Topic: Free Markets

Thinking Harder about “Special” Benefits

– September 20, 2023

“To the extent we believe in giving government assistance to those with incomes, we should trust them to love themselves and their families more than the government does and give them that aid in cash.” ~Gary Galles

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Should Buying Or Selling “Hidden Cities” Air Tickets Be Banned Or Punished?

– September 17, 2023

“Hidden-city opportunities emerge when there are significant differences in the price elasticity of demand relating to certain itineraries with stopovers.” ~Christopher Lingle

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Are Humans Inherently Selfish?

– September 8, 2023

“A thicker view of rationality accepts the view that people live in a world with social norms that both condition and constrain our actions.” ~ Anthony Gill

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Using People the Right Way 

– September 7, 2023

“You offer me means to advance my ultimate ends, not my ultimate ends themselves. I offer you resources in exchange, but those are also means to your ultimate ends, not your ultimate ends themselves.” ~ Gary Galles

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The Can Conundrum: Governments Don’t Have Coherent Goals

– September 7, 2023

“Policies enacted to fix one problem lead to still other problems, which will then require other policies to fix, and so on, until we’re crushed by a giant snowball of well-intended “solutions” and their unintended consequences.” ~ Art Carden

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In Defense of Cash Grabs

– August 30, 2023

“It doesn’t have to make sense to the outside observer, because ‘the system’ is not something a single mind designed but the unintended consequence of innumerable individual choices in response to (sometimes badly distorted) incentives.” ~ Art Carden

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Further Thoughts on Industrial Policy

– August 23, 2023

“The possibility is real that the subsidized mousetrap improvers displace unsubsidized mousetrap improvers who, absent the subsidies, would have given the world an even better mousetrap or an equally improved mousetrap produced at lower cost.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

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Protecting Competition or Preventing It?

– August 23, 2023

“If you can’t reduce competition in the sense of harming rivals, you cannot engage in rivalry seeking to benefit consumers. ” ~ Gary Galles

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The Opportunity Costs of FTC Merger Meddling

– August 20, 2023

“Success is never guaranteed in a market economy, and business failure is not uncommon for industry leaders. Blockbuster and Kodak had near monopolistic status in their respective sectors but that couldn’t save them from tech innovations that took them down.” ~ Kimberlee Josephson

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State Development Incentives:  The Only Solution is Not to Play

– August 15, 2023

“The incentives of politicians and the goals of citizens can diverge, and nowhere is that divergence more obvious than in the case of targeted, private benefits to specific corporations paid for at public expense.” ~ Michael Munger

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Maximizers and Monopolies, A Benefit to Society

– August 13, 2023

“Consumers do not care that there is only one primary zipper manufacturer, they only care that their zippers work. Thus, if market needs are being met, competition isn’t a concern.” ~ Kimberlee Josephson

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The Ludwig von Mises: Catallactic Converter

– August 9, 2023

” An emergent system of division of labor based on impersonal commercial exchange, then, can substitute for benevolence.” ~ Michael Munger

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