Gore to climate scientists: “Start getting involved in politics.” Boy, did they listen.
The Legacy of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” 20 Years Later
The Legacy of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” 20 Years Later
08 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, movies Tags: climate alarmism
More touting of indigenous knowledge as coequal with modern science
08 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of education Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science, regressive left
Once again we have an article about how science could be improved if only it incorporated indigenous “ways of knowing”—the “braiding of knowledge” referred to in the Guardian article below (click to read). I often see another metaphor used to express the same thing: “two-eyed seeing”, with one eye seeing the way indigenous people do,…
More touting of indigenous knowledge as coequal with modern science
Crypto-Communism and Game Theory
08 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
“Crypto-Communist” is a word with a strong conspiratorial crackpot connotation. But it simply means “secret Communist,” and the history of the Cold War is packed with bona fide examples. Fidel Castro ruled Cuba for two years before he admitted he was a Communist. Ho Chi Minh joined the Comintern in 1920, but spent decades posing…
Crypto-Communism and Game Theory
The Fatal Conceit of Cheap Drugs
07 Apr 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economics of information, economics of regulation, health economics, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: copyrights and patents, intellectual property
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Hikma v. Amarin to answer a narrow question. It may end up saying far more about how policymakers misunderstand pharmaceutical markets. On its face, the case is narrow. It asks whether a generic drug manufacturer can face liability for inducing patent infringement based on how it markets a…
The Fatal Conceit of Cheap Drugs
Is there something about manufacturing that requires special policies to help it that other industries don’t get?
07 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle
I have excerpts from posts or articles by three different economists. The answer seems to be no. Two are older and one is very recent by Harvard prof Jason Furman, who was once the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under Obama. Then two older sources. One is from Tyler Cowen (2023), professor at…
Is there something about manufacturing that requires special policies to help it that other industries don’t get?
Net Zero France Capitulates to an Iranian Safe Passage Fee for Gulf Oil
06 Apr 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, energy economics, international economics, war and peace Tags: Iran
European Net Zero policies appear to have created a total dependency on imported fossil fuel.
Net Zero France Capitulates to an Iranian Safe Passage Fee for Gulf Oil
The 28th Amendment: Is it Time for a New Amendment on the Meaning of Citizenship?
06 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - USA Tags: constitutional law, economics of immigration
Below is my column in the Hill on the expected reaffirmation of birthright citizenship by the Supreme Court after the…
The 28th Amendment: Is it Time for a New Amendment on the Meaning of Citizenship?
The CA Minimum Wage Increase: Summing Up
06 Apr 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, economics of regulation, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, politics - USA, Public Choice, unemployment
Two recent joint-papers Did California’s Fast Food Minimum Wage Reduce Employment? by Clemens, Edwards and Meer and The Effects of California’s $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage on Prices by Clemens, Edwards, Meer and Nguyen give what I think is a plausible and consistent account of California’s $20 fast food minimum wage. California’s $20 fast food…
The CA Minimum Wage Increase: Summing Up
Does working from home raise lifetime fertility?
06 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of love and marriage, labour economics, labour supply, population economics Tags: economics of fertility, economics of pandemics
See Work from Home and Fertility by Steven J. Davis, Cevat Giray Aksoy, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Katelyn Cranney, Mathias Dolls & Pablo Zarate. Abstract”We investigate how fertility relates to work from home (WFH) in the post-pandemic era, drawing on original data from our Global Survey of Working Arrangements and U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements…
Does working from home raise lifetime fertility?
Help Wanted: Trump Offers Cabinet Position With Perks, Power, and Zero Job Security
05 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
Below is my column on Fox.com on the removal of Attorney General Pam Bondi and the start of one of…
Help Wanted: Trump Offers Cabinet Position With Perks, Power, and Zero Job Security
Quotation of the Day…
05 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economics of regulation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, Richard Epstein
Tweet… is from page 162 of Richard Epstein’s magnificent 1995 volume, Simple Rules for a Complex World: The entire regulatory process [of wrongful dismissal of workers] shows the constant preoccupation with the direct effects of decisions on named persons, without regard to the vastly greater indirect effects on other persons similarly situated. The effort to…
Quotation of the Day…
An interesting Al Jazeera column
04 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, politics - USA, war and peace Tags: Iran
I did not expect to see a column in Al Jazeera saying that the US and Israel war against Iran is succeeding, but there is. The author, Muhammad Sellom, is an Assistant Professor of International Politics and Security at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He writes: When you look at what has actually happened…
An interesting Al Jazeera column
Abolish the BSA
04 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, economics of regulation, industrial organisation, politics - New Zealand
The Broadcasting Standards Authority announced: The Broadcasting Standards Authority has confirmed it has jurisdiction to consider a complaint about content transmitted by an online broadcaster. In a decision published today, the Authority determined it can accept, and is required to consider under the Broadcasting Act, complaints about The Platform’s Live Talkback programme, because the programme meets…
Abolish the BSA
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 8
04 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economic history, history of economic thought, labour economics, labour supply, Murray Rothbard, welfare reform
SummaryThis chapter, on “Welfare and the Welfare State,” argues that the welfare state gives the poor perverse incentives. A superficial reader might say, “However original this was in 1973 when it was first written, it’s now old hat. Clinton made the same arguments for welfare reform.” However, on closer examination, Rothbard’s analysis remains distinctive both…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 8
Paul Ehrlich
04 Apr 2026 Leave a comment
in environmentalism, population economics
Paul Ehrlich has died, the environmentalist most well know for being wrong about basically everything. Richard Hanania has read Ehrlich’s infamous “The population bomb” and summarises for us what Ehrlich thought. Click through and read the whole series. It is amazing. The post Paul Ehrlich first appeared on Kiwiblog.
Paul Ehrlich
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