Topic: International

Don’t Blame Globalism for COVID-19

– May 12, 2020

They were against trade, immigration, technology, and markets before and they are now opportunistically using this pandemic as a convenient, almost heaven-sent, opportunity to push for the same pro-government interventions and the same semi-authoritarian regimes they advocated earlier.

Free Trade, International

Should China Pay Reparations?

– May 7, 2020

For the Chinese to pay reparation fees in ways that don’t involve any current increase in American imports, they would have to liquidate a great deal of their investments in America. Any such liquidation would reduce asset values here at home.

History, International

The Glorious Innovation of Containerization

– April 27, 2020

However, entrepreneurial innovation has unintended benefits that no one, not even the entrepreneur devising the innovation, can fully anticipate. To put the current fears regarding the global supply chain in perspective, let us imagine a world in which McLean never discovered the containership.

Crisis, International

The Conquest of America by Communist China

– April 27, 2020

We are all Chinese communists now, with almost no, de facto, real and meaningful autonomy and discretion over our own lives and our ways of earning a living. We are pawns on a society-wide chess board, who are told what to do and where to stand and if anything goes wrong, we are the first to be considered expendable in the great political chess game of politicians asserting to know what is in the “national interest” and why we must be made to obey it.

Crisis, Economic Trends, International

Why No Shortages in Canada as Compared with the U.S.?

– April 22, 2020

In contrast to Canada, which has no national restrictions against price gouging, 39 American states now have stringent laws or executive orders against raising prices during emergencies.

Crisis, International

The Scandinavian Experiment: Open vs Close

– April 18, 2020

For many countries abruptly closing commerce and civic life altogether, it’s still too early based on mortality statistics to say “overreaction.” But that’s what it looks like.

Art and Culture, International

Tradition and Why the Russians are Who They Are

– March 10, 2020

As much as we as individuals and groups of people may try to and think we have untied ourselves from the ideas, customs and traditions of the past, to think anew and independently of what has preceded us, we can never completely uncouple ourselves from the cultural inheritance.

Cryptocurrency, International

Why Is Maduro Pushing the Petro?

– February 20, 2020

Why would the Venezuelan government prefer the petro? Three reasons stand out.

Central Banking, International, Monetary Policy

Dollarization in Ecuador after 20 Years

– February 18, 2020

In January, Ecuador celebrated its 20th anniversary of dollarization. The Bastiat Society of Guayaquil and the Instituto Ecuatoriano de Economia Política organized a conference to discuss the pros and cons of Ecuador’s monetary regime. Internatio …

Economic Trends, International

The Last Days of the Left

– December 17, 2019

Left-wing collectivism is not, in the end, about making society better off; it is about transferring power from the people outside of government to those inside of government.

Free Markets, International

The Link Between Prosperity and Freedom Is Even Stronger than You Think

– December 6, 2019

Dictatorships or authoritarian regimes (which also tend to be economically unfree) often put a lot of pressure on their bureaucrats to develop the economy and increase output. Thus are their data positively biased.

Education, International

There Need Not Be a Great Confrontation with China

– November 14, 2019

American businesses plainly see in China what the chattering classes don’t.