in turn enable further types of interactions beyond the realm of business. The genius of the market is that it enables a wide array of individuals, groupings, and associations to organize spontaneously to advance their various interests in a cooperative fashion that yields win-win arrangements.
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Don’t Panic: A Skeptic’s Guide to the AI Jobs Doomsday
As technology advances it has periodically bred the fear that progress will destroy jobs and livelihoods. History teaches that these fears are usually misplaced.
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Free the Economy podcast: The Great Realignment with Stephen Davies
In this week’s episode we cover US companies getting hammered by tariffs, jobs that are surprisingly not getting replaced by AI,…
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Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations at 250
Last week I participated in a National Association of Scholars event on the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. The…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
Forbes
Biden’s Competition Council Targets Free Enterprise, Expands Government
Joe Biden’s Competition Council, created by his executive order dubbed “Promoting Competition In the American Economy,” celebrated its second anniversary and convened its …
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Republican Working Group issues first critical report against ESG
Last month, the Republican Environmental, Social, and Governance Working Group (ESG Group) unveiled an interim report outlining GOP efforts to combat the ideological subversion…
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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…
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Adam Smith on how trade makes us better people
2023 is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This post is part of a series highlighting aspects of Smith’s thought that continue to…
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Adam Smith and the wealth of America
2023 is the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth. This post is part of a series highlighting aspects of Smith’s thought that continue to…
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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…
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America takes Entrepreneurship Index top spot, former Soviet bloc countries close behind
Retail software maker Shopify recently released its “Entrepreneurship Index,” a global ecosystem of entrepreneurial activity. Shopify ranks the top ten countries with economies…
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Here comes state capitalism. There go our liberties.
CEI’s own Wayne Crews told the Washington Examiner recently, “Everything from local tap water to space commercialization is being turned into a government…
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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…
National Review
Global Britain Is Closed for Business
One of the supposed benefits of Brexit was that Britain would once again become “Global Britain,” able to adjust its regulatory approaches to one…
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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…
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Time to rip the veil of secrecy off government agencies’ in-house courts
In a previous piece, we explored some of the pros and cons of administrative law courts (ALCs). These are regulatory agencies’ special in-house…
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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…
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Robert Lucas, economist of possibilities, 1937-2023
Robert Lucas, 85, passed away this week. He was a prominent macroeconomist who won the 1995 economics Nobel. Others have remembered Lucas’s contributions to…
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New credit card late fee rule hurts folks who pay their bills on time
There has rightly been an outcry after the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which sets policy for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and…
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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,…
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Senate committee yells ‘all aboard!’ for controversial Railway Safety Act
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee approved the Railway Safety Act this morning, with all Democrats and Republican Sens. J.D. Vance (OH) and Eric…
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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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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…
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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…
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Has Gary Gensler turned the SEC into a regulatory ‘Hotel California’?
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler hadn’t testified before the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 months. Republican members made up for…
National Review
The Free-Market Case Needs More Than Just Morality
George Leef and Mike Munger are right (of course) that we need to make the moral case for capitalism. Yet I…
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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…
Blog
Don’t Cede Fairness to the Left
CEI’s Founder, Fred Smith, rightly understood that people will only listen to us if we communicate at the level of their values. And one value we…
Blog
Data Alone Can’t Make the Case for Abundance
As public policy researchers, it’s absolutely necessary that our recommendations rely on strong, sound data. In our advocacy, though, that’s not sufficient. As I explain…
Discourse
Making the Case for Abundance
Few things are more important than ensuring that people have plenty of the critical goods they need to pursue happiness, including jobs, energy, housing and …
The Washington Times
Don’t Cede Fairness to Liberals
Most people care about fairness. Humans are, after all, moral creatures. And yet it’s mostly the political left that speaks of “fairness.” That’s unfortunate,…
Blog
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…
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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…
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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”…
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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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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,…
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Why Congress Must Think Twice About Adopting Biden’s Brazen Budget Proposal
Last Thursday, President Joe Biden finally unveiled his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year 2024. This marks the third straight year that…
City Journal
“E” Doesn’t Stand for Environment
The Securities and Exchange Commission is nearing a decision on a proposed rule that would require publicly traded companies to indicate how their investments…
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Free the Economy Episode 11: True Diversity and Economic Opportunity with Patrice Onwuka
This week we talk about a warning from Wayne Crews and The Wall Street Journal on the burden of over-regulation, the…
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Free the Economy Episode 10: Legalize Jobs with Shoshana Weissmann
Welcome back to the Free the Economy podcast. In this week’s episode we talk about Mercatus Center’s Michael Farren’s case for the…
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College-Educated Women Advance in Workforce
The Pew Research Center recently published some interesting data on women in the workforce. For the first time ever, women with college degrees…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 9: Unconstitutional Taxation with Dan Greenberg
Welcome back to the Free the Economy podcast. In this week’s episode we start by perusing National Review’s series on Adam Smith’s…
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Happy 300th Birthday, Adam Smith
Our friends at National Review have created a fascinating publication series to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith,…
Fee.org
The Real Race Revolutionaries: How Minority Entrepreneurship Can Overcome America’s Racial and Economic Divides
Alfredo Ortiz has a message for all of the progressive politicians and activists working to close the economic gap between white and non-white Americans:…
Blog
Shrinkflation, Slack-filling, and the Real Effects of Inflation
The Washington Post’s Laura Reiley recently raised an alarm, with a St. Valentine’s Day theme, on a consumer merchandising trend called “slack-filling.” She…
Blog
Why the ETF is Uniquely American and Ideally Capitalist
A 30-year-old rule by the Securities and Exchange Commission succeeded in lowering barriers to entry for cheaper and more flexible investment options. In January,…
Blog
Free the Economy Episode 7: Economics for Everybody with Ryan Young
Welcome back to the Free the Economy podcast. In this week’s episode we talk about Adam Millsap’s proposal to encourage abundance…