Robert E. Wright

Robert E. Wright is the (co)author or (co)editor of over two dozen major books, book series, and edited collections, including AIER’s The Best of Thomas Paine (2021) and Financial Exclusion (2019). He has also (co)authored numerous articles for important journals, including the American Economic ReviewBusiness History ReviewIndependent ReviewJournal of Private EnterpriseReview of Finance, and Southern Economic Review. Robert has taught business, economics, and policy courses at Augustana University, NYU’s Stern School of Business, Temple University, the University of Virginia, and elsewhere since taking his Ph.D. in History from SUNY Buffalo in 1997. Robert E. Wright was formerly a Senior Research Faculty at the American Institute for Economic Research.

Find Robert

  1. SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=362640
  2. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3792-3506
  3. Academia: https://robertwright.academia.edu/
  4. Google: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D9Qsx6QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
  5. Twitter, Gettr, and Parler: @robertewright
  • Getting Real About Taxes

    “It is high time that the federal government recognizes the creepy tax effects of inflation and gets real about taxes. It should forget about taxing unrealized capital gains, compensate victims of its inflationary policies, and begin to inflation-index everything.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    Getting Real About Taxes
  • What’s Become of the Overton Window?

    “Shifting the Overton window upward toward more individual freedom should be the goal of liberty lovers as it would offer policy choices that infringe on individual freedom no more than absolutely necessary to achieve the goals spelled out in the US Constitution’s Preamble.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    What’s Become of the Overton Window?
  • The Great Tax Gap Flap

    “Americans do not want to return to the days when they deliberately overpaid their taxes in order to avoid a nasty audit. And certainly any hint that the IRS was auditing middle class Americans for partisan reasons would be revolutionary in more ways than one.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    The Great Tax Gap Flap
  • The General Welfare

    “I reject the notion that most of the Framers would have supported the constitutionality of any policy that Congress enacted simply because it falls within the federal government’s purview. To be constitutional, a federal law or other policy must be in scope but also at least a Kaldor-Hicks improvement.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    The General Welfare
  • Why Bother?

    “Apparently, when it comes to maintaining peaceful relations with all, as Adam Smith, Alexander Hamilton, and scads of other political economists have advised, Uncle Sam has only one thing to say: Why bother?” ~ Robert E. Wright

    Why Bother?
  • Socialist Darwinism

    “The next time somebody accuses you of Social Darwinism, tell ‘em you want to help the poor to thrive by supporting policies that increase productivity and that allow people to help the unfortunate through charity, insurance, and other voluntary mechanisms.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    Socialist Darwinism
  • Why Authoritarianism Must Prevail

    “America and the rest of the West have been sliding down the slippery slope of statism for so long that they are now rapidly approaching the precipice that ends in rock bottom. Will liberty be crushed and a new dark age commence?” ~ Robert E. Wright

    Why Authoritarianism Must Prevail
  • Deregulation of Consenting Adults

    “The Woke need to wake up, look, and listen. America doesn’t want New Zealand’s criminalization of Covid but it should adopt its decriminalization of sex work, including outright prostitution.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    Deregulation of Consenting Adults
  • Has America’s Third “Civil War” Begun?

    “America’s civil civil war seems to pit ‘sheeple’ against people, the brainwashed against those capable of independent thought, and ‘safety first’ authoritarians against civil libertarians, left, right, and center.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    Has America’s Third “Civil War” Begun?
  • Reducing Racism and Global Climate Change in One Step

    “The world will never be completely free of bigotry, bad weather, and 97 other problems but at least taxpayers can stop paying through the nose to make them worse.” ~ Robert E. Wright

    Reducing Racism and Global Climate Change in One Step