Donald J. Boudreaux
Financial Markets Work Without Coercion
“Coercion is sure to diminish the positive contributions that financial markets make to the larger economy. Even worse, such coercion would violate the rights of the property owners whose voluntary choices give rise to financial markets.” ~ Donald Boudreaux
The Remarkable Blessings of the Price System
The overall arrangement of resource use is not and could never be comprehended by any individual or by any committee. That what we notice of this system are its imperfections testifies to just how well and smoothly – indeed, how magnificently – it routinely performs.
The Magnitude of the Economic Challenge Even in Normal Times
To rely only on select and officially approved researchers, or to ignore ideas from all or even some foreigners, is to unnecessarily reduce the number of human beings working to discover from among an incalculably vast number of possible chemical arrangements the one or a few that might render the coronavirus harmless.
Science and the Pandemic
I can think of no greater offense against a genuinely scientific attitude than to support policies – especially ones adopted in haste and in a panic, and which diminish the amount of information that is uncovered and put to good use throughout society – simply because these policies are recommended by some epidemiologists.
Some Questions that Must Be Answered Before Adopting a Policy of Medical-Supply Self-Sufficiency
It’s very easy to declare that ‘we should be self-sufficient in medical supplies,’ but it’s not at all easy to define just what this declaration means or to grasp all that it entails.
Socialists and their Silly Stories
My dear friend Roger Meiners, Professor of Economics at the University of Texas-Arlington, tells of a former colleague of his whose interpretation of reality should teach us all an important […]
The Economy Is Not a Series of Supply Chains
The quest to use protectionism to make us more secure in our health and wealth would sever untold numbers of productive ties that we now have with the global web of economic interconnectedness. The end result would be an America far less secure in its wealth and health.
Keep America Open
Economies, in short, grow the more open and free they are – that is, the further they are from being autarkic. Economies do not grow as a consequence of politicians and mandarins using tariffs, subsidies, and other special privileges to shield domestic producers from foreign competition.
Leviathan and Crises
And as power expands in a ratcheting-upward way, power becomes ever-more valuable and intoxicating to possess – meaning that competition to grab power becomes ever-more intense. This increasingly intense competition for power, in turn, selects those persons who are both most hungry for power and least bound by ethical restraints in pursuing and using it.
Florida Cracks Down on “Price Gouging” at the Worst-Possible Time
Products unavailable for sale at ‘normal’ prices are not actually for sale; they are utterly unobtainable – which means that their prices then are infinite.
