Government
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How Trump and Biden Are Blowing Up the Free-Trade System America Worked So Hard to Build
“Globalization has helped generate previously unknown wealth – and health – in rich and poor nations alike. As evidenced by Trump and Biden, a President may use his unilateral tariff authority for ill.” ~ David B. McGarry
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Punishing the Punishers
“If, though, the FBI, NEA, NPR, or the ‘Ministry of Truth’ receives an allocation of, say, only $10, the punishment for incompetence or venality has been fairly meted out, has it not? What could be more democratic than direct dollar democracy?” ~ Robert E. Wright
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Too Much Power?
“Time will tell if future Fed officials are as resistant to political pressures as its current leadership, succumb to seemingly ever-resurgent MMT influences, or exercise great responsibility in maintaining a sound monetary policy.” ~ David Gillette and Lauren Frazier
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Government Surveillance Injures the Innocent
“The asymmetry of the surveillance state belies its true purpose: to protect the government, not the people.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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The Spurious Efficiency of Dishwashers
“To economists, labor is a resource that is to be used efficiently, just like any other resource.” ~ James Hanley
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A Higher Minimum Wage, More Unions, and More Public Housing. Review of ‘Poverty, by America’ by Matthew Desmond
“Desmond’s policy proposals almost all double down on collaboration between big government, big business, and big labor–the ‘system’ against which the American left first cut its teeth protesting.” ~ Max Gulker
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Media Independence Does Not Really Mean Media Independence
“No politician needs to bribe a journalist. All that is needed is a politician’s power to sculpt the shape of the news market in ways that are to his advantage.” ~ Vincent Geloso
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Why We Need Acquisitions and Why Khan’s Concerns are Bad for Business
“Antitrust cases cost a great deal of time and money, and yet Lina Khan asserts that FTC will be looking more closely at M&As both past and present — and this assertion should be of concern to any entrepreneur and any corporate investor.” ~Kimberlee Josephson
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We Are Measuring Inflation All Wrong: Non-Housing Inflation is Very Low
“Lagged OER and rent overstated inflation by more than two percentage points over the past ten months – raising it to 3.3 percent from 0.6 percent.” ~ Alan Reynolds
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Playing Chicken with a Stack of Steering Wheels
“People often complain about the ‘irrationality’ of politics, but there is nothing irrational about the process that has given rise to our crushing debt burden. Voters really do want lower deficits, provided it does not involve either cutting spending or raising taxes.” ~ Michael Munger
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Eliminating the Debt Ceiling: Is There Anything the 14th Amendment Can’t Do?
“The Biden administration threatens to invoke Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment to sidestep the longstanding federal debt ceiling in a way that would increase the power of the executive branch. ” ~ Robert E. Wright
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More Self-Interested Union Altruism
“Whenever someone claims an altruistic reason to support a policy, but it clearly advances their narrow self-interest, the latter effect can explain such support, regardless of whether it helps or even hurts the supposed beneficiaries.” ~ Gary M. Galles
