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How to Articulate a Free-Market Vision for the Future
The Competitive Enterprise Institute views most market failure rationales for government intervention as wrong, overstated, or unproven (or all of the above). The Competitive Enterprise Institute…
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Remembering Aaron Wildavsky
Aaron Wildavsky, born on this day in 1930, died tragically and all too young in 1993, but left behind an incredible legacy in the public policy…
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Response to Mercatus Center’s Dan Griswold on Trade Policy
Fred Smith and Marc Scribner respond to the Mercatus Center's Dan Griswold on the free market approach to trade policy.
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Companies Make a Play for Hearts and Minds with Super Bowl Ads
Corporations are in trouble – people see more bad than good in corporate America, even though they may like and enjoy their products.
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Some Advice for Trump Appointees
Your role in the new administration is to propose ways of restoring limited government – by privatization, deregulation, extending property rights, and taking on the…
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Free Market Opportunities for the Trump Administration
This election has given us one more demonstration that knowledge is dispersed and “trusting the experts” to know the future is foolish. The unexpected success…
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Happy Birthday to Economist Bruce Yandle
Bruce Yandle – a great economic scholar at Clemson University for many years and recipient of the 2016 Julian Simon Award – reaches his 83rd…
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Religious and Economic Liberty Are Intertwined
The massacre in Orlando was a tragic reminder that we’re at war—against hate, against extremism, and against intolerance. Although there are many contributing factors…
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Trade Is Good, Using Trade to Weaken Foreign Investment Is Not
Free traders have long promoted an expansion of the rights of the citizens of one nation to buy and sell to one another. The old…
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Thanksgiving: Massachusetts Discovers Property Rights
Thanksgiving is a day layered in tradition and myth. The standard story makes much of the creative efforts of our ancestors, the assistance provided by…
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“Losing Our Minds” over Green Energy
Eco-theocracy has swept America and Europe, resulting in governments devoting vast sums to build their Green Temples where “renewable energy” and “recycled materials” can be…
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Reasons for Global Warming Skepticism
Democrats have developed a cottage industry in ridiculing and condemning Republicans as Luddites. How can any “reasonable” person deny that increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the…
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Protecting the Earth Isn’t Just Government Work
This April will mark the 45th anniversary of Earth Day. Since 1970, countless people around the world have used the day to celebrate the beauty…
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Yes, and Water Can Run Uphill!
A recent Washington Post story by Joby Warrick says much about the credulity of the media. The story extols the great gains in wind…
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There Are No “Neutral Taxes” in Politics
Those favoring larger government are finding it harder to finance them by raising taxes. Proponents have sought to reduce opposition by claiming that they’re not…
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The Empire Strikes Back!
Right-of-center groups have for some time become a bit complacent. Sure the left had the universities, the media, and pop culture—but we had the think…
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Premature Capitulation?
Over the decades I’ve spent in this Heart of Darkness (a.k.a., the bowels of American politics), I’ve learned two lessons that have encouraged the steady…
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Political vs. Market Regulation: Uber Edition
Earlier this week The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell suggested that new entrants in the transportation market, like Uber, should face greater government regulation—despite having fueled much of…
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The Future and the Regulated
Lawrence Summers, the enfant terrible of the economics profession, has written a thoughtful column on “Our Loss of Faith in the Future,” noting that…
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How Will the Future View the “Temples” of Eco-Theocrats?
While vacationing in Germany recently, I noted many beautiful and now largely untenanted churches. Elegant, majestic against the sky, they are potent symbols of a…
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The Not-So-Free Market at Work
In the mail, I recently received a brochure from a firm called Solar Solution LLC, claiming to be the District of Columbia’s #1 solar installer. Included…
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The “Cooperative” Enterprise Institute?
In a sense, companies compete with each other to be the better cooperator.
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Jeffrey Sachs: Macro-Keynsianism Is “Outdated And Outmoded”… So, We Need Micro-Keynsianism!
Jeffrey Sachs, the harbinger of bad policy, has written his first post-election column in the Financial Times, “Obama has four years to transform America’s…
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Remembering Elinor Ostrom
Among the individuals with whom I wish I could have greater opportunities to exchange ideas is Elinor Ostrom. She passed away today, and now I…
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Bailouts Wanted — All Taxpayers Solicited!
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Why Are Statists So Inconsistent?
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Legacy Risks
European and American political and private institutions have made many non-sustainable retirement promises over the last 50 years. These promises cannot be kept and that…
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European Lessons for America
George Will warns that America’s system of competitive federalism is threatened by our own “Greeces.” (“In Illinois the bills are coming due,” April 27). Europe…
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FDR on FDIC
Robert Samuelson’s column (April 8, 2012) discussing President Franklin Roosevelt’s reservations about the longer term implications of Social Security should not be surprising. In…
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CSR: Business’s Shampoo?
To the Editor, Financial Times: Gillian Tett notes the vogue among CEOs for “corporate social responsibility” (When Making Shampoo Becomes a Service to Society).
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How Worrisome is the Race to the Bottom Argument?
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The Demographics of Politics
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Elites of the World, Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose!
And they are — but we have much to lose. See Iain Murray’s latest piece on the EU crisis. The intellectual temptation — the…
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In Memoriam: William Niskanen
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Pull Out of Basel III: The Moral Hazard of Government Ratings
Recently and for different reasons, two high-profile players from different parts of the financial sector -- JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon and respected banking analyst…
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The Constitution May Not Be Perfect — But it is Much Better than What We Have Now!
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Not Easy to Disentangle the Legal and Value Aspects of Marriage — But it is Important!
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The Establishment Turns Against Democracy!
The Financial Times‘ lead editorial today, “Democracy’s Slow Cure for the Euro,” illustrates a growing willingness of “experts” to argue that people are too…
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Infrastructure Pork versus Infrastructure Investment: In Washington, There is No Difference
The labor theory of value still survives -- at least in politics. Both Democrats and Republicans still believe that "government must create jobs," and if…
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Congress Shall Make No Law…
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Bloomberg on Energy
Mayor Bloomberg, America’s chief nanny regulator, is moving on to bigger things -- energy! During the recent heat spell he urged New Yorkers to turn down…
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Why Behavioral Economists Are So Often Mystified
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Dilbert on Green Technology!
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March Madness
In the closing days of March, not only are sports fans a bit crazy, so also are the electorate. Consider the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg,…
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Geo-Engineering?
Seismologists have long feared that “BIG” earthquakes might trigger other “BIG” earthquakes (a view that warms the cockles of catastrophist’s hearts who immediately connected global…
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Confusion about “Conflict of Interest”
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Anti-Terrorism: A Political Auto-Immune Disease?
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The Problem With Public-Private Partnerships
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Sex in the Board Room!
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