Topic: Government

But Who Will Build the Roads: A Parable

– January 27, 2023

“Maybe, others one day will join the call once they hear how much cash could be recouped and costs and delays avoided by returning to the path once heavily traveled, the one where travelers, not Leviathan, decide how best to travel hither and thither.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Financial Markets, Government, Monetary Policy

Rising Use of the Fed’s Discount Window Raises Questions

– January 25, 2023

“The fact that the amounts being borrowed at the discount window are rising in an oscillatory fashion with progressively higher ‘highs’ and higher ‘lows’ hints, while not conclusively, that the amounts being borrowed are increasing as the Fed increases rates.” ~ Peter C. Earle

Authoritarianism, Free Markets, Government

Davos and the Holy Grail of Equity

– January 25, 2023

“At what point will their good intentions lead to tyranny? Did we learn nothing from the pandemic, when government overreach led to economic, health, and educational disasters?” ~ Caroline Breashears

Authoritarianism, Free Markets, Government

Letting Chinese Nationals Buy Real Estate is a Human Rights Issue

– January 24, 2023

“The inability to seize some of the wealth of a small minority of Chinese people makes the world a slightly better place than it otherwise would be.” Vincent Geloso

Art and Culture, Education, Government

Enrollment Declines Increase Pressure on ‘Woke’ Higher Ed

– January 23, 2023

“Lower enrollment and tuition dollars will force university leaders to make tough decisions on what they value the most. Will they roll back DEI offerings, or will funding toward research and education see the effects?” ~ David Waugh

Crisis, Fiscal Policy, Government

Debt Ceiling Theater, The 2023 Revival

– January 23, 2023

“We deserve exactly the government we have insisted upon for all these years. We also deserve the heavy price that will come for our own irresponsibility in repeatedly re-electing this troupe. No partisan theater will ever sugarcoat that.” ~ Antony Davies & James R. Harrigan

Energy, Government, Regulation

Take Your Foot off the Gas

– January 22, 2023

“If environmental zealots in the Biden administration were to get their way, then something would have to answer the call for such a huge increase in electricity demand. Do they have an answer for this challenge?” ~ Jon Sanders

Authoritarianism, Government, History, Technology

The Power to Regulate Is the Power to Control

– January 19, 2023

“The ‘chilling effect’ of government censorship by corporate proxy has Americans on an icy slope that bottoms out in the sort of political slavery feared by the Founders and Framers.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Free Trade, Government, Regulation

Individuals, Not Governments, Have a Comparative Advantage at Improving Comparative Advantages

– January 17, 2023

“There is no plausible case to be made that for us Americans to improve our comparative advantages we need government to protect us from foreign competition.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government

Who is “Accountable” to Whom?

– January 17, 2023

“When people talk about ‘holding corporations accountable,’ they usually mean ‘accountable to observers with no serious stake in what they are doing and who bear no meaningful personal cost if their calls for accountability are misplaced.'” ~ Art Carden

Fiscal Policy, Government, History

After the Speakership Fight: What Now in the House?

– January 16, 2023

“Even if spending cuts don’t go beyond the House, the Republicans will at least be linking themselves to something more than the lurid distortions of Trumpism that spook centrist voters.” ~ David B. Frisk

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government

Evidence that Economic Freedom Improves Outcomes

– January 16, 2023

“The four most recent decades of evidence support the claim that Thomas Jefferson made twenty-two decades ago: societies achieve the best outcomes when their governments prevent people from harming each other, but otherwise leave them alone.” ~ Antony Davies