Topic: Government

Environmentalism, Free Markets, Government

Greta Thunberg’s War Against Wind Farms

– April 2, 2023

“The Manichean view clutched by climate activists like Thunberg undercut the very goals they wish to achieve, by neglecting the power of human ingenuity. After all, the ultimate resource is the human mind, not government fiat.” ~ Michael N. Peterson

Crisis, Economic Education, Government

Don’t Expand Deposit Insurance. Abolish It!

– April 1, 2023

“Deposit insurance creates perverse incentives that weaken market discipline and encourage excessive risk-taking. Expanding deposit insurance will only make these problems worse.” ~ Bryan P. Cutsinger

Government, Inflation, Monetary Policy

Inflation Slowed in February, But Remained High

– April 1, 2023

“Recent experience should prompt calls for the Fed to adopt a symmetric average inflation target when it reevaluates its mandate in 2024 and 2025.” ~ William J. Luther

Education, Free Markets, Government

Can We Stop Bleeding the Taxpayers to Cover Unpaid Student Loans?

– March 31, 2023

“Irresponsible student lending has cost the US a great deal already. It is time to stop the bleeding by saying to colleges, ‘If you want to receive federal student aid money, you’ll have to stand behind the loans.'” ~ George Leef

Economic History, Free Markets, Government

John Cowperthwaite: An Underappreciated Champion of Economic Development?

– March 31, 2023

“This nuance, while it may dampen any classical liberal’s affection for John Cowperthwaite, should only reinforce one’s commitment to the principles of a free society as instruments of development and progress.” ~ Vincent Geloso

Fiscal Policy, Government, Taxation

Let’s Cut the Budget Nonsense

– March 30, 2023

“The Biden administration’s goal seems to be to spend lots of money on new unnecessary programs or failing existing programs, and to pay for it with yet more debt and with novel taxes likely to fall more heavily on middle class Americans and small businesses than on big corporations or the rich.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government

Signs of Hope

– March 30, 2023

“The happy reality that entrepreneurship and bourgeois commerce continue to flourish was driven home to me by my rather unremarkable remodeling project. I have reason for optimism.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government, Taxation

Why Progressive Taxes Are Especially Harmful to Productivity and Harm the Poor

– March 28, 2023

“‘Progressive’ taxes impose a particularly strong disincentive for more productive work. Depriving the economy of greater productivity curtails the alleviation of poverty, and as a result disproportionately harms the poor.” ~ Brian Balfour

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government

How Does a Region Rust Away?

– March 28, 2023

“Where people cannot get jobs or find homes, they pick up and leave. Where they find homes and jobs, they stay. This is not an excuse for complacency. Many of the policies that drove industrious work away from the Rust Belt remain politically popular at a national level.” ~ David Gillette & Thaddeus C. Meadows

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government, Technology

A Revolution in Public Transportation From A Town You Wouldn’t Expect

– March 27, 2023

“It’s taken more than a hundred years for low-density cities to recognize that public transportation works far better in a point-to-point model, using private-public partnerships.” ~ Craig J. Richardson

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government, Regulation

When Can Waffle House Raise its Prices?

– March 27, 2023

“Instead of being evidence that markets are ‘no longer controlled by competition,’ firms raising prices together is evidence of supply and demand at work.” ~ Brian C. Albrecht

Government, Inflation, Monetary Policy

Money and Inflation Are Still Related

– March 26, 2023

“M2 in 2020 and 2021 increased by the largest percentages in the last 60 years. To the surprise of the Federal Reserve (although not everyone), inflation resulted.” ~ John Devereux & Gerald P. Dwyer