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Free the Economy podcast: Frontier economics with Kendall Cotton
In this week’s episode we cover the diamond jubilee of the Philadelphia Society, the cost of government regulation in the UK, the…
Blog
Small banks targeted as FDIC cracks down on technology partnerships
Earlier this week, Politico’s “Morning Money” column reported an astonishing finding that almost certainly points to politicization in enforcement by federal bank regulators. The…
Blog
US move to ban TikTok a troubling signal for our great experiment in self-determination
As a part of a foreign aid funding package, the Senate passed a bill mandating TikTok’s divestiture from Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance. Biden…
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Paul Ryan Goes Solo for Romney in N.C.
From ABC News’ Veep Beat: RYAN STUMPS FOR ROMNEY IN NORTH CAROLINA: While his state is engaged in a recall election today, Rep.
The American Spectator
A Tsunami of Bad Economics
The broken Krugman fallacy. Japan was hit by a tsunami last year on March 11. That’s not news, but the reaction of some economists sure…
The American Spectator
Higher Education Bubble Update
From Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit: HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Are We Subsidizing Student Debt Too Generously? “Why am I subsidizing student loans for Harvard…
Financial Times
Letter to the Editor: U.S. Principles at Stake As Government Keeps Growing
Sir, Martin Wolf’s latest column ignores the wisdom of conservative commentator Stan Evans: “The problem with pragmatism is that it doesn’t work!” (“American power needs…
News OK
Letter to the Editor: Companies Have Right to Engage in Political Process
Regarding “Activist shareholders want full disclosure” (Business, May 6): Shareholder proposals calling for greater disclosure regarding “lobbying” sound reasonable until one considers the aim of…
Washington Times
Driving the Market From the Marketplace of Ideas
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin recently came under attack from left-wing activists for meeting with representatives of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a nationwide association…
Michigan Capitol Confidential
Federal ‘Stimulus’ Spent $34.5 Million In Michigan For Only 183 Total Jobs
From Anne Schieber's article on Michigan Capitol Confidential: The real problem is that the government is creating these programs in the first place;…
Michigan Capitol Confidential
If I Wanted America to fail: Free Market Agitprop With a Lesson
A powerful YouTube video essay that premiered on Earth Day has since gone viral. I first saw it when it cracked 100,000 views. At last…
Reason
Leftwing Pitchforkers: Kill the Limited Government Monsters!
From Ronald Bailey's article in Reason: In a letter to the editor in the Wall Street Journal about the relentless Team Blue crusade…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: An Attempt to Drive Free-Market Voices From the Field
The attack on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is part of a broader attack by those seeking to drive all market voices from the…
Wall Street Journal
Are We Subsidizing Student Debt Too Generously?
From Jennifer Rubin’s post on The Washington Post‘s Right Turn blog: I went to two critics of the current craze for federal subsidies…
Wall Street Journal
Supply-Side Critics Offer Only Trickle-Down Inflation
Economics is not called the dismal science for nothing. Many professional economists go to great lengths to obscure simple truths inconvenient to their political masters.
Wall Street Journal
President Obama Pledges To Recycle His Campaign Pledges
In a bold move aimed at reviving a renewable energy program struggling to bounce back from a string of bankruptcies (investing in the future isn’t…
Wall Street Journal
How Will Law Grads Repay Their Loans?
From George Leef’s post in National Review: Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute writes here about the high debt levels on average…
Wall Street Journal
Lights Off for Earth Hour? Rightbloggers Leave Lights On, Declare Victory Over So-Called “Environment”
From Roy Edroso’s article in The Village Voice: As we explained last year, Human Achievement Hour was founded in…
Wall Street Journal
Bono Wants to Save the World (But He Needs Your Money to Do It)
Full Document Available in PDF Summary: Through his nonprofit ONE Campaign, the rock star Bono advocates Western aid to help…
Fox News
Let There Be Light: ‘Human Achievement Hour’ to Coincide With Earth Hour
From Fox News: The Competitive Enterprise Institute plans to commemorate Earth Hour 2012 with its "Human Achievement Hour," 60 minutes to…
Fox News
CEI to Host Norquist-Lott Book Party
From Betsy Rothstein’s post on FishbowlDC: The Competitive Enterprise Institute and Christian Josi are hosting a book party and signing tomorrow at CEI…
Blog
Twenty Years without Hayek
F.A. Hayek died twenty years ago today. In his long career—his first book was published in 1929, his last in 1988—he made important contributions to…
Fox News
March 23 Roundup
From Walter Olsen’s post on Overlawyered: Just what European business needs: gender quotas for corporate boards [Bader, CEI]…
Fox News
Bell’s Critical Race Theory Promoted in Public Schools
From Kyle Olson’s post on BigGovernment: A radical organization known as the Pacific Educational Group (PEG) is actively promoting Derrick Bell’s Critical Race…
Fox News
The Real Reasons You Should Shun Goldman Sachs
By now, Greg Smith’s resignation letter heard around the worldwide Web has moved through its arc of infamy-passing from titillating revelation to corporate damage control…
Fox News
Student Loans: America’s Next Debt Bomb
From Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit: HANS BADER: Student Loans: America’s Next Debt Bomb?…
Fox News
March 13 Roundup: Boom-Era Property Speculators to Get Foreclosure Aid
From Walter Olsen’s post on Overlawyered: “Are Courts Dragging Out the Housing Crisis?” [Mark Calabria, Cato] “Boom-Era Property Speculators to Get Foreclosure…
Fox News
Higher Education Bubble May Explode in Taxpayers’ Faces
From Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit: HANS BADER: Higher Education Bubble May Explode in Taxpayers’ Faces. May?…
Fox News
Is Your Company Ready to Meet its New Disability Hiring Quota?
Has the economy got you worried about reelection? Looking for clever ways to showcase your bona fides as a promoter of “fairness,” champion of the…
Blog
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).
Fox News
Recounting George Washington’s Brilliant Entrepreneurship
February is an important month in the history of American commerce. In this month is the birthday of one of the country’s earliest business innovators…
Fox News
Give Greece a Going Away Present, But Go It Must
The rate at which things are deteriorating in Greece now officially exceeds the rate at which desperate Eurocrats weave new fantasies as they try to…
Fox News
Bennett Hypothesis 2.0
From George Leef’s post on National Review Online: On Minding the Campus today, Peter Wood, Rich Vedder, Hans Bader, Herbert London, and I…
Fox News
Making Sure Corruption Remains “Made in America”
In the annals of American legislation, few laws are as futile in their impact, capricious in their enforcement, and hypocritical in their content as the…
Fox News
Orwellian Doublespeak Dominates Economic Policy
While taking in my morning helping of news and commentary, I was struck by a certain similarity in every article touching on economic policy. It…
Fox News
Why Can’t Mainstream Media Connect the Economic Dots?
Politicians and journalists sure seem to believe that voters have the attention span and reasoning ability of a two-year old. Convinced that we are unable…
Institute of Economic Affairs
Countering the Assault on Capitalism
Full Document Available in PDF Introduction: Capitalism has been the most successful institution in human history yet it…
Institute of Economic Affairs
Daily Scoreboard
Las Vegas Review Journal
Obama, Romney and Taxes
Las Vegas Review Journal
Romney and the Burden of Double Taxation
When Mitt Romney releases his tax returns, as he is expected to do on Tuesday, thousands of green eyeshades will pore over every line. One…
Las Vegas Review Journal
The Ability to Fire People Creates More and Better Jobs
“I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.” By speaking the truth, presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney committed the cardinal…
Las Vegas Review Journal
Thinking Fast, Slow and Not at All
Reading Daniel Kahneman’s fantastic new book, Thinking Fast and Slow, on the eve of a presidential election can only lead to despair. Yet his careful…
Las Vegas Review Journal
In the Battle of Man Vs. Nature, Give Me Man
Welcoming the new year contemplating the sunset comfortably ensconced on a cliffside balcony high above the manicured banks of the Miami River, it’s hard not…
Las Vegas Review Journal
Letter to the Editor: Dead People Get Lots of Other Entitlement Benefits
Re: “Maryland Medicaid pays dead people,” Local Editorial, Dec. 13 The Examiner noted that millions of dollars were wasted by the state of Maryland…
Las Vegas Review Journal
Hans Bader on the Student Loan Disaster
Las Vegas Review Journal
Some Links
Las Vegas Review Journal
Exactly What Is Crony Capitalism, Anyway?
President Obama, progressive politicians, Occupy protestors, and leftist intellectuals are having a field day attacking what they call the failures and excesses of capitalism. They…
Las Vegas Review Journal
How Federal Aid Drives Up College Tuition
At Bloomberg News, Virginia Postrel writes about how federal subsidies intended to make college more affordable have instead encouraged rapidly rising tuitions, in a column…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: It’s Hard To See How the SEIU Fits the Chinese Model
If America is indeed a free-market fundamentalist nation, it sure has a funny way of showing it. Federal, state and local governments combine to…
Wall Street Journal
Without REINS It Pours: A Christmas Wish For Sane Government
This year, Congress has passed and the president has signed into law 39 pieces of legislation by my quick count. They’re representatives, elected precisely…
Wall Street Journal
Where’s the Money to Save the Euro Coming From? Not Us!
Markets rallied last week on news of central bank intervention to ease indebted European governments’ liquidity problems, but the central problem remains. Europe is in…
Wall Street Journal
Let’s Not Be Bamboozled By Robert Reich’s Stuff
Today we pick a fight with Robert Reich. You remember him, Bill Clinton’s outspoken Labor Secretary, Berkeley professor, political commentator, and, most recently, Occupy protest…
Wall Street Journal
Enron Bankruptcy 10 Years Later: Before Bailouts Were Big
Wall Street Journal
A Federal Black Friday
Black Friday this year was a roaring success. I have heard it said that it is called Black Friday not because it inspires black tempers…
Wall Street Journal
What the Super Committee Could Have Learned From Italy
One of Thomas Jefferson’s rules for living was, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” As an American and as a “cittadino”…
Wall Street Journal
Cut a Cabinet Department? You Must Be Joking
“Laws were most numerous when the state was most corrupt.” — Tacitus, The Annals III.27 Texas Gov. Rick Perry came in for much ridicule for…
Wall Street Journal
Clean Energy: The Dirty Truth
CEI fellow Bill Frezza says that government should not pick winners and losers in energy…
Wall Street Journal
Obamateurism of the Day
Wall Street Journal
What’s Trickling Down Are Lies
Daily Caller
Leaders with Ginni Thomas: Fred Smith, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Daily Caller
Bank Debit-Card Fees Under U.S. Justice Department Review
Daily Caller
Full Privatization of GM Cannot Come Soon Enough
Daily Caller
Driving a Bad Bargain on GM Bailout
Daily Caller
Crony Capitalism: The Inevitable Outcome Of Overreaching Government
Would a farmer who put out a trough of slop be surprised if it attracted a bunch of pigs? Then why are activists who promote…
Daily Caller
Letter to the Editor: Government Meddling Won’t Create Jobs
A recent op-ed in The Hill by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) (“Attacks on workers’ rights won’t create jobs,” Nov. 15) highlights the need to…
Daily Caller
The Euro Was Always a Bad Bet
Rumors are flying around Europe that Chancellor Merkel of Germany and President Sarkozy of France are making plans for a smaller eurozone, including provisions…
Daily Caller
Will Western Civilization Rediscover The Moral Foundations Of Sound Money?
What is money, and from where does it draw its value? This is a question Greece is facing as its people stare into the abyss.
Daily Caller
Why Obama Officials Had to Lie to Congress About Fuel Economy Standards
Republicans were in an “Internet uproar” last week over a false report that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson had called them “jack-booted thugs.” Meanwhile, deeply…
Bryan Triangle
Occupying the Wrong Place
Orange County Register
7 Billion People Isn’t the Problem
RealClear Markets
Yes, Regulation Does Keep Unemployment High
When regulations make hiring employees more expensive, companies won't hire as many of them. It's a simple truth. But it is an inconvenient one…
RealClear Markets
Letter to the Editor: Hoover Didn’t Show Any Fiscal Restraint
Re: “Amendment would cripple government, devastate Americans,” Oct. 23 commentary: Where did Andy Schmookler get the strange idea that former President Herbert Hoover practiced…
Wall Street Journal
Are Companies Responsible for Creating Jobs?
Letters
Coalition Letter on Sarbanes-Oxley
Full Document Available in PDF Now that the Senate has defeated the so-called American Jobs Bill, which…
Wall Street Journal
The Fiscal Union Delusion
Any day now, the leaders of the euro zone will present a grand plan to prevent future fiscal or financial crises from threatening the single…
Wall Street Journal
Flat Tax This: Regulations Are the Boot On Hiring’s Neck
It’s almost 2012, and President Obama still wants a half trillion more from you for jobs spendulus. I’m waiting for Rod Serling to explain this…
Wall Street Journal
Competitive Enterprise Institute and Americans for Prosperity Join Groups Opposing Ag Committee Proposal
Wall Street Journal
Tax Watchdog Groups Urge Super Committee to Axe Wasteful Agriculture Subsidies
Letters
Coalition Letter on Agriculture Spending
Full Document Available in PDF The Competiitive Enterprise Institute signed a…
Wall Street Journal
The Stimulus Delusion
Popular delusions are always debunked, but rarely before they do a lot of harm. The ancient physician Galen believed that bloodletting, the forced removal of…
Wall Street Journal
Squeezing Every Last Dollar Out Of Democracy
Have you ever wondered why Congress is so spectacularly bad at solving problems? Do you marvel at the parade of so-called unintended consequences that flow…
NPR
Guest on Business and Jobs: Refreshing or Wrong?
NPR
The Fundamental Fallacies Of Macroeconomics
Do you sometimes wonder why economists are accorded such respect and influence given the fact that they claim knowledge over the unknowable, promote theories that…
NPR
Sugar Policy Bitter for Consumers, Manufacturers
NPR
Long Live the Limited Liability Corporation
What does it mean when angry mobs take to the streets not to protest against the specific corporations and politicians that teamed up to loot…
Blog
The Compassion of Adam Smith
It's much more fashionable to attack Adam Smith these days than to read him. Yes, he favored economic liberalism, which wasn't exactly in style in…
NPR
A Plan to Chill Employment
What are the best two ways to maintain unemployment? First, forbid people from working. Then pay them not to work. Maryland may soon get a…
USA Today
Opposing View: ‘Occupiers’ Should Look Beyond Wall Street
The Occupy Wall Street crowd has a few things in common with the Tea Partiers. Both would sign onto the slogan, "The banks got…
USA Today
Demands Show Protesters’ Naivety
Sir, I was appalled by John Gapper’s column “In praise of Wall Street protesters” (October 6), extolling the virtues and idealistic aims of the…
USA Today
Act Would Harm Consumers, Manufacturers
The editorial “Reliving the Great Depression” (Comment & Analysis, Wednesday) highlights the wrongheaded and misinformed decision of enacting the Chinese currency bill – a…
USA Today
Hoover Never Practised Austerity
Re: Harper denies focusing on austerity, Sept. 28. Wherever did some Canadian economists get the strange idea that U.S. President Herbert Hoover “helped plunge…
USA Today
Occupy Wall Street: America’s Road to Greece
The chattering classes are peddling a new meme designed to control the narrative surrounding the arrested adolescents who’ve been camping out in lower Manhattan, raging…
The Union
Misunderstanding Job Creation
The Union
How To Create Shortages In An Abundant World
An old cold war joke asks a Russian, a Pole, an Israeli, and an American the following man-on-the-street question. “Excuse me, what is your opinion…
The Union
Most Green Energy Projects Are Thinly Veiled Exercises In Crony Capitalism
In late September on this site, Christopher Helman favorably profiled Oklahoma billionaire George Kaiser‘s “green” energy agenda. Yes, solar-panel-maker Solyndra recently went belly…
The Union
Hoover Spent Big
Wherever did some Canadian economists get the strange idea that U.S. president Herbert Hoover “helped plunge his country into the Great Depression through austerity measures”…
The Union
Rising China: The Seen and Unseen
I just got back from a biotech conference in Changsha via Shanghai, the jewel of the new China. It was my first visit to the…
The Union
Austerity Hardly To Blame
Re: “Harper rejects warnings austerity will spark recession,” The Journal, Sept. 28. Former U.S. president Herbert Hoover did not practice austerity, so it is…
The Union
Stimulus Slows Our Economy
Why does government stimulus spending fail? When considering the success of economic programs, the 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat urged us to look at both…
The Union
Capital Gains Tax Far Too High
Warren Buffett was wrong to suggest that capital gains taxes are too low (“Calling Buffett’s bluff,” Comment & Analysis, Monday). They are actually much too…
US News
Congress Should Let Market Take Care of Energy Industry
PR Newswire
Fed’s Richard Fisher and Russ Roberts of “Keynes vs. Hayek” Speak Nov. 2 at Bastiat-Hoiles Dinner at Four Seasons Restaurant, New York City
PR Newswire
Thoughts on “Hayekian Insights for Trying Economic Times”
Following a recent panel at the Cato Institute commemorating the publication of a new edition of F.A. Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty, Arnold Kling brought…
Staff & Scholars
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Richard Morrison
Senior Fellow
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Capitalism and Free Enterprise
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government
Ryan Young
Senior Economist
- Antitrust
- Business and Government
- Regulatory Reform