The Sin Tax Paradox
“It is time to jettison the notion of taxing sin and think hard again about the LBT advocated by Milton Friedman and Henry George, a tax on the unimproved value of land. It’s a tax, and hence bad, but it’s less distortionary than taxing income or sin and it doesn’t have to be high if government would only stick to its core functions.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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We Can Still Have a Century of Liberty
“Maybe I’m just the victim of an elaborate after-the-fact selection issue: maybe I just remember the precursors to what actually happened, and conveniently forgot the signs that indicated an outcome that didn’t come to pass. Most people who call flourishing futures for the ideas whose times have come are wrong. Still, from where I’m standing, the corona madness and infantilizing political landscape aside, it does look like the twenty-first century might be the century of true freedom.” ~ Joakim Book
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Looking For Common Sense In A Senseless World? The New Thomas Sowell Documentary Delivers
“Rethinking and questioning our assumptions has long been en vogue in the academy, and if you really listen to what he has to say, few scholars will make you rethink your assumptions like Sowell will. If you’re looking for a one-hour introduction to one of the great minds of the last century, Common Sense in a Senseless World is exactly that.” ~ Art Carden
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Insight From My Mom On Freedom
“History, and especially my family history, has shown us what happens when we lower our guard in favor of the tempting utopianism of big government. Liberty is always unfinished business and the cost is eternal vigilance, both public and private.” ~ Ethan Yang
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Market Governance and Polycentrism
“Not only do polycentric systems of governance produce superior results for society over centralized systems, but such productive mechanisms and their benefits can be observed as institutions reflected by the market. These institutions disperse decision-making rights, provide checks on power, and create systems of order by driving cooperation from a diverse array of actors.” ~ Ethan Yang & Jack Nicastro
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Do We Really Need All These Barbecue Restaurants?
“Markets provide people with what they actually want as tested against their willingness to pay rather than what the Bernie Sanderses of the world know to be best for us. This is a feature, not a bug.” ~ Art Carden
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The Bankruptcy of Conservative Political Paternalism
“Oren Cass is really figuring out how to outwit the progressives in the game of political plunderhood by devising coalitions in society that will put ‘his side’ in elected office next time around through a ‘conservative’ version of handouts of favors, privileges and subsidies. His ‘new’ conservatism, therefore, is really only the same old political paternalism, just in different rhetorical clothing. We need neither ‘progressives’ nor ‘conservatives’ of Cass’s ilk to manage the world.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling
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Tesla’s Bitcoin Purchase Is the Start of a Bullish Monetary Future
“The bullish future that Tesla seems to be helping to usher in is one of private monies replacing government money, of individuals asking for compensation in money they trust over money that governments haven’t always overseen in trustworthy fashion. Elon Musk is helping to bring the future into the present. We’ll all be better off as a result.” ~ John Tamny
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Price-gouged and Happy About It
“When the anti–price gouging law is in effect, being able to buy a necessity here is a matter of timing: being on store premises at or shortly after a shipment arrives. Then you can buy it, and not even at the market price, but at the pre-emergency price enforced by the government. Everyone else is out of luck.” ~ Jon Sanders
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Economic Illiteracy Is No Virtue
“Leading a misguided crusade ‘to reign in the market’ or to smash capitalism for the working class is not only a recipe for failure according to history, it completely fails to understand what economics is all about. Just because you don’t care about economics does not mean that the world suddenly bends to your wishes. As the late economist, Walter Williams used to say: ‘Politicians exploit economic illiteracy.'” ~ Ethan Yang
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How to Navigate the Stock Market Madness
“There is nothing wrong with partaking in recent fad investing trends; some of them even seem quite promising. However, just like anything else, being prepared and knowledgeable will ensure your success is long-term and not just the prelude to disaster.” ~ Ethan Yang
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Paternalism and Robinhood Revisited
“Robinhood and other self-directed apps like it have fundamentally disrupted the market in a good way. Many entrenched interests, be it private firms or the government, are not comfortable with this change. Hopefully, our leaders have seen firsthand the disruption that such abrupt and restrictive actions have on society.” ~ Ethan Yang
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