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The road to pork product serfdom
There are interesting developments afoot in the world of agriculture and livestock, as recently recounted in the pages of the New York Times. According…
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Free the Economy podcast: Supreme Court preview with Ashley Baker
In this week’s episode we talk about the long history of the Lewis Powell memo of 1971, innovation in textile recycling, how…
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Will COVID-era work-from-home flexibility disappear?
The question of how many Americans are going to continue working remotely, post-COVID, is back in the news again (if, indeed, it ever left).
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The Powell Memo was good, actually
This week the Competitive Enterprise Institute published my study (co-written with my colleague Iain Murray) on the 50-plus year history of the…
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Free the Economy podcast: freedom and conservatism with Avik Roy
In this week’s episode we talk about the future of nuclear power, the possible end of remote work, and the complexities of…
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Free the Economy podcast: Defend your points and miles with Bryan Bashur
In this week’s episode we talk about where our doctors come from in the US, what current inflation numbers tell us about…
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Free the Economy podcast: The ESG Agenda with Jack McPherrin
In this week’s episode we talk about job recruiters who lie to applicants, post-Covid reforms to the CDC, debunking socialist takes…
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Free the Economy Episode 34: Permitting Prosperity with Daren Bakst
In this weeks episode we talk about labor union history, demands for a 4-day work week, YIMBY policy wins, and Reason’s…
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Free the Economy Episode 33: Federal Trade Commission Failures with Kimberlee Josephson
In this week’s episode we talk about defending financial privacy, new polling on what Republican voters want, reactions to new employment…
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Free the Economy podcast: Government rules behind a paywall with Patrick McLaughlin
In this week’s episode we talk about banning incandescent light bulbs, mission creep at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, new nuclear capacity…
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Good news about new business starts nationwide
The Economic Innovation Group has a fascinating report out this week on how we’re seeing a boom in new businesses being started – definitely a…
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No, Florida, you can’t sue corporate directors for ‘going woke’
Recently Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called on the Sunshine State’s pension fund manager to consider action against Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev. In a…
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Free the Economy Episode 31: Reforming the States with Carrie Conko
In this week’s episode we talk about the Federal Trade Commission’s takeover of AI policy, shareholder lawsuits against “woke” corporations, an encouraging…
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Free the Economy podcast: Ugh! Capitalism! with Jeremiah Johnson
In this week’s episode we talk about Democrat and Republican myths, corporate welfare in Ohio, scams in the carbon offset market,…
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Free the Economy podcast: School Choice for Everyone with Ed Tarnowski
In this week’s episode we talk about trends in self-employment, how rent control leads to more evictions, empty corporate gestures on…
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Don’t believe the ‘cost-of-thriving’ doom
There has been a lot of discussion in the last several years – and even more so in the last few weeks – about income…
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Free the Economy podcast: teaching capitalism with Allen Mendenhall
In this week’s episode we talk about the cost of thriving in America, the incredible expanding CHIPS Act, and occupational licensing…
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Local zoning boards are not democracy
At the Competitive Enterprise Institute, we have often discussed the need to reform zoning, permitting, and building regulations, so I was intrigued…
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Wall Street doesn’t want to come back to the office
The continuing saga of remote versus in-office work acquired a new data point recently when Bloomberg released its latest Markets Live Pulse survey, which…
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Free the Economy podcast: importing talent with Connor O’Brien
In this week’s episode we talk about the major income tax case going to the Supreme Court, the looming death of ESG…
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Free the Economy podcast: online trust with Taylor Barkley
In this week’s episode we talk about a survey on work trends for finance bros, Delta’s questionable bid to become the first…
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Businesses flocking to states with lower taxes, better regulations
Experts on U.S. economic policy spend a lot of time looking at competition between states and how good tax and regulatory policy can help…
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Younger workers don’t favor full-remote work
Among people who follow the news on workplace (and workforce) satisfaction, the opinions of younger workers are often considered especially relevant, because we assume that…
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Free the Economy podcast: growth and taxes with Alex Muresianu
In this week’s episode we talk about Gen Z and remote work, businesses moving between states, and inspiring evidence of human…
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Free the Economy podcast: Immense economic costs with Scott Lincicome
In this week’s episode we talk about central bank digital currencies, bankers backing off of ESG claims, avoiding the mistakes of…
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Free the Economy podcast: Capitalists of the world unite! with Richard Salsman
In this week’s episode, we talk about conservatives defending the D.C. swamp, Andrew Stuttaford’s warning about green land grabs, a new Heartland Institute report…
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Protecting private property in the Peach State
Institute for Justice communications manager Dan King brings us an infuriating but important story out of the state of Georgia. Property owners in the…
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Free the Economy podcast: Transparency for government, privacy for people with Brian Hawkins
In this week’s episode we talk discuss Tim Carney’s view on why big government is good for big business, Stone Washington on the…
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What happens if governments stop trying to make electric vehicles happen?
I recently spotted an interesting analysis of the market for electric vehicles and the prospect for them eventually replacing ones powered by internal combustion…
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Free the Economy podcast: Letting people prosper with Vance Ginn
In this week’s episode we talk about Warren Buffet’s electric vehicle pessimism, sky-high school funding in New York City, a report…
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Free the Economy podcast: Freedom is intoxicating with Jacob Grier
In this week’s episode we talk about public opinion regarding capitalism, eliminating COVID relief slush funds, rolling back parking mandates, partisan…
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Retirement finance worries increase for Americans
The Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research have published their 33rd Annual Retirement Confidence Survey, and it’s got some interesting results. The survey…
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Americans agree: Politics doesn’t solve most problems
Our friends at the Pew Research Center have some new political survey results out, and the numbers are…not encouraging. The research summary finds:…
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New Jersey fishermen challenge Chevron deference
Big news out of the Supreme Court this week as justices have agreed to hear a lawsuit challenging the so-called Chevron doctrine, a policy requiring…
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Punishing success with higher mortgage rates?
The Biden administration recently implemented changes to fees on mortgages that are backed by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Our old friend…
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Free the Economy podcast: Grow for tomorrow with Adam Millsap
In this week’s episode we talk about judicial deference at the Supreme Court, Biden’s new mortgage rate policy, how Americans are thinking…
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Free the Economy podcast: Smart urbanism with Max Dubler
In the latest episode, we talk about John Berlau and Stone’s Washington’s recent Wall Street Journal op-ed on financial regulation and free speech,…
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Free the Economy Episode 17: Political Fusionism with Stephanie Slade
In this week’s episode we talk about Michael Strain’s and Dominic Pino’s recent arguments for economic optimism, Jessica Melugin’s defense of…
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Free the Economy Episode 16: Tar Heel Activism with Brooke Medina
This week we talk about political pessimism in popular polling, the return of the Malthusian environmentalists, the problem with Buy American…
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Free Enterprise Scholarship in Alabama
Some fans of economic freedom have been worried in recent years that anti-capitalism is rife on U.S. college and university campuses, from Competitive Enterprise Institute…
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Making the Perfect the Enemy of the Good: Everything-Bagel Public Policy
Thanks to Caleb Watney of the Institute for Progress for recommending the great New York Times column by Ezra Klein about the red…
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Blue State Bailouts on the Horizon?
Whenever we see risky and poorly thought-out ventures in the business world, the negative consequences of those ideas will usually be limited to the shareholders…
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Free the Economy Episode 15: Eco-Modernism and Abundance with Alex Trembath
In this week’s episode of the Free the Economy podcast, we talk about the likelihood of blue state bailouts, issues with “…
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Free the Economy Episode 14: Conservative Economics with Dominic Pino
This week we talk corporate mega-mergers that turned out for the best, political meddling with the Federal Reserve’s inflation policy, “woke” language…
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Free the Economy Episode 13: The Future of Online Privacy with Spencer Purnell
This week we talk about Silicon Valley Bank and political favoritism, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s climate agenda, the relationship of…
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Desperately Seeking Regulatory Restraint
Our friends at the Wall Street Journal editorial board recently published a timely warning about the surge in federal regulation being pushed by the…
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Protecting Pensions from Politics
Congress recently voted to protect pensions from politicized mismanagement and ESG fads, but President Biden has announced that he will be vetoing the measure. I…
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Silicon Valley Bank, ESG, and Political Favoritism
Last weekend we all saw the beginnings of what has now become a major meltdown for Silicon Valley Bank. The bank was quickly closed by…
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Free the Economy Episode 12: Consumer Welfare and Big Government with Patrick Hedger
This week we talk about the drama with Silicon Valley Bank and the proposal from Wayne Crews for an Abuse-of-Crisis Prevention Act, how…
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Congress, Please Reform the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
My Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) colleague Devin Watkins recently testified on Capitol Hill before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary…