Free Markets

  • On Externalities and Noise

    “There is no world where trade-offs don’t apply, where we can have all the nice things we want without anybody, anywhere, getting upset. Externalities are everywhere, but if we want to live prosperous lives, some part of those lives will be impacted by others. Get over it.” ~ Joakim Book

    On Externalities and Noise
  • Who Is Making Decisions about Our Lives

    “What reason is there to trust that These People who never look past the next election – and who always ignore consequences that are difficult to see if these consequences are spread over large numbers of individuals – are making a prudently considered trade-off between the lockdown’s costs and its benefits?” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

    Who Is Making Decisions about Our Lives
  • Extend the Market, As Far as Possible

    “Private enterprise and private governance pushed along by people seeking little more than their own advantages work remarkably well. If you want more evidence, look no further than the package on your doorstep.” ~ Art Carden

    Extend the Market, As Far as Possible
  • A Green Minimum Wage

    “Farmers who want to retain good, experienced farm hands should be free to pay a dollar a week, day, hour, or minute to those same people, as they mutually agree. And when the world not only does not end but improves due to the policy, let’s extend it to other types of employers as well.”…

    A Green Minimum Wage
  • Entrepreneurship and the Human Experience

    “Economics should not be viewed as a clean and sterile science that seeks to chart the world with equations. Rather it should seek to understand the oftentimes chaotic and messy nature of the market driven by the grit and wit of entrepreneurs.” ~ Ethan Yang

    Entrepreneurship and the Human Experience
  • The Economy after COVID-19

    “One thing is certain: life in America is not going to be the same after COVID-19. Like the Great Depression and World War II, the pandemic will exert an impact for years, perhaps even decades, on the nation’s economic and political fortunes.” ~ James D. Gwartney

    The Economy after COVID-19
  • Liberty Is the Theme of the American Spirit

    “However you may have enjoyed and celebrated the 4th of July in these unusual times, be sure to keep in mind that what that day is really all about is the hope and reality of free human beings in a free world based on the moving and profoundly moral ideals expressed in the Declaration of…

    Liberty Is the Theme of the American Spirit
  • Strata of the Unseen

    “When an economist reminds you to pay attention to what is unseen, he or she counsels you to humbly understand that a modern market economy is far too complex and inescapably reliant upon trial-and-error experimentation to enable the interventionist schemes that are forever being proposed to succeed.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

    Strata of the Unseen
  • What Good Comes from this Tragedy?

    “I suspect that many intelligent people have lost faith in the news, re-discovered frugality, and found a new way to commit themselves to the defense of liberty and human rights. In the coming days, we are going to need stronger and smarter minds to fight the battles of the future. These terrible months might have…

    What Good Comes from this Tragedy?
  • Smash the COVID Orthodoxy

    “In a time of industrial levels of draconian lockdown measures, of fear-mongering and politicization, a failure to speak out against the orthodoxy will only lead to more pain and suffering. Perhaps the status quo is the best way forward, but we will never know unless we have more voices in the conversation. When this is…

    Smash the COVID Orthodoxy
  • Ad Hominems Against Freedom

    “The avenue to a peaceful, prosperous and truly color-blind free society will not come about through a victory by the identity politics warriors and the ideological high priests of political correctness. It requires an appreciation and defense of the liberal principles of individual liberty, equality of rights before the law, and a vibrant, open, and…

    Ad Hominems Against Freedom
  • “The Most Brilliant Economic Journalist Who Ever Lived”: A Birthday Appreciation of Frederic Bastiat

    “Bastiat was one of the nineteenth century’s most eloquent defenders of liberty and dignity, and Joseph Schumpeter was clearly right to describe him as “the most brilliant economic journalist who ever lived.” He has heirs, but no equals.” ~ Art Carden

    “The Most Brilliant Economic Journalist Who Ever Lived”: A Birthday Appreciation of Frederic Bastiat