Elites Gone Wild
“With an approval rating that is already abysmally low, Congress may have calculated that keeping its members alive is more important than keeping America’s democratic traditions alive. This is, after all, an age where no death can be tolerated, even if saving one person from something salient, like Covid-19, means another must die from a different, less important cause, like freezing to death.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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Market Governance and Polycentrism
“Not only do polycentric systems of governance produce superior results for society over centralized systems, but such productive mechanisms and their benefits can be observed as institutions reflected by the market. These institutions disperse decision-making rights, provide checks on power, and create systems of order by driving cooperation from a diverse array of actors.” ~ Ethan Yang & Jack Nicastro
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Government Schools: More Bureaucracy, Lower Performance, and Higher Costs
“We got more teachers with all that money, but the main outcome was a massive expansion in the number of education administrators and other bureaucrats.” ~ Daniel J. Mitchell
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Exploring Deeply the Economics of Price Controls
“Governments are fond of dictating maximum prices and minimum wages. To the economically ignorant, these policies appear humane and worthwhile. But when examined through the lens of economics, these policies are clearly revealed to be harmful to the very persons they are ostensibly meant to help.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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The Bankruptcy of Conservative Political Paternalism
“Oren Cass is really figuring out how to outwit the progressives in the game of political plunderhood by devising coalitions in society that will put ‘his side’ in elected office next time around through a ‘conservative’ version of handouts of favors, privileges and subsidies. His ‘new’ conservatism, therefore, is really only the same old political paternalism, just in different rhetorical clothing. We need neither ‘progressives’ nor ‘conservatives’ of Cass’s ilk to manage the world.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling
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Why Government Is Unromantic
“As we see from Austen’s archetypes and the track record of governments, these interfering third parties have the potential to ruin the romance between two individual actors in the market. Relationships between a business and customer or two lovers can last a lifetime and engender terrific prosperity without requiring the involvement of outside participants.” ~ Amelia Janaskie
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Why We Need Simple Rules for a Complex World
“Our current bias towards trying to make a government rule for every single issue that arises in society is not only ignorant of the very institutions of freedom that make our society prosper, but it also threatens to continue a vicious cycle that fuels an ever-encroaching state. A more optimal solution to address societal issues would be a paradigm shift to a system that understands the power and promise of simple rules in an ever more complex world.” ~ Ethan Yang
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A Nuanced Approach to China Part 3
“When it comes to protecting our intellectual property and ensuring good business practices, it is important that we are guided by reality and not a fantasized version drummed up by politicians for political gain. Harsh retaliation is neither productive or justifiable but standing idle is not a solution either. Our response to China must be measured, nuanced, and intelligent, as such an approach is the only way we will ever succeed.” ~ Ethan Yang
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Sovereignty Still Rests with the People, Not Congress
“No amount of selective quotes from the Constitution by Raskin and other righteous legislators will curb the contempt that politicians have richly earned. Many Americans instinctively recognize that, as Thomas Paine declared, ‘the trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.'” ~ James Bovard
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How Will We Pay for a $1.9 Trillion Spending Bill?
“Politicians are quick to ignore the costs of government spending in proposing legislation and obscure those costs by issuing debt rather than raising revenues. It is politically popular to issue debt and send checks to everyone. The benefits of the policy are clear: people get checks. The costs, which ripple out through financial markets as interest rates are bid up, are difficult to tie to the policy.” ~ Nicolás Cachanosky
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Would You Support the Lockdowns If It Meant Losing Your Own Job?
“Belief in the corona-religion is thin, but much worse, it’s gutless. People believe as long their jobs and their businesses aren’t being destroyed. Twenty or one hundred years ago they wouldn’t have been so sanguine. Let’s never stop reminding them of this truth.” ~ John Tamny
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Yellen was Right, the Federal Debt “Should Keep People Awake at Night”
“If the burden of interest payments increases, will Congress make the difficult decisions required to reduce federal spending? What contingency plan do Yellen and Powell have in their back pocket if the dollar suffers a speculative attack owing to an unsound fiscal position? Yellen was right: ‘It’s the type of thing that should keep people awake at night.'” ~ James L. Caton
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