Why Socialism Won’t Die
“to employ a hundred people is… exploitation, but to command the same number [is] honorable.” That’s an actual book by the way, explaining that although communism has failed in the past across...
View ArticleMore Good Results from Argentina
The most important election of 2023 took place in Argentina, where that nation’s voters elected the libertarian candidate, Javier Milei, as their new president. I discussed the outlook for Milei’s...
View ArticleThe Rise and Decline and Rise Again of Mancur Olson
Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations is one of my favorite books and a classic of public choice. Olson may well have won the Nobel prize had he not died young. He summarized his book in nine...
View ArticleTVNZ hīkoi documentary needs a sequel
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th...
View ArticleWhy prediction markets are not popular
By Nick Whitaker and J. Zachary Mazlish, this is the best piece on this question so far. Excerpt, noting I will not double indent: “Rather than regulation, our explanation for the absence of...
View ArticleClaude 3 on why the US leads China and the EU in economic dynamism
QUESTION TO CLAUDE 3: The EU and China lag behind the US in economic dynamism, measured by start-up activity, number of unicorns, age of unicorns (younger indicates more rapid innovation), and in...
View ArticleNicholas Kilford: Interpreting The Devolution Statutes
*Editors’ Note: This post is part of the ‘Unwritten Constitutional Norms and Principles Blog Series’* Throughout the life of devolution, the courts appear to have diverged on how to properly determine...
View ArticleOn electing gangsters
In India it’s common for politicians to have criminal cases against them. Why do voters vote for criminals? One compelling explanation provided by political scientist Milan Vaishnav is that voters...
View ArticleLeftists Against Growth: Honest, but Wrong
Just as trend lines are important for fiscal policy, they are perhaps even more important when looking at economic performance. Even small difference in annual growth rates, for instance, can lead to...
View ArticleCan Democracy Survive the “Defenders of Democracy”?
Below is my column in The Hill on the latest calls to protect democracy with distinctly undemocratic measures. Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton insisted that the 2024 election was our...
View ArticleMurphy’s Law of Economic Policy
Economists have the least influence on policy where they know the most and are most agreed; they have the most influence on policy where they know the least and disagree most vehemently.” I’d never...
View ArticleGuest Post: Funding Infrastructure
A guest post by Gary Lindsay responding to the speech by Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop: Chris Bishop’s speech regarding infrastructure has been a long time coming. It’s great that a government...
View ArticleDo not stifle supply and then subsidize demand
That phrasing comes from Arnold Kling, right? It is also the topic of my latest Bloomberg column. Here is one bit: Unfortunately, the US already was setting a bad example for the British. Recent...
View ArticlePharmac’s free ride won’t last forever
Americans contribute disproportionately toward the pharmaceutical innovation from which we all benefit, but their tolerance for subsidising the rest of the world is on the wane… Eric Crampton writes...
View ArticleIs France about to demonstrate “ideal” semi-presidentialism in action?
The outcome of the French assembly election of 2024 appears to have set up a situation that could be described as the “ideal” way that semi-presidential systems are meant to operate, based on how such...
View ArticleBryan Caplan on YIMBY in the NYT
Here is one excerpt: What few appreciate is that the overregulation of housing has blocked a classic American path: moving to a higher-wage part of the country to secure a better life. A paper by the...
View ArticleMarket Preserving Federalism in the USA
One of my favorite economic journal articles is by Barry Weingast and has the short title “Market Preserving Federalism” (MPF). In this paper, Weingast lays out the conditions necessary for two tenuous...
View Article