Topic: Property Rights

Economic Education, Property Rights, Technology

Understanding Big Tech Dominance Requires Economics, Not Conspiracy Theories

– May 17, 2021

“Intellectual property laws, not childish conspiracy theories, explain the persistent dominance of Big Tech and social media.” ~ Peter C. Earle

Government, History, Property Rights

Acknowledge This!

– February 22, 2021

“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

Economic Education, Environmentalism, Property Rights, Regulation

Is the Amazon Really a Market Failure?

– August 27, 2020

“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

Art and Culture, Economic Education, Free Markets, Property Rights

Who Owns Leftover and Abandoned Bar Food?

– July 17, 2020

“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

Economic Education, Free Markets, Policy, Property Rights

A Keynesian Path Would Be the Wrong Path for the U.S. Economy

– July 15, 2020

“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

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Property Rights, Regulation

Safety is Found in Principles, Not Lies

– May 22, 2020

“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

Crisis, Healthcare, Property Rights

Where Are the Reopening Experiments?

– April 28, 2020

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.

Art and Culture, Free Markets, Property Rights

The Politicization of Taylor Swift

– November 23, 2019

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.

Government, Property Rights

Government Is the Main Problem, Say a Record Number of Americans

– February 26, 2019

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.

Free Markets, Property Rights, Socialism

Why Buildings are Collapsing in Cuba

– December 12, 2018

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.

Currency, Daily Economy News, Free Markets, Gold Standard, History, Property Rights

Voting Is Not Self-Expression

– October 24, 2018

Voting may be many things, but the least of them is self-expression. Conceding the sufficiency of multi-billion dollar political contests among highly vetted, meticulously-coached candidates is a guaranteed road to self-negation.

Environmentalism, Free Markets, International, Property Rights

Nobel Roundup 2018

– October 10, 2018

Markets do not fail so much as courage and imaginations do.