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WHAT'S NEW |
4 July 2008, Donald J. Boudreaux
In this deeply complex and fast-changing world of ours, the only potion for persuading someone that ideas do -- or, alternatively, that ideas do not -- play a major role in affecting public policy is dispassionate reflection governed by wisdom. ...more.
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4 July 2008, Roger Kerr
As the World Bank has said, “Privatisation is now so widespread that it is hard to find countries not using the approach: “North Korea, Cuba and perhaps Myanmar make up the shrunken universe of the resistant.” ...more.
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4 July 2008, Benjamin Powell
All too often the fact that we have better alternatives leads first world activists to conclude that there must be better alternatives for third world workers too. Economists across the political spectrum have pointed out that for many sweatshop workers the alternatives are much, much worse. ...more.
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2 July 2008, Paul Krugman
From 2005 through 2007 alone — that is, at the peak of the housing bubble — more than 22 million Americans bought either new or existing houses. Now that the bubble has burst, many of those homebuyers have lost heavily on their investment. At this point there are probably around 10 million households with negative home equity — that is, with mortgages that exceed the value of their houses. ...more.
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27 June 2008, Tyler Cowen
I'd like to suggest a radical idea. The solution for the poorer parts of the Third World is deregulation of the market for piped water, combined with the enforcement of property rights. Yes, I'm saying that Third World governments should consider letting private companies sell water at any price they want. ...more.
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25 June 2008, Johan Norberg
Klein argues that capitalism goes hand in hand with dictatorship and brutality... Klein’s analysis is hopelessly flawed at virtually every level. Friedman’s own words reveal him to be an advocate of peace, democracy, and individual rights. ...more.
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25 June 2008, Andrew Leigh
Once you start thinking about government as piggybank, the world starts to look very different. (You may find yourself asking questions like ‘if artists want more money, why not replace grants with loans?’) Fundamentally, Chapman’s simple idea accords with the Australian ideal of a fair go: helping people in their time of need, but also expecting them to give a little back when times are good. ...more.
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20 June 2008, Roger Kerr
Governments around the world seek to create the conditions that give rise to successful entrepreneurs like Biro, Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers, Henry Ford, Bill Gates and the countless other achievers whose inventions transform lives and help drive a country’s economic growth. ...more.
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20 June 2008, William Easterly
The report of the World Bank Growth Commission, led by Nobel laureate Michael Spence, was published last week. After two years of work by the commission of 21 world leaders and experts, an 11 member working group, 300 academic experts, 12 workshops, 13 consultations, and a budget of $4m, the experts’ answer to the question of how to attain high growth was roughly: we do not know, but trust experts to figure it out. ...more.
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18 June 2008, Patrick Moore
At first, many of the causes we championed, such as opposition to nuclear testing and protection of whales, stemmed from our scientific knowledge of nuclear physics and marine biology. But after six years as one of five directors of Greenpeace International, I observed that none of my fellow directors had any formal science education. They were either political activists or environmental entrepreneurs. ...more.
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13 June 2008, Allan H. Meltzer
Regulators and most politicians are good at developing rules and restrictions, but poor at thinking about the incentives that the market will face. If the incentives are strong, the market circumvents the regulation. ...more.
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12 June 2008, Rob McLeod
An address by Rob McLeod to attendees of the Business Roundtable's annual Wellington cocktail function. ...more.
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12 June 2008, Norman LaRocque
A presentation by Norman LaRocque setting out the arguments in favour of school-based management and surveying international trends in school management. ...more.
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11 June 2008, Nigel Lawson
The twin elements of a bubble are euphoria and roguery, with the proportions varying from case to case. The coming green bubble, which is already attracting large amounts of venture capital and government money, displays both. ...more.
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9 June 2008, Roger Kerr
Now that the dust has settled on finance minister Michael Cullen’s ninth budget, it is timely to reflect on wider issues than who got what on budget night. ...more.
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6 June 2008, Roger Kerr
Last week brought encouraging news for those concerned about over-regulation in this country. Parliament’s Commerce Committee recommended that a high-level expert task force should be established to carry forward work on the concept of a Regulatory Responsibility Act. ...more.
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6 June 2008, Robert A. Sirico
Catholic Church bishops, priests and other Church leaders in Latin America were once a reliable ally of the left, owing to the influence of "liberation theology," which tries to link the Gospel to the socialist cause. Today the Church is coming to recognize the link between socialism and the loss of freedom, and a shift in thinking is taking place. ...more.
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4 June 2008, Jagdish Bhagwati and Sandip Madan
No presidential candidate can afford to ignore the potential of international trade in medical services to address these issues. Consider the four modes of service transactions distinguished by the WTO's 1995 General Agreement on Trade in Services. ...more.
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30 May 2008, Helen Hughes
For a liberal, turning a share of welfare payments into vouchers for groceries and rent is not a happy solution. A safety net for those who are ill, disabled or unable to find a job is a significant social achievement of compassionate democratic capitalism. But worldwide experience indicates that welfare without strings will be misused. ...more.
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30 May 2008, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The New Zealand Business Roundtable today released the second Working Paper in a series that explores Maori development and ways of building on past achievements. ...more.
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30 May 2008, Philip A Joseph
This essay advances four propositions: (a) the separate seats are unnecessary to
secure effective representation of Maori, (b) the seats entrench a form of historical paternalism that removes Maori issues from the mainstream political agenda, (c) the retention of the seats under MMP represents an insidious form of reverse discrimination and (d) the seats invite ‘overhang’ and the potential to undermine the expressed will of the people. ...more.
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28 May 2008, from The Economist print edition
Amid an astonishing surge in food prices, which has sparked riots and unrest in many countries and is making even the relatively affluent citizens of America and Europe feel the pinch, faith in the ability of global markets to fill nearly 7 billion bellies is dwindling. Given the fear that a new era of chronic shortages may have begun, it is perhaps understandable that the name of Thomas Malthus is in the air. Yet if his views were indeed now correct, that would defy the experience of the past two centuries. ...more.
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27 May 2008, Roger Kerr
What should we hold a government accountable for? The answer would seem obvious: whether it is achieving the goal which it has stated to be its “top priority’. ...more.
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23 May 2008, Kevin Donnelly
While research shows that teachers - along with a rigorous and effective curriculum - are critical to improving standards, the reality is that paying teachers more, while failing to tie any increase to improved performance, is a recipe for dumbing down the system. ...more.
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23 May 2008, Roger Kerr
“In the long run”, economist John Maynard Keynes said, “we are all dead.” To which the best reply is, “Yes, but some of us have children.” ...more.
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22 May 2008, New Zealand Business Roundtable
“The absence of any mention in the 2008 budget of the government’s former “top priority” goal of raising New Zealanders’ incomes to the top half of the OECD range suggests that it has thrown in the towel”, Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, said today. ...more.
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21 May 2008, Malte Lehming
Your heart rate sinks, muscles stiffen, you lose control of bodily functions: You're frozen with fear. This primal reflex to danger is a familiar phenomenon in nature but it's less common for it to strike nearly all of a political class in a democracy.
Welcome to Germany. ...more.
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