pressure […]
PETER WILLIAMS (on behalf of the Taxpayers’ Union): The Nats are considering keeping Te Mana o te Wai
Making sense of the case for compensation in regulatory bill
21 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: takings
Eric Crampton writes – The Regulatory Standards Bill before Parliament provides no enforceable legal right to compensation for the cost of regulation. It only suggests that compensation can be warranted when regulation takes or impairs property. A sovereign Parliament remains free to ignore that advice, as is made abundantly clear in sections 24 through 26 […]
Making sense of the case for compensation in regulatory bill
America’s Armchair Revolutionaries: How the Left is Rediscovering Marxism as the Ultimate Virtue Signal
21 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: useful idiots
Below is my column in The Hill on the rise of American armchair revolutionaries, particularly among young, affluent college graduates. It is part of the “radical chic” fostered from higher education to Hollywood for citizens who have no memory of the failures of socialism and communism in the 20th Century. Here is the column:
America’s Armchair Revolutionaries: How the Left is Rediscovering Marxism as the Ultimate Virtue Signal
2nd Battle Of The Marne – Turning Point On The Western Front I THE GREAT…
21 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, war and peace Tags: World War I
Labor supply is elastic!
19 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply Tags: Denmark, taxation and labour supply
Even in Denmark: We investigate long-run earnings responses to taxes in the presence of dynamic returns to effort. First, we develop a theoretical model of earnings determination with dynamic returns to effort. In this model, earnings responses are delayed and mediated by job switches. Second, using administrative data from Denmark, we verify our model’s predictions […]
Labor supply is elastic!
Immigrant Assimilation Is Obviously High
19 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, population economics Tags: economics of immigration
I recently argued that self-reports understate the personality gender gap. As long as some men rate their personalities relative to the average male, and some women rate their personalities relative to the average female, the gap the data reveal is less than the true gap. 798 more words
Immigrant Assimilation Is Obviously High
Woman of the day
18 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economic history, gender, labour economics, labour supply Tags: France, gender wage gap, sex discrimination
OTD in 1965, France changed the law to allow married women the right to work without their husbands’ permission. Yes, really. To mark the occasion, Woman of the Day is journalist Madeleine Riffaud, French Resistance, who didn’t need any man’s permission to fight for her country.… pic.twitter.com/nlp3f2GIsK — The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) July 13, 2025
Woman of the day
The Cross of Gold: Brazilian Treasure and the Decline of Portugal (due to the resource curse)
18 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, growth disasters, international economics, law and economics, macroeconomics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, resource economics Tags: Portugal, resources curse
By Davis Kedrosky and Nuno Palma. Published in The Journal of Economic History.In the book The Economics of Macro Issues which I used as a supplemental text, they mention that Russia has many resources but its per capita income is less than that of Luxembourg which has few resources. The book suggests that the economic…
The Cross of Gold: Brazilian Treasure and the Decline of Portugal (due to the resource curse)
The Timing of Abundance
18 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, environmental economics, income redistribution, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, urban economics Tags: housing affordability, land supply, zoning
In case you missed my *Build, Baby, Build* because of the 2024 election.
The Timing of Abundance
What Andrew Little must do to show he is worthy of winning the Wellington mayoralty
17 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
Peter Dunne writes – National Prime Ministers seem to have a thing about Wellington. In 2013 then Prime Minister John Key raised the ire of Wellington’s community and business leaders when he told an Auckland audience that the capital city was “dying” and that “we don’t know how to turn it around.” He subsequently offered […]
What Andrew Little must do to show he is worthy of winning the Wellington mayoralty
Passing of the last of “The Few”
17 Jul 2025 Leave a comment
in war and peace Tags: World War II
I’m a little late to this because I don’t monitor the UK media daily but on the 17th of March 2025, a final chapter in a crucial battle of military history came to an end with the death of 105-year-old Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway of the Royal Air Force who flew Hurricanes during the […]
Passing of the last of “The Few”
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments