The FTC’s Strategy Against Facebook is Bad Economics
The theory that Facebook acquired Instagram and WhatsApp primarily to squelch future competition represents a view of antitrust that is simplistic and naive. It also endangers a startup business model that has produced incalculable benefits through innovation.
READ MORESometimes Helping People Is the Worst Thing You Can Do
The approach of unconditional help regardless of the results doesn’t work in our private lives. How much worse is it when taxpayers are paying the bill?
READ MOREThe Myth of American Middle-Class Stagnation
In 1975 a ten-cup drip coffee maker cost the ordinary American worker almost 8 hours of work time; today it costs that worker only 45 minutes.
READ MOREMises, Marx, and the High Art of a Rap Video
The proper framing of the terms of the debate is a remarkable achievement that fundamentally upsets the current political narrative. That’s what this video achieves.
READ MORETrump’s Treasury Secretary Is Wrong About Amazon
The reason why Amazon is beloved by consumers is because it puts the internet to work by making shopping a more pleasant and convenient experience.
READ MOREThe Capitalist Achievement of Recorded Music
Or in the musical context, the capitalist achievement consists not of softer seats at the opera for the king and queen but access to a practically infinite library for pennies a day.
READ MORETo Put Down People’s Jobs Is Brutal and Uncomprehending
Should I ever have the chance to meet Faye Lewis, I will soundly congratulate her for her fabulous striving, for her inevitably imperfect, yet wildly-admirable journey.
READ MOREAll Music Is Derivative, Gloriously So
Entrepreneurs from around the world (including China) want to “steal” or imitate the clever doings of creative minds in the U.S because the U.S. is the most prosperous and creative nation in the world. Pundits view this as a threat, think we should empower the federal government to penalize the theft, but the much bigger worry would be if the creative found nothing worth emulating.
READ MOREDear Taylor Swift: The Trouble with Copyright Is Deeper Than You Know
Instead of worrying about the rights over her songs falling into the wrong hands, she should understand that unleashing her work from the tight grasp of IP’s claws would benefit her, as it would set her apart from other artists, and benefit all humankind, as others would be able to improve on what she’s done.
READ MOREAlmost Everything People Say about Big Business Is Wrong
For all its imperfections, American business does a pretty good job — a much better job, Cowen argues, than most people think, and I, for one, agree.
READ MOREGreed Is Good, but Not for the Greedy
The greed of the wealthy for showing off has led to a remarkably wealthy society, the most egalitarian culture the world has ever known.
READ MOREWhat Does “Voluntary” Actually Mean?
If you shut down sweatshops because you think people shouldn’t have to work in such bad conditions, are you really helping the poor folks who work there?
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