Donald J. Boudreaux is a Associate Senior Research Fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research and affiliated with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; a Mercatus Center Board Member; and a professor of economics and former economics-department chair at George Mason University. He is the author of the books The Essential Hayek, Globalization, Hypocrites and Half-Wits, and his articles appear in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, US News & World Report as well as numerous scholarly journals. He writes a blog called Cafe Hayek and a regular column on economics for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Boudreaux earned a PhD in economics from Auburn University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.
“Insofar as humanity embraces this liberal commitment to epistemic unpretentiousness, humanity is protected against the fevers and passions of persons who are enflamed by their sense of certainty.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“The world that I hypothesize is believed by today’s well-meaning proponents of racist policies is wholly fictional. Wealth does not ooze automatically and ineluctably from some mysterious wealth-producing engine.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“Unlike actions taken in markets, even the best government actions carried out in the most appropriate circumstances are guided by little more than guesswork.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“Reality is messy. It seldom presents to us ‘solutions.’ Much more often we are confronted only with trade-offs. Principled and informed defenders of a policy of free trade accept this fact. I wish that more defenders of protectionism did likewise.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“Empowering the home government today to use trade policy to protect against unfortunate commercial entanglements in the future raises the prospect of failure by the home government.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“A key purpose of my intro econ course is to help my students understand how peaceful, commercial cooperation emerges to create and maintain our astonishing material prosperity.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“Among the full set of arguments offered for government intervention into the economy, those that are serious and credible are the exception rather than the rule. Most arguments for intervention are simply not credible, with more than a few being downright silly.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“Intellectuals and officials arrogantly suppose that any contractual term or organizational arrangement that they cannot immediately understand as serving competition must therefore be devious exercises of monopoly power or attempts to secure such power.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“No data or sets of graphs, regardless of how carefully constructed and intelligently interpreted, can convey a complete picture of an economy. Yet, such data can convey important information, which is often the opposite of popular narratives about the economy, generally, and about trade in particular.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
“Why does human reason so readily reveal even to people untutored in economics some unseen but real consequences, while it routinely fails to reveal others?” ~ Donald. J. Boudreaux