Daily economy news from the American Institute for Economic Research: data, stories, research, and articles touching on economics, politics, culture, education, policy, opinion, technology, markets, healthcare, regulation, trends, and much more.

AIER’s Editorial Policy.

The Middleman Is a Public Servant

“Letting people make their own choices is an important part of respecting one another as free equals… We don’t help people by prohibiting the choices they actually make.” ~Art Carden

Look With Two Is

“Look at institutional arrangements as they actually play out, making the comparison by looking through two Is: information and incentives.” ~Michael Munger

Preserve Architectural History with Incentives, Not Bans 

“Removing government from the process by changing dated zoning regulations is the best path forward to solving the housing shortage. A small piece of the puzzle should be historic landmarks and district reform.” ~Jason Sorens and Thomas Savidge

Should We Panic Over Excessively Low Global Temperatures?

“We simply have no way to trace out more than a minuscule fraction of the economic consequences, positive and negative, of government efforts to alter a phenomenon as massive as the earth’s environment.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

AI Opposition: Economic and Philosophical Sophistry

“Economic growth is by far and away the most far-reaching and compounding good mankind has ever experienced — the very phenomenon responsible for modern infrastructure, schools, and health care.” ~Jack Nicastro and Samuel Crombie

How the Subsidy Straw Is Sucking The Colorado River Dry

“A trifecta of farming-sector entitlements have incentivized producers to grow thirsty plants, underpriced water extraction, and created moral hazard….Subsidies have made water 10 times cheaper in Arizona than in Michigan.” ~Peter Clark

20th Century Ideology, Modern Mixed Economies

“Neither the Chinese communists nor the Russian communists ever redistributed significant resources from the able to the needy. If anything, they did the reverse.” ~John Goodman

Quality Boosts in Sports Collectibles

“An hour of labor today might not buy many more baseball cards than an hour of labor a generation ago, but it would be a mistake to conclude that living standards haven’t changed much because the quality has improved so much.” ~Art Carden

Principleless, Panicked and Power-Hungry

“The authoritarian response to COVID amounted to the biggest inroads on our civil liberties in two hundred years… the judges were as frightened and panicked as most everyone else.” ~James Allan

US Manufacturing is Doing Just Fine

“Faced with the increased prosperity that has correlated with lowered trade barriers, making the case that trade liberalization has led to widespread harm is no easy task.” ~Colin Grabow

Eating The Rich Won’t Feed the Beast

“The hungry behemoth that is the US federal government is already eating the rich… Jeff Bezos’ great fortune would finance the government for… less than a week. ” ~Joakim Book

The Middleman Is a Public Servant

“Letting people make their own choices is an important part of respecting one another as free equals… We don’t help people by prohibiting the choices they actually make.” ~Art Carden

Look With Two Is

“Look at institutional arrangements as they actually play out, making the comparison by looking through two Is: information and incentives.” ~Michael Munger

Preserve Architectural History with Incentives, Not Bans 

“Removing government from the process by changing dated zoning regulations is the best path forward to solving the housing shortage. A small piece of the puzzle should be historic landmarks and district reform.” ~Jason Sorens and Thomas Savidge

Should We Panic Over Excessively Low Global Temperatures?

“We simply have no way to trace out more than a minuscule fraction of the economic consequences, positive and negative, of government efforts to alter a phenomenon as massive as the earth’s environment.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

AI Opposition: Economic and Philosophical Sophistry

“Economic growth is by far and away the most far-reaching and compounding good mankind has ever experienced — the very phenomenon responsible for modern infrastructure, schools, and health care.” ~Jack Nicastro and Samuel Crombie

How the Subsidy Straw Is Sucking The Colorado River Dry

“A trifecta of farming-sector entitlements have incentivized producers to grow thirsty plants, underpriced water extraction, and created moral hazard….Subsidies have made water 10 times cheaper in Arizona than in Michigan.” ~Peter Clark

20th Century Ideology, Modern Mixed Economies

“Neither the Chinese communists nor the Russian communists ever redistributed significant resources from the able to the needy. If anything, they did the reverse.” ~John Goodman

Quality Boosts in Sports Collectibles

“An hour of labor today might not buy many more baseball cards than an hour of labor a generation ago, but it would be a mistake to conclude that living standards haven’t changed much because the quality has improved so much.” ~Art Carden

Principleless, Panicked and Power-Hungry

“The authoritarian response to COVID amounted to the biggest inroads on our civil liberties in two hundred years… the judges were as frightened and panicked as most everyone else.” ~James Allan

US Manufacturing is Doing Just Fine

“Faced with the increased prosperity that has correlated with lowered trade barriers, making the case that trade liberalization has led to widespread harm is no easy task.” ~Colin Grabow

Eating The Rich Won’t Feed the Beast

“The hungry behemoth that is the US federal government is already eating the rich… Jeff Bezos’ great fortune would finance the government for… less than a week. ” ~Joakim Book