Reflections On The Evolution Of Trade Policy
Reflections On The Evolution Of Trade Policy
Forbes has published an article by Fred Smith detailing the effects of renegotiation and its effects on the North American economy as well as the…
Forbes
Does a Market Economy Encourage Altruism?
Are markets inherently altruistic? I thought of that question after attending a recent conference, co-sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)…
Forbes
Reflections on the Evolution of Trade Policy
The Trump administration’s renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) could launch a trade war with our major trading partners,…
The Wall Street Journal
Oil and Spectrum Rights Models Offer a Clue
Thomas W. Hazlett’s “How Politics Stalls Wireless Innovation” (op-ed, Oct. 2) outlines the irrationality of the current political mismanagement of the electromagnetic spectrum and…
Forbes
International Freedom Fighters Organize in Miami
Fans of free markets and limited government have a new place to seek allies. Recently Conservatives International, a new global advocacy organization, was launched…
Forbes
Happy Birthday, Adam Smith!
June 16, 1723, is the birth date of Adam Smith, a Scottish intellectual greatly admired for clarifying the virtuous, self-organizing nature of free markets. Smith…
The Conservative Online
Market Institutions Never Evolved For The Environment; And That’s Why It Can’t Be Properly Protected
As Joseph Schumpeter noted, free markets had a good first century (the 1750s to 1850s). A market economy produced massive improvements in the quality of…
Fox Business
A Trade Policy to Boost American Competitiveness
President Donald Trump’s early actions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, North American Free Trade Agreement, and the nomination of avowed protectionists to key roles have shaken…
Forbes
Trump Must Take On The Cronyism Challenge
For President-elect Donald Trump to deliver on his “make American great again,” promise, economic growth must again exceed today’s anemic rate. Reforming tax policy, reducing…
The Claremont Review of Books
Bullying Culture
Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel has written an insightful, important book on the Left’s efforts to drive market-friendly voices from the public square. A…
The Claremont Review of Books
The Progressive Era’s Derailment of Classical Liberal Evolution
It is true that where a considerable part of the costs incurred are external costs from the point of view of the acting individuals…
Forbes
Lessons From A Decade Of “Conscious Capitalism”
What can 220 CEOs learn at a “Conscious Capitalism” conference? Perhaps valuable insights into the purpose and value of their businesses. Perhaps also, ways to…
Forbes
Is Capitalism Worth Defending?
In an election season poised to set new records for voter fatigue, we’ve seen a lot of negativity about major American institutions, including…
Forbes
Classical Liberalism Alive And Well In Miami
It’s difficult to wage a war without allies, and the War of Ideas is no different. Yet, capitalist defenders—free market intellectuals and wealth-creating business leaders—rarely…
Forbes
Brexit Planners Should Look To The U.S. For Inspiration
In June, British voters voted to leave the European Union, whose bureaucracy had imposed alien laws and regulations on them for decades. The EU system…
Forbes
Capitalism and the Candidates
As a longtime advocate for capitalism, I’ve been considering the prospects for free market ideas in a White House presided over by either of the…
Forbes
New Hostility To High Finance Has Ancient Roots
Recently, the Republicans assembled in Cleveland approved a platform that includes some praiseworthy planks on government reform, but one provision stood out as a jarring…
Forbes
Manage Water Like Oil To Increase Supply
Some of the natural resources we use every day are traded freely in the market economy, while others are heavily regulated and controlled by government…
Wall Street Journal
Amnesia? We Remember the Lack of a Cushion
As longtime critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who warned early on that they could destabilize the financial system, we were shocked by Douglas…
Forbes
What CEOs Should Be Saying About Inequality
Despite living at a time of unprecedented decreases in poverty around the world, we’re witnessing a seemingly unprecedented increase in worry about income…
Forbes
When Anything Could Be The ‘Next Tobacco’
When political operators win big with a clever legal strategy, you can be sure it’ll be used again. One strategy that paid off handsomely for…
Forbes
Three Decades On, The Fight For Economic Freedom Continues
Americans want honorable, thoughtful government but are no longer sure that result is possible. Government has now grown so gigantic, arrogant, powerful, and pervasive that…
Forbes
Super Bowl Ads Need To Reach Both Citizens And Consumers
As an observer of corporate advertising, I found the quality and style of the Super Bowl 50 ads disappointing. Once again, there were plenty of…
Forbes
The Chipotle Effect: When Companies Believe Their Own Hype
Earlier this week the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally closed the books on the investigation of the E. coli outbreaks at multiple…
The Washington Examiner
What the Near-Death of the Railroad Industry Can Teach American Business Leaders
Business executives deal with the spiraling cost of complying with government regulation every day. This burden has become so large and pervasive that many have…
Forbes
How Cars Saved The Montgomery Bus Boycott
December 5, 1955, was a key date in the struggle to eliminate racial segregation laws in the United States. On that date, the African American…
Forbes
Congress Is A Terrible Business Partner
We are beginning to see the unraveling of the Faustian bargain that private health insurance companies made with the Obama administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress…
Forbes
Virtuous Capitalism In Theory And Practice
Capitalism has a bad reputation. Many people see it as corrupt, uncaring, and in bed with politicians. And popular wisdom isn’t always wrong. For example,…
Forbes
The Real Value Of ‘Networking’ In The Business World
Fred Smith discusses "The Real Value of Networking" in Forbes Beating up on capitalism – and business leaders generally – is all the…
Forbes
An Honest Economist In A PC World
The Washington Post
Deregulation and Privatization Are the Ways Forward
In his Oct. 8 op-ed column, “A global economy in peril,” Lawrence Summers argued that current bond prices are a sign that government debt…
Forbes
The Next Generation Of Capitalists
Ten years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has made a tremendous comeback. That’s due not just to the hard work of natives…
Cap X
CapX Reviews: By the People
Charles Murray, in his new book, By the People: Rebuilding Liberty without Permission, argues that America’s constitutional checks on the growth of spending, taxation, and…
Forbes
A New History Of American Business
Government intervention in the economy—via spending, regulation, and taxation—has expanded steadily over the last century and is now at an all-time high. As economist Joseph…
Forbes
Students Dive Into The Political Shark Tank
Recently I was a presenter and participant in a workshop organized by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). The event, “Communicating Liberty: Shark Tank,”…
Forbes
Experimenting In The Laboratory Of Economics
Nobel Prize-winning economist Vernon Smith was in Australia last week to lecture at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney. In addition to his…
Forbes
The Pope, Poverty And Global Warming
The world waits in anticipation as Pope Francis and his advisers finalize an official Vatican statement on climate change and the environment – expected out…
Forbes
Why Human Achievement Is Worth Celebrating
This Saturday marks the seventh annual observance of “Human Achievement Hour,” a celebration of technology and prosperity hosted by my organization, the Competitive Enterprise…
Forbes
Enhancing The Private Role For ‘Public Goods’
John Kenneth Galbraith once observed that in America our gardens are beautiful, while our public parks are in a state of disaster. While Galbraith saw…
Human Events
Why Capitalist Virtue Beats Cronyist Sin
Forbes
A Valentine For Capitalism
The notes and cards we exchange on Valentine’s Day cover a wide range of emotions—from intimate love letters for that special someone to the simple…
Investor's Business Daily
Save Capitalism With Those Ads On Super Bowl
With another Super Bowl comes another venerable tradition — the contest to produce the best ads. It's the biggest event of the advertising year —…
Forbes
From Mutual Aid To Modern Insurance: How Capitalism Eased The Pain Of Death
We all die. And we all need to make provisions for that eventuality—especially if we have dependents or goals extending into the future. In traditional…
Forbes
Two Cheers For Cuba Libre
President Obama’s recent decision to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba was welcomed by many free marketers, but met with skepticism by those who favor political…
Forbes
A Better Way To Help Our Fellow Man
As we enter the Christmas season, the question of our responsibility to our fellow man (and woman) arises. When we see people in need, how…
Forbes
Confessions Of A Capitalist
The recent remake of The Manchurian Candidate is a curious thing. While it repeats most of the plot of the 1962 original, the North Korean…
Forbes
A Truly Frightening Halloween in our Future?
This article was originally published at Forbes on October 31, 2014 For many of us, Halloween brings back many fond memories. We recall the…
Forbes
The Least Important Election of Your Lifetime
The November midterm elections are around the corner and as usual, the airwaves are filled with frenzied appeals to vote for one candidate or another…
Forbes
Defending the Virtue of the Business World at Home and Abroad
A new CNBC/Burson-Marsteller poll on attitudes toward business in both developed and emerging economies reveals some troubling findings. While business leaders in the U.S.
Cato Journal: Fall 2014 Vol. 34 No. 3
Cato Journal: “Unstoppable” Book Review
This article was originally published in the Fall 2014 Edition of the Cato Institute Journal. Read the Full Review…
Financial Times
Capitalists ought not to be cowed by their critics
Sir, Lynn Forester de Rothschild’s recent column (“Capitalism thrives by looking past the bottom line,” May 21) provides new evidence of the prescience of legendary…
Forbes
Ronald Coase Was The Greatest Of The Many Great University Of Chicago Economists
Ronald Coase (1910-2013), the greatest of the Chicago School economists in my view, died this week. Yet, his work lives on. If it gains the…
Forbes
We’re In A Cultural War Between The Forces Of Economic Dynamism And Stasis
In a recent column, I noted that our tribal ancestors viewed entrepreneurs with suspicion. In their view, entrepreneurs were too willing to violate…
Forbes
Charles Dickens’ Ebenezer Scrooge Was The Ultimate Job Creator
There is probably no figure more emblematic of the greedy, penny-pinching capitalist than Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Dickens is often seen…
Forbes
When Steven Pearlstein Bashes Capitalism, Is It Really Capitalism?
Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein recently touched on several important tensions that arise in our conceptions of capitalism—tensions that lie at the core of America’s…
Cato
Public Choice and Political Advocacy
In the three decades since I founded the Competitive Enterprise Institute, I have seen the pro–free market intellectual movement grow by…
Wall Street Journal
E-Verify’s ‘Hang Everyone’ Approach
This op-ed was coauthored by Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office If you hang everyone, the old saying goes, you…
Financial Times
Letter to the Editor: Companies should never apologise for making products people enjoy
Sir, The key (if unintended) message of Alan Rappeport’s analysis of Coca-Cola’s response to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “anti-obesity” measures is that corporate appeasement…
AJC
Tax pledge proves its worth
Grover Norquist’s Tax Pledge isn’t perfect. But it successfully forces lawmakers and taxpayers to address America’s current fiscal path. Opponents of the pledge say it…
Forbes
Why Grover Norquist’s Tax Pledge Works
Listening to the media these days, it seems Grover Norquist is Public Enemy No. 1. His insistence lawmakers keep their promises to voters—in the form…
Real Clear Markets
Markets, Not Mandates, Are the Key to Sustainable Development
What exactly is sustainable development? Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Brundtland, speaking at the United Nations' Stockholm Conference in 1972, described it as "development that…
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…
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
Letter to the Editor: McDonald’s and Pepsi’s Different Response to Pressure
Holman Jenkins's "What Pepsi Can Learn From McDonald's" (Business World, Jan. 28) hits on a failure of corporate management that is far more widespread…
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…
Washington Post
A Stake in Financial Markets
Capital standards are critical to the stability of any financial system. However, whether such standards are better achieved by markets rather than political entities…
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…
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
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…
USA Today
Principal-Agent Problem Meets the Public Sector
What works for business should work for government, right? Not necessarily. Law professors Frederick Tung of Boston University and M. Todd Henderson of the University…
USA Today
Debt Downgrade: Why Did It Take S&P So Long?
Now that Standard & Poor’s has downgraded America’s government credit rating, the real questions everyone should be asking are: What took them so long, and…
USA Today
Medical Magellans
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules are supposedly intended to ensure the safety and efficacy of new drugs and medical devices. It is FDA’s technology…
USA Today
The Regulatory Recession
The debt ceiling negotiations and debates over government spending have transfixed the nation for the last few weeks. President Obama’s call for a “clean” debt…
USA Today
A Case Against Mandatory Voting
Big government “solutions” for every social problem under the sun are all around us. I thought I’d seen them all — until recently, when I…
USA Today
The Political Principal/Agent Problem
If business is to address its conflicts with an expanding government, it must ensure that its external relations departments are well managed. To do…
Center of the American Experiment
Eisenhower’s Second Farewell Warning
President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1961 Farewell Address includes one of the most quoted phrases in political rhetoric. He warned “against the acquisition of influence, whether sought…
Center of the American Experiment
Why Does Capitalism Enjoy So Little Support From Politicians?
As government grows, businesses try to adapt, often by opening government affairs offices in Washington. Yet the regulatory burden continues to increase as public attitudes…
Center of the American Experiment
It’s Time to End the Ethanol Boondoggle
Daily Caller
A Giant Awakens?
Yesterday’s election could be the start of something grand — but not because Republicans won the House. Many of the Obama administration’s policies, including…
Daily Caller
Delaying Foreclosures Only Adds to Pain
Federal housing promotion policies over-stimulated the supply and demand for housing and that destabilization continues. Efforts to make home ownership a “human right” are partly…
Daily Caller
Dare We Mandate a Gender Balance Quota?
Full Document Available in PDF Support for diversity on corporate boards has…
Daily Caller
Australian Resource Tax Will Dampen Innovation (Letter to the Editor)
Sir, Your editorial, “Taxmen vs miners: Australia’s resource super profit tax is a good idea” (May 31), argues that “natural resource profits are…
Daily Caller
Change We Can Really Believe In
Over the last century, America has lurched down a path toward statism. And Presidents Bush and Obama accelerated the expansion of government power by…
Daily Caller
GOP Should Grow the Party, Grow the Economy, Shrink the State
Republicans have been getting a lot of advice lately. Democrats have urged them to join the state expansionist party, to agree that markets have…
Washington Times
Cap and Traitors
Conservative activists are angry at eight Republican members of the House of Representatives for voting in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act…
Washington Times
Ayn Rand at 100: When Will Businessmen Learn Her Lessons About Politicians?
She called businessmen "America’s persecuted minority." And today—as has been the case at least since the start of the Industrial Revolution—many businessmen and -women…
Washington Times
Banks Aren’t Bridges
The logic of the recent bank stress tests seems unassailable — bridges may fail, so may banks. But bridges are physical constructs. Centuries of…
Washington Examiner
Greenbacks for Green Energy Come from Taxpayer Pockets
President Barack Obama recently named business consultant Jeffrey Zients as head of a new performance office tasked with reducing government waste. The irony…
RealClear Markets
Fix Social Security, Ease the Credit Crisis
Remember the looming Social Security crisis? If you don’t, you’re not alone. The credit crisis and economic downturn have monopolized public attention to…
RealClear Markets
Government’s Mistakes Have Deepened This Recession
Steven Gjerstad and Vernon Smith suggest one unexplored aspect of our financial crisis: the role of egalitarian policies. To see this, note…
Op-Eds
Dealing with the Threat of Global Recession
Fred L. Smith Jr. and John Berlau on the upcoming Global Economic Summit: Governments should agree to a timetable to end the bailouts.
Op-Eds
Fannie, Freddie Critic Ridiculed In 2000
It is now consensus that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at the heart of the systemic meltdown we are seeing in the…
Op-Eds
Gang Green
Excerpt: “A few weeks ago I was at the house of some friends, and I accidentally tossed a plastic Gatorade bottle into the glass recycling…
Op-Eds
Blackboard economics at FTC
Antitrust regulators are at it again. The Federal Trade Commission remains under the sway of what Nobel Prize-winner Ronald Coase referred to as “blackboard economists,”…
Op-Eds
Do Something for Other People by Getting Very, Very Rich
Op-Eds
Lights Out
California has an energy problem. Electricity rates skyrocketed in San Diego where prices were free to fluctuate; and brownout/blackout risks are mounting in much of…
Op-Eds
The High Cost of Low Price
Should free market advocates oppose a plan aimed at lowering prescription drug costs? Generally, no. But, when such a plan involves the flexing…
Op-Eds
Should We Restrict Ourselves to the War of Ideas?
Economic liberalism faces a multi-front assault, an assault that has been underway for decades but that has intensified in recent years. As discussed in the…