Constituting Constitutional Economics
“As Smith himself put it: ‘Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice.'” ~ Alexander William Salter
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Supreme Court Grants Rare Win For Economic Freedom
“The Court’s decision marks a step in the right direction towards a judicial regime that enforces the Constitution and does not view it as simply a welcome mat for the ambitions of state actors. Although it is only one decision, it should send a clear signal that in this country, under this constitution, the inalienable rights of individuals shall be protected from the mob as well as the Leviathan.” ~ Ethan Yang
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Understanding Big Tech Dominance Requires Economics, Not Conspiracy Theories
“Intellectual property laws, not childish conspiracy theories, explain the persistent dominance of Big Tech and social media.” ~ Peter C. Earle
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Acknowledge This!
“The NGC sees land acknowledgments as the first step toward ‘returning land’ but that cannot happen in any significant way because its market value has been vastly augmented over the centuries. To seize it, or even to impose a ground rent, would be an unconstitutional taking and an unconstitutional ex post law if there were any penalty for noncompliance.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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Is the Amazon Really a Market Failure?
“A government strong enough to assign and enforce private property rights in remote areas wouldn’t have a problem with (excessive) deforestation in the first place. A government weak enough – or uninterested enough – that it’s unable to do so, couldn’t credibly abstain from chopping down trees, or promise that its citizens won’t do so either.” ~ Joakim Book
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Who Owns Leftover and Abandoned Bar Food?
“Figuring out the exact property rights isn’t worth the hassle: it’s too little and too rare to care about enforcing whatever legal right might be applicable in various jurisdictions. In practice, the ownership of leftover food is up to the social norms in the country you’re in, or even the attitude of the staff at the particular establishment you’re visiting – an informal institution, guided by vague and constantly negotiated social interactions.” ~ Joakim Book
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A Keynesian Path Would Be the Wrong Path for the U.S. Economy
“Following a crisis, countries with higher levels of economic freedom–that is, with institutions closer to those proposed by Hayek than Keynes–suffered smaller economic contractions and faster recoveries. Keynesian ideas have dominated the political worldview for decades. But we would be better off following Hayek.” ~ Nicolás Cachanosky
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Safety is Found in Principles, Not Lies
“Safety lies in the strength of our belief in strict limits on government power, the rule of law, and stable property rights. Honor these principles and safety will emerge from the actions of a free people, not the edicts of authoritarians.” ~ Barry Brownstein
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Where Are the Reopening Experiments?
Again, I think that most places could re-open now, and indeed should never have shut down in the first place, but if politicians insist on taking the cautious approach, they should at least have to provide some empirical evidence that re-opening would lead to a spike in deaths. The only way to do that is to experiment.
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The Politicization of Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s case isn’t about the power of private equity or the perfect workings of market capitalism. It doesn’t fit into any existing political paradigm. It is a dispute over enforced ownership rights that have been granted to the unownable.
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Government Is the Main Problem, Say a Record Number of Americans
It’s a pretty strange time for conservatives suddenly to decide they like government, and the worst imaginable time for the Left to celebrate the state as never before. Based on the attitudes of the public alone, we ought to be seeing the opposite from both sides.
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Why Buildings are Collapsing in Cuba
To save lives by ensuring that large-scale, sophisticated repairs for dilapidated buildings are swiftly and efficiently undertaken, the Cuban government must free the market for capital goods.
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