Free Markets

  • What Drives Progress: The State or the Market?

    “The idea of an entrepreneurial state as proposed by Mazzucato is a romantic one. It’s an idea that people can come together and through sheer will can make innovation happen. That some very smart people with fancy degrees and prestigious titles can steer society to an optimal location. The only problem with that is just…

    What Drives Progress: The State or the Market?
  • Let a Billion Preferences Bloom

    “Mass customization and diversity are commercial society’s virtues. Mass regimentation and uniformity are political society’s vices. The stark contrast is clear in the proximity between Halloween and Election Day.” ~ Art Carden

    Let a Billion Preferences Bloom
  • 2020-2030 Could Be the Decade of Economic Malaise

    “If history shows us anything, this experience may very well spark a renaissance for the ideas of limited government and markets. If only we could learn this the easy way rather than the hard way.” ~ Ethan Yang

    2020-2030 Could Be the Decade of Economic Malaise
  • “Slide-Rule Aid”? Why Not?

    “Saving one industry means hurting another, and I cannot help but wonder: what troubles have we endured and what progress have we sacrificed in order to protect obsolete producers of soybeans, steel, shirts, schooling…and slide rules?” ~ Art Carden

    “Slide-Rule Aid”? Why Not?
  • Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich: Who Made Our Book Possible?

    “Our book’s policy recommendations can be reduced to two words: stop it. Consider the possibility that the people you wish to tax, regulate, subsidize, evaluate, and experiment upon should simply be left alone to go about their business. Stop it, we say, and let them make us rich.” ~ Art Carden

    Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich: Who Made Our Book Possible?
  • A Guide for Free Thinkers: They’re Both Wrong

    “Tamny’s book is essential not just because it provides insightful commentary on important political issues but because it provides a timeless lesson. This is that a country, a government, and a society cannot sustain itself on a foundation of weak narratives. Independent thought and rigorous conversations are what form the backbone of a vibrant democracy.”…

    A Guide for Free Thinkers: They’re Both Wrong
  • The Tide-Theory of Climate Change

    “Adaptation matters. Economic growth matters. Feats of engineering most certainly matter, as do flexibility and ingenuity of unregulated markets. Everyone from serious climate researchers to less-serious climate activists seem to forget that.” ~ Joakim Book

    The Tide-Theory of Climate Change
  • Walmart’s “Buy American” Commitment Won’t Make America Great Again

    “In its almost sixty years of existence, Walmart has revolutionized American retail and raised American standards of living by innovating in shipping, selling, and shopping. They certainly have the potential to continue doing so–but paying extra for stuff just because it was produced in the United States won’t help them or their customers in the…

    Walmart’s “Buy American” Commitment Won’t Make America Great Again
  • Google is Not a Monopoly

    “Google is a lot of things. Maybe they have become evil, as the left would tell us when alleging that YouTube’s algorithms are unwittingly supporting, galvanizing, and expanding the alt-right or as the right would tell us when alleging that Google’s search results are rigged to advance a progressive agenda. The charge of “monopoly” doesn’t…

    Google is Not a Monopoly
  • The Death and Life of the Great Third Place

    “We might also emerge from this bizarre Orwellian dystopia with a renewed appreciation for Main Street, community, and the third spaces. These places define normal and make us who we are. We support them because they support us in more ways than we realize. Perhaps we took these places for granted. Never again.” ~ Brad…

    The Death and Life of the Great Third Place
  • The Economic Way of Thinking Brings Clarity

    “Nancy Pelosi presides over a chamber of politicians who vote on taxing and spending bills that transfer money from some Americans to other Americans – a fact that (inexplicably!) propels Ms. Pelosi to boast that she and her colleagues, not taxpayers such as Mr. Blitzer, feed poor Americans. On top of this appalling pretension, Ms.…

    The Economic Way of Thinking Brings Clarity
  • Keukentafel Economics and the History of British Imperialism

    “Let’s get on with it, then: honest courts, good schooling, non-extractive governments, property rights for squatters, free international and internal trade, employment laws that do not protect only the presently employed.” ~ Deirdre McCloskey

    Keukentafel Economics and the History of British Imperialism