The Great Escape
07 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, health economics Tags: maternal mortality
The Red Apple: Mamdani Pledges to Introduce “the Warmth of Collectivism”
07 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, Marxist economics, politics - USA
Below is my column in The Hill on Mamdani’s full-throated pledge to introduce New Yorkers to “the warmth of collectivism.”…
The Red Apple: Mamdani Pledges to Introduce “the Warmth of Collectivism”
Why Care About Debt-to-GDP?
06 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in econometerics, economic history, international economics, macroeconomics
Here is another piece for “contrarian Tuesday,” like it or not: We construct an international panel data set comprising three distinct yet plausible measures of government indebtedness: the debt-to-GDP, the interest-to-GDP, and the debt-to-equity ratios. Our analysis reveals that these measures yield differing conclusions about recent trends in government indebtedness. While the debt-to-GDP ratio has…
Why Care About Debt-to-GDP?
Building more will boost labor’s share
06 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, labour supply
This paper argues that the decline in the labor share is not driven by the overall quantity of capital, but by its changing composition. Constructing annual macro data for 16 advanced countries over two centuries, we show that, since 1980, the relative decline in buildings capital and the associated increase in real prices of buildings…
Building more will boost labor’s share
Why Some US Indian Reservations Prosper While Others Struggle
06 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, development economics, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, growth disasters, growth miracles, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice
Our colleague Thomas Stratmann writes about the political economy of Indian reservations in his excellent Substack Rules and Results. Across 123 tribal nations in the lower 48 states, median household income for Native American residents ranges from roughly $20,000 to over $130,000—a sixfold difference. Some reservations have household incomes comparable to middle-class America. Others face persistent…
Why Some US Indian Reservations Prosper While Others Struggle
Operation Absolute Resolve: Why Trump Went Off Script and Why it Will Not Matter
05 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, International law, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: Venezuela
It can fairly be said that the most precarious jobs in the world are those of a golf ball collector…
Operation Absolute Resolve: Why Trump Went Off Script and Why it Will Not Matter
Bondi terror: The heroes we choose to remember
05 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: regressive left, war against terror
This may be an unpopular opinion.
Bondi terror: The heroes we choose to remember
Some Links
04 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, politics - USA
TweetSteven Greenhut decries the current condition of the Republican Party. A slice: We’ve become numb to narcissistic rage posts from our president, but the highly publicized Turning Point USA convention last week offers a preview into where the Republican Party is going after Donald Trump exits the stage. It’s not pretty. As we’ve seen recently…
Some Links
Anti-Israel protesters today in Auckland intentionally blocked the public’s view of a sign saying HAMAS RAPED ROMI GONEN
04 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, politics - New Zealand, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, regressive left, war against terror
Today I was counterprotesting the anti-Israel protest in Auckland CBD by holding a sign saying HAMAS RAPED ROMI GONEN and almost immediately anti-Israel protesters came to block the public’s view of my sign with a large kheffiyeh. Romi Gonen, by the way, is a civilian Israeli hostage who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival.…
Anti-Israel protesters today in Auckland intentionally blocked the public’s view of a sign saying HAMAS RAPED ROMI GONEN
The United States Captures Nicolás Maduro and his Wife
04 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: Venezuela
In an extraordinary military operation, the United States launched a large-scale military operation in Caracas, Venezuela with special forces seizing…
The United States Captures Nicolás Maduro and his Wife
Think tank IREF: ‘Against All Rationality, the EU Persists in its Net-Zero Delusion’
04 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: European Union
Simple arithmetic already raises red flags. EU emissions fell by 37% over the 33 years from 1990 to today. Achieving an additional 68% reduction in just 17 years would require nearly tripling the pace of decarbonization.
Think tank IREF: ‘Against All Rationality, the EU Persists in its Net-Zero Delusion’
Keynes: Free Trade and the Nationalist Impulse
04 Jan 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, international economics
In 1933, John Maynard Keynes gave the first Finlay Lecture delivered at University College, Dublin, on the subject of “National Self-Sufficiency” (Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review,” June 1933, 22: 86, pp. 177-193). The Irish Free State of 1933 was a transition phase: after the Irish War of Independence that had ended in 1921, but before…
Keynes: Free Trade and the Nationalist Impulse
Zohran Mamdani, Part I: The “Caviar Communist” Openly Embraces Collectivism
03 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: regressive left
I’m going to start today’s column by acknowledging a mistake. Two days ago, as part of my Best and Worst News of 2025, I didn’t include Zohran Mamdani’s election as Mayor of New York City because I viewed him only as “a theoretical threat.” Yes, I knew he had a nutty agenda, but surely he […]
Zohran Mamdani, Part I: The “Caviar Communist” Openly Embraces Collectivism
The journal Science positively reviews a book criticizing gender surgery
03 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of education, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics Tags: free speech, gender gap, media bias, political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
Is it a sign of the times that this long book review, appearing in the “Science and Society” section of the prestigious journal Science, actually approves of a book questioning the ubiquity of gender surgeries? I haven’t read the book, but you can be that Nature wouldn’t give a positive review such prominence. Here’s the…
The journal Science positively reviews a book criticizing gender surgery
Economic Inequality Does Not Cause Lower Subjective Ratings of Well-Being
03 Jan 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, labour economics, poverty and inequality
It’s become a nearly standard claim that economics inequality makes people feel worse-off, or perhaps even leads to mental illness. However, Nicolas Sommet, Adrien A. Fillon, Ocyna Rudmann, Alfredo Rossi Saldanha Cunha and Annahita Ehsan did what is called a “meta-analysis” of the available studies–that is, they went back and looked at the underlying data, methods, and findings…
Economic Inequality Does Not Cause Lower Subjective Ratings of Well-Being
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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