Free Markets

  • Against the Bambi Syndrome: Nature Is Not Nice

    “Nature may be pristine, but nature is not friendly. With climate change making nature even less secure, we would do well to let technology and global economic growth protect us. With wealth and technology, we can both tame it and protect against its worst excesses.” ~ Joakim Book

    Against the Bambi Syndrome: Nature Is Not Nice
  • Self-Censorship and Despotism Over the Mind

    “Right now, it is still predominantly the force of social pressures that the cancel culture and identity politics warriors are successfully using in the arenas of education, the arts and entertainment, the media, and industry. But the next logical step will be to move from social pressures to the use of the full political power…

    Self-Censorship and Despotism Over the Mind
  • Economic Freedom Is Essential for Managing Pandemics

    “There is an important lesson for the future. If one desires the downward trends in the human and economic costs observed over the course of the 20th century to continue, one must push for a greater deal of institutional flexibility. That flexibility is what makes the market’s process of discovery work and makes us more…

    Economic Freedom Is Essential for Managing Pandemics
  • The Mugging Of TikTok Should Embarrass Every Sentient American

    “A Chinese company innovated, met the needs of people around the world, and President Trump responded by threatening a ban of the company before brokering a potential forced sale of the company to an American company. The whole world is watching, Americans. We deserve neither TikTok nor the very Chinese people who, if we’re honest,…

    The Mugging Of TikTok Should Embarrass Every Sentient American
  • The Gaslighting of the American People

    “We can reject gaslighting and insist on regaining our rights, though whether we will forget this nightmare is debatable. Punishing our persecutors is certainly beyond us. A pity.” ~ Caroline Breashears

    The Gaslighting of the American People
  • The Fiscal Centralization of Europe Will Not End Well

    “Europe may be experiencing a ‘Hamiltonian moment,’ but the path towards a federal Europe will remain both long and tortuous. Political opposition to the European experiment has been growing as the perceived costs of membership of the EU begins to eclipse the benefits for some members of the Union.” ~ Colin Lloyd

    The Fiscal Centralization of Europe Will Not End Well
  • The Economic Performance of Coronavirus Sweden

    “Economically, as far as we can tell, Sweden has been comparatively successful, but the projections between various economic institutions and statistics agencies still vary way too much for us to be entirely certain about this. In a year where models and forecasts have been widely off the mark, we should interpret this conservatively.” ~ Joakim…

    The Economic Performance of Coronavirus Sweden
  • We Need College Sports This Fall

    “The hundreds of thousands of cooperative players, vendors, restaurant and hotel owners, bartenders, waiters, waitresses, and untold millions of fans who have suffered personally, socially, and economically since March cannot bear the losses for much longer, let alone face shortened or canceled seasons. This is our chance to learn from the mistakes made with spring…

    We Need College Sports This Fall
  • Peter T. Leeson: A Birthday Appreciation

    “Peter T. Leeson is well-positioned to continue making important and creative contributions to our beloved dismal science. His message–that free and creative people have a good track record of solving problems without anyone forcing anyone else to do anything–is as timely now as it was when he was just getting started–but I can’t really imagine…

    Peter T. Leeson: A Birthday Appreciation
  • The Washington Football Team Should Be Called The Candlemakers

    “Bastiat laid bare the absurdity of so many arguments for protection, subsidy (for the stadium the Candlemakers would call home, for example), and regulation. The name would be a perfect homage to the never-ending stream of privilege-seeking supplicants filling the lobbies of Washington and looking for new ways to pick the pockets of their competitors,…

    The Washington Football Team Should Be Called The Candlemakers
  • Three Ways that Workers Can Be Underpaid

    “The bottom line is clear: government is the largest cause of worker underpayment and open, free markets for labor are the best protection against any kind of underpayment.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

    Three Ways that Workers Can Be Underpaid
  • In Praise of Evasive Entrepreneurs

    “Evasive Entrepreneurs is a welcome contribution that provides great insights into the regulatory process and the need to protect permissionless innovation. For Thierer, innovation matters because it feeds the engine of economic growth and plays a key role in expanding liberty. But, as he concludes, ‘we will only attain that goal by vociferously defending the…

    In Praise of Evasive Entrepreneurs