Blackmar–Diemer Gambit Explained | Powerful Attack After 1.d4 d5
14 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in chess
BBC News uses ‘shared’ Gaza footage to promote a narrative
14 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, media bias, Middle-East politics, war against terror
Three days after the announcement of the resumption of airdrops of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, the BBC News website published a filmed report showing Jeremy Bowen on one of the Jordanian flights, the synopsis to which states: “The BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen boarded a Jordanian military plane dropping humanitarian aid into Gaza. […]
BBC News uses ‘shared’ Gaza footage to promote a narrative
Treasury states what we all knew
14 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in fiscal policy, health economics, income redistribution, macroeconomics, politics - New Zealand, Public Choice, public economics Tags: economics of pandemics
The Herald reports: A new Treasury paper has criticised the last Government for overspending during the pandemic, leaving the country with a high level of public debt that makes it vulnerable to future shocks. The paper calculated the total cost of the pandemic at about $66 billion. It put the total fiscal contribution to the […]
Treasury states what we all knew
Judge Crushes Charleston Climate Case
14 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: nuisance suits
EID covers the legal thrashing visited upon Charleston plaintiffs seeking a judgment punishing Big Oil for their role in climate misfortunes. The article is Judge Shuts Down Charleston Climate Case, Warns of “Boundless” Liability. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. A South Carolina judge has dismissed Charleston’s climate lawsuit, delivering a decisive setback […]
Judge Crushes Charleston Climate Case
“Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”: Trump Takeover Renews Questions Over D.C. Crime Data
13 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of crime, law and economics, politics - USA
Washington, D.C. is a city that has long spun statistics to the point that they become more fable than fact. It reaffirms the famous view that there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The line is the perfect warning to the unwary about politicians citing statistics. The quote itself is widely misrepresented as the work […]
“Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”: Trump Takeover Renews Questions Over D.C. Crime Data
The Climate Beat Goes On
13 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, politics - USA, Public Choice Tags: climate alarmism
My response to 10 questions from the Associated Press on the DOE CWG report
The Climate Beat Goes On
Former Minister refuse to appear before Covid-19 Royal Commission
13 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in politics - New Zealand Tags: economics of pandemics
The former Ministers spent $60 billion of taxpayers’s money and imposed massive restrictions on New Zealander’s rights as part of the Covid-19 response. They are now refusing to answer questions on their decision making, unless it is done in secret, rather than in public. This is such a huge contempt for the public. They were […]
Former Minister refuse to appear before Covid-19 Royal Commission
A Final Attempt to Explain My Disagreement With John Lott on Trump’s Tariffs
13 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in applied welfare economics, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: tarrifs
TweetHere’s a follow-up letter to a new correspondent. Mr. K__: Thanks for your follow-up email, and no need to apologize for what you call your “continued confusion about tariffs as taxes.” It’s I who apologize for communicating unclearly. So, especially because you’re not the only person who I managed to confuse, I’ll take one more…
A Final Attempt to Explain My Disagreement With John Lott on Trump’s Tariffs
BBC News avoids the full background to Hamas ‘disarmament’ story
12 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in defence economics, International law, laws of war, war and peace Tags: Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, war against terror
On August 2nd the BBC News website published a report by Thomas Mackintosh headlined “Hamas refuses to disarm until Palestinian state established”. Readers of the current version of that report are told that: “Hamas has reaffirmed that it will not agree to disarm unless a sovereign Palestinian state is established, in response to one of […]
BBC News avoids the full background to Hamas ‘disarmament’ story
Nice summary
12 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in economics of education Tags: conjecture and refutation, philosophy of science
Is anyone worth a billion dollars?
12 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation Tags: superstar wages
That is the topic of my latest Free Press column. Excerpt: …in recent years they [Meta] have moved into AI in a big way. Over that same time period, the valuation of the company has risen from about $236 billion in November 2022 to almost $2 trillion at the end of this July. The reasons for […]
Is anyone worth a billion dollars?
Tenth Circuit: Parents Do Not Have Right to Override Ban on Gender Transitioning of Minors
12 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in discrimination, economics of regulation, gender, health economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA, property rights Tags: political correctness, regressive left, sex discrimination
The Tenth Circuit handed down a notable opinion this week in Poe v. Drummond, upholding Oklahoma’s law prohibiting gender transition procedures for anyone under eighteen. The opinion by Judge Joel Carson (joined by Judges Harris Hartz and Gregory Phillips) concluded that parental rights do not trump a state’s determination of what are safe treatments for […]
Tenth Circuit: Parents Do Not Have Right to Override Ban on Gender Transitioning of Minors
Some Links
11 Aug 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, economic history, history of economic thought, international economics, politics - USA Tags: tarrifs
TweetFareed Zakaria, writing in the Washington Post, eloquently corrects many of the fallacies believed by MAGA-types (and also by many – most? – progressives’) about the American economy. Two slices: The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s measure of median disposable household income in America was higher than in all but one advanced industrial economy…
Some Links
Politics Without Shame: Gerrymandering Makes Hypocrisy a Political Punch Line
11 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
Below is my column in The Hill on open hypocrisy of many denouncing the Texas redistricting effort. While I have been a critic of gerrymandering for decades, the faux outrage of Democrats in heavily gerrymandered states would make Captain Louis Renault blush. Here is the column:
Politics Without Shame: Gerrymandering Makes Hypocrisy a Political Punch Line
Chlöe Swarbrick’s homelessness hyperbole
11 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic history, economics of regulation, human capital, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, transport economics, urban economics Tags: family poverty, homelessness, regressive left
Ani O’Brien writes – Chlöe Swarbrick wants you to believe the Government is intentionally increasing homelessness. She told RNZ’s Mata with Mihingarangi Forbes: “The only conclusion that I can really come to is that this Government has intentionally increased homelessness…” It’s the kind of soundbite that plays well on social media. Outrage travels faster than nuance, and a […]
Chlöe Swarbrick’s homelessness hyperbole
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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