The Clintons are again suggesting that they might not agree to a deposition after previously yielding to the threat of…
“I Will Not Sit Idly as They Use Me as a Prop”: Is Bill Clinton Moving Back Into Contempt?
“I Will Not Sit Idly as They Use Me as a Prop”: Is Bill Clinton Moving Back Into Contempt?
08 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
Maybe give Whales the vote also?
08 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: animal rights, constitutional law
Radio NZ reports: A Green MP wants tohorā/whales to be recognised as legal persons. In New Zealand, laws have been passed to grant legal personhood to natural features, allowing them to be represented in court and have rights similar to those of individuals. Teanau Tuiono has lodged a member’s bill, the Tohorā Oranga Bill, which would…
Maybe give Whales the vote also?
Police Thwart Alleged Assassination of OMB Director Russell Vought
08 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order, regressive left
There is a chilling story out this morning that another assassination attempt may have been averted. This time, the target…
Police Thwart Alleged Assassination of OMB Director Russell Vought
The Washington Post Hit With Massive Layoffs As Guild Suggests the Need for New Owner
08 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, entrepreneurship, financial economics, industrial organisation, politics - USA, survivor principle Tags: creative destruction
The Washington Post has announced layoffs affecting one-third of its workforce, including most of the sports and foreign news desks.…
The Washington Post Hit With Massive Layoffs As Guild Suggests the Need for New Owner
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 1
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in libertarianism, Murray Rothbard
Here’s my plan: I’ll lead off each discussion of Murray Rothbard’s For a New Liberty with (a) a brief summary of the chapter of the week, and (b) some critical comments. But this is your book club, so in the comments feel free to not only to discuss my summary and critique, but any thoughts…
Bet On It Book Club: For a New Liberty, Chapter 1
The Adelaide Writers Festival
07 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in defence economics, discrimination, economics of crime, law and economics, laws of war, liberalism, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, Gaza Strip, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
Juliet Moses writes at Quillette: The furore surrounding the storied Adelaide Writers Festival, the longest-running and largest literary festival in Australia and one that receives significant taxpayer funding, has made international headlines. Our drama ostensibly begins when the Festival’s board disinvites Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian writer with Palestinian heritage. Its climax sees a cultural…
The Adelaide Writers Festival
Double murderer has been freed on parole – but would he have been jailed if the Maori Party had been running things 20 years ago?
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: crime and punishment, criminal deterrence, law and order
The New Zealand public learned today that Tauranga double murderer Anthony Doyle has been released on parole after serving 20 years. It turns out he was freed before the New Year. Doyle blasted a couple to death with a shotgun under a bridge near Tauranga in 2005 after a dispute over a drug debt. He […]
Double murderer has been freed on parole – but would he have been jailed if the Maori Party had been running things 20 years ago?
Trump’s Pharmaceutical Plan
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, health economics, politics - USA Tags: price discrimination
Pharmaceuticals have high fixed costs of R&D and low marginal costs. The first pill costs a billion dollars; the second costs 50 cents. That cost structure makes price discrimination—charging different customers different prices based on willingness to pay—common. Price discrimination is why poorer countries get lower prices. Not because firms are charitable, but because a…
Trump’s Pharmaceutical Plan
This week in research #112
07 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economics
Here’s what caught my eye in research over the past week:Mati et al. find that the Russia-Ukraine war resulted in an immediate 21 percent reduction in the daily growth rate of the Euro-Ruble exchange rate, and that the steady-state effect translates to a 26 percent reduction in growthMasuhara and Hosoya review the COVID-19-related performance of…
This week in research #112
Waitangi 2026: the year of in-fighting on the Left
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: constitutional law
Labour and Te Pāti Māori competed in the drama stakes airing their dirty laundry Waitangi Day is an annual time of remembrance, renewal, grievance, self-flagellation, and competing narratives. The summer ritual at the Treaty Grounds is part civic commemoration, part political theatre, and part family reunion. It is also, the ultimate testing ground for the […]
Waitangi 2026: the year of in-fighting on the Left
New Zealand Emancipation Day
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of crime, law and economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: age of empires, Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, economics of slavery, regressive left
Today we celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi – a day which should be called Emancipation Day. For on the 6th of February 1840, slavery became illegal in New Zealand. The granting of British citizenship to Maori freed the slaves in law (the practice took a while longer to end) Slavery was not…
New Zealand Emancipation Day
The Crown versus The People: Reclaiming New Zealand’s democratic story
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law
In last Waitangi Day’s NZ Herald column, I argued that New Zealand’s sovereignty was not created in a single moment in 1840 but built over generations through practical governance, with Māori and Pākehā participating together. This year’s column takes the next step: asking where that sovereign authority now resides – and what that means for how we […]
The Crown versus The People: Reclaiming New Zealand’s democratic story
Part I(b): Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
06 Feb 2026 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, politics - USA, public economics Tags: taxation and entrepreneurship, taxation and investment
The death tax presumably is the most destructive tax on a per-dollar-collected basis, but I suspect the capital gains tax is in second place. Like the death tax, the capital gains tax is pure double taxation, thus exacerbating the tax code’s bias against saving and investment. And the capital gains tax is particularly foolish since […]
Part I(b): Yes, Taxes Change Behavior
The economic impacts of the 2008 NZ-China Free Trade Agreement
06 Feb 2026 1 Comment
in applied price theory, econometerics, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: China, free trade, free trade agreements, tariffs
New Zealand was the first Western developed country to sign a free trade agreement with China, and it came into force in 2008. At the time, the New Zealand government estimated an increase in exports to China of between NZ$225 million and NZ$350 million (between US$180 million and US$280 million), and Ministry of Foreign Affairs…
The economic impacts of the 2008 NZ-China Free Trade Agreement
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