Topic: Free Markets

Social Capital Mediates COVID-19 Vaccinations

– April 20, 2022

“In Tocqueville’s visit to America, he is struck by an ‘equality of conditions’—his approach to social capital. Perhaps we should pay more attention to the equality of values people hold dear. Public health is important, but so is personal freedom.” ~ Byron B. Carson III

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The True Cost of a Hamburger

– April 20, 2022

“Subsidies’ dollar value, unfortunately, do not cover their full cost. Meat production costs reach the environment, the neighborhood, and the market.” ~ David Gillette & Warren Barge

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Justifying Liberalism in Singapore

– April 19, 2022

“At the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, the advocates of human liberty will need to contend with meritocratic technocracy if liberty is to be preserved. Singapore is at the frontline of that struggle.” ~ Todd Myers

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Three Topics for Young Political Economists

– April 19, 2022

“I would claim that the growth of platforms that allow peer-to-peer cooperation, and foster the low-cost commodification of excess capacity, are likely to change our relations to work, to ownership, and to each other.” ~ Michael Munger

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The Panic Reveals So Much: Elon Musk, Twitter, and the Digital Public Sphere

– April 18, 2022

“The proposed buyout of Twitter – targeting the curated reality of the powerful – pushed the aggressively anti-free-expression agenda out into the light. Censorship serves the powerful, and, as Greenwald notes, ‘the panic reveals so much.'” ~ Laura Williams

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Correcting Oren Cass on Adam Smith

– April 17, 2022

“It makes more sense to think that Smith, in propounding a presumption of liberty, assured readers and lawmakers that liberalizations would not lead to an exodus of capital or widespread disruptions of economic life.” ~ Daniel B. Klein

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Delta Doesn’t Owe Me More Legroom

– April 16, 2022

“By offering bigger seats and more legroom, airlines are essentially asking if we’re ready to cover the cost of providing the additional comfort. When we choose cheaper, less comfortable economy class seats, we’re saying ‘No, thank you.’” ~ Art Carden

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‘The Founders’ Is an Excellent Book

– April 16, 2022

“For now, it should be said that Soni has written an essential book about some remarkable people. What an achievement by Jimmy Soni in telling the story of PayPal, and the amazing people who made it happen.” ~ John Tamny

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On Securing Sources of Supplies: Should Government Repatriate ‘Supply Chains?’

– April 15, 2022

“Private firms already have powerful incentives to ensure that they are optimally secured against supply disruptions. Any government intervention would then upset these optimal private arrangements.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

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Suffering from Sunk Costs

– April 13, 2022

“Understanding how to understand and apply sunk costs is important in many ways. And one of those ways is to recognize that when we make a mistake in such efforts, we can’t retroactively fix those mistakes, but we can use them to learn better.” ~ Gary M. Galles

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Subversive Innovation: A Strategic Reading of Nozick’s Framework for Utopia

– April 12, 2022

“I suggest we reshuffle Nozick’s thesis to transform his theoretical framework into a practical mindset. We can use the Framework as a strategic lens for spawning subversive innovations that promise each of us a society that comes closest to our ideals.” ~ Max Borders

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Cold War Music: A Top Ten List

– April 11, 2022

“With the Fall of the Berlin Wall, we were neither red nor dead. Instead, we were alive and free, and poised – with the revolution in development economics of the 1990s – for the greatest advance in history in the global standard of living.” ~ Clifford F. Thies

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