The Daily Economy
The Founders Would Be Appalled by Trump’s Tariff Policy—Even Hamilton
President Trump has, it is clear, upended the global trading system and America’s place in it through his aggressive use of tariffs as a tool…
The Daily Economy
The Founders Would Be Appalled by Trump’s Tariff Policy—Even Hamilton
President Trump has, it is clear, upended the global trading system and America’s place in it through his aggressive use of tariffs as a tool…
The Daily Economy
The Resurgence of Do It Yourself Economics
To listen to some people, you’d think that America had been run by economists — and specifically free-market economists — for the last fifty years…
WSJ Opinion
A Day of Defiance—and Donuts
It’s time to double down on National Donut Day. As Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. begins pushing his Make America Healthy Again…
Center Square Opinion
Why do so many countries have tariffs?
If tariffs are so bad, then why does nearly every country have them? It’s a fair question, and many Trump tariff defenders are asking it.
The Hill
Canada should call Trump’s bluff and drop all of its tariffs
We now appear to be in a full-fledged trade war with our closest ally and neighbor. Canada — so deeply integrated into…
The Economic Standard
The CFPB drops its misguided case against Zelle
Seemingly as part of the general order to stop work by acting director Russ Vought, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has …
DC Journal
Point: Let Free Trade Work Its Magic
Tariff advocates have three main arguments. One, they raise revenue. Two, they revive domestic industries. And three, they are a diplomatic negotiating tool. Not only do…
The Daily Economy
DOGE Gets Serious in Its War on the Administrative State
I have argued for over a decade that America has a fourth, largely unaccountable branch of government in the administrative state. My 2012 book, Stealing…
National Review
The Federal Reserve’s New Debit Card Rule Threatens Consumers and Banks
While some lawmakers and regulators are targeting credit cards, the Federal Reserve has plans for your debit card. The likely result will be…
The Daily Economy
Debunking the Three Best Arguments for Tariffs
With President Trump’s return to office after the Biden interregnum, we can be sure of one thing: tariffs are going to be a major part…
The Daily Economy
The Debanking Craze Reveals Everything Wrong with the Administrative State
After an appearance by financier Marc Andreessen on the Joe Rogan Podcast, Elon Musk’s X exploded with indignation that tech entrepreneurs were being debanked owing to…
Law and Liberty
Milton Friedman’s Revenge
It’s rapidly becoming the received wisdom that an important reason President Trump won the 2024 election was because inflation matters. Too many hard-working…
The Daily Economy
Why Fewer Are Trying to Climb the Corporate Ladder
Someone once told me that my career fitted the dictionary definition of the word – a headlong rush, usually downhill. For most people, however, the…
The Daily Economy
The Bipartisan War on Credit Hurts the Poor
Donald Trump is taking aim at the credit card industry. “While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a temporary cap on credit card…
The American Institute for Economic Research
Did the Bank of England Set Britain on the Road to Ruin?
“The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street” is the affectionate nickname of the Bank of England, as respected an institution as Britain ever had. Calling something…
Acton Institute
Invisible Logic: Boy, Do I Have a Conspiracy Theory for You
At page 99 of their substance-free investigation into the effects of the doctrine they call “neoliberalism,” George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison start talking about “conspiracy…
National Review
AI Could Make the Google Court Decision Moot
In a decision by the District Court of the U.S. District of Columbia, Google has been found guilty of monopolizing its leadership in…
National Review
AI Could Make the Google Court Decision Moot
In a decision by the District Court of the U.S. District of Columbia, Google has been found guilty of monopolizing its leadership in…
Op-Eds
Tariffs Don’t Protect Jobs
Many Americans, including it seems the presidential and vice presidential nominees of the Republican Party, worry that trade costs jobs. This helps to explain why…
Capitol Matters
East Palestine Report: Congress Should Rethink Its Reaction
In almost a decade working for the British Department for Transport, no officials impressed me as much as the accident investigators. They were dedicated experts who…
The Hill
Biden clings to Trump’s trade policy, preventing the US from overtaking China
The U.S. has retreated from global trade leadership. China has taken its place as the foremost player in international trade. As…
National Review
A respectable pro-trade proclamation would talk about market access, tariff reduction, and liberalized markets.
Issues & Insights
Want Higher Air Fares? Overregulate Credit Cards
Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Transportation held a joint hearing “investigating” airline and credit card reward programs. The Director and Secretary of…
National Review
Administrative State Hits Warp Speed
As my colleague Ryan Young noted on X, this week’s Federal Register is a bumper edition of new rules and regulations, almost triple the normal…
The Hill
East Palestine anniversary calls for careful attention, not rushed legislation
One year ago today, there was a terrible rail accident in East Palestine, Ohio that shocked the nation. Thousands of gallons of hazardous materials were…
The Center Square
Op-Ed: Labor Department stuck in 1930s with rule against independent contractors
The Department of Labor is stuck in the 1930s. That’s the most likely explanation for its new rule that could lead to thousands of freelancers…
DC Journal
Senate Credit Card Bills Will Cost Working Class Consumers
Senators from both sides of the aisle claim they are taking on big banks to help the working class by regulating credit cards. Sen. Josh…
National Review
How to Help Discouraged Working-Age Men
More blue-collar American men aged 25–54 than ever are no longer employed and seeking work. That sad trend started in the late 1960s, coinciding…
Law and Liberty
The Moral Foundations of Freedom Conservatism
The Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles, which several of us launched in July, is a simple restatement of the principles that have…
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 more…
National Review
U.K. Laws Are Harming American Companies — U.S. Authorities Pleased
America has made it almost 250 years independent of its colonial master, Great Britain. Now, in one area at least, you might as well tear…
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 would…
Inside Sources
East Palestine Derailment Reveals a Lot of What Is Wrong With Our Politics
The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous material in East Palestine, Ohio, is a social and environmental disaster that can potentially ruin lives…
Boston Herald
Murray: College credential snare should be bipartisan issue
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, did all Pennsylvanians a favor in January by making 92% of state government jobs open to anyone without a…
National Review
Southwest’s Debacle Should Cost It Dearly
It is by now clear that the airline chaos of the past week, which started during the punishing winter storm shortly before Christmas, is largely…
National Review
Antitrust’s Cloudy Crystal Ball
Even in the wake of Meta’s biggest mass layoff ever and a $71 billion loss this year, antitrust regulators around the world are peering into crystal…
American Liberty
What the FTX Collapse Tells Us About Regulators and ESG
First, regulators often can’t stop investors from fraud. Second, companies that work closely with regulators often do so for their own benefit. Third, and perhaps…
The Hayride
Prepare To Pay More For, And Get Less From, Your Credit Cards
Seven in 10 Americans have credit cards these days, and a third have three or more. Many of those cards are co-branded with an airline…
The Hill
Isolating China through decoupling would be a mistake
What should be the goal of America’s trade policy with China? The simple answer would be mutually beneficial exchange of goods, services and payments. However,…
National Review
U.K. Regulator Deservedly Loses Case against Meta
The recent announcement of the final verdict in the U.K.’s case to block Meta’s acquisition of GIF library Giphy is a partial victory for…
Fox News
Supreme Court ruling limits EPA power, returns it to Congress where it belongs
For some time, the Environmental Protection Agency has wanted to destroy the American coal industry and has issued regulations with that end in mind. Today,…
City AM
Before giving the CMA more teeth, we should look at its Meta shaped bite marks
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been flexing its muscles like a growing schoolboy recently. On Tuesday, it finally got a well-deserved admonishment from…
Issues & Insights
Militarizing The Baby Formula Crisis Is Infantile
A military cargo plane lands filled with vitally needed baby formula to be greeted by a top government official. A relief flight to…
National Review
Free Enterprise Is the Basis of Prosperity
Free enterprise is under attack from across the political spectrum. Socialists and their allies regard it a source of corruption and as antithetical to democracy. Some…
Action Institute
Do Libertarians Have a Political Home Anymore?
For many years, libertarians and economic conservatives lived in harmony. The philosophy of fusionism said that the conservative party, when it governed, would seek to…
Law & Liberty
Dismantling the Regulatory State
Samuel Gregg’s lead article adroitly sketches the opportunities and obstacles to America building a broad-based economy, but I want to focus on one particular…
Inside Sources
The America COMPETES Act Seeks to Counter China by Imitating It
Public approval of Congress stands at 18 percent. If you wonder why, just look at the America COMPETES Act, which passed the House of Representatives…
The Dispatch
Classical Liberals Aren’t Naive About Big Business
Big business has become a point of friction between conservatives and classical liberals, especially social media and other internet companies that fall under the heading…
Real Clear Policy
DOJ’s Antitrust Case Against Publishers is an Overreach
The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust suit to stop the merger of publishers Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has not gained as…
Real Clear Policy
UK Antitrust Bureaucrats Could Kill American Startups
In case you thought the “techlash” threatening Big Tech companies with greater regulation was largely driven by former President Trump’s bluster, think again. An antitrust…
National Review
Economic Tea Party, R.I.P.
National Review Online’s esteemed editor, Philip Klein, asked an important question last week. Referring to the lack of opposition to the president’s big-spending agenda, he …
The Southern Illinoisan
A Proposed Law Would Break the Internet
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a law that would break the internet as we know it. Dressed up in legalese as a ban…
National Review
Biden’s Executive Order Moves the U.S. One Step Closer to Rule by Decree
President Biden’s sweeping executive order on competition is a strange beast. It lurches from lofty claims about encouraging competition to niggling complaints about…
National Review
INVEST in America Act Is a Bad Investment
The House of Representatives will soon vote on the “Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America (INVEST in America) Act”…
Real Clear Policy
Risk, Trust, and COVID
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last month that vaccinated people need not wear masks regularly, Americans’ reaction was polarized. Many seemed…
The American Conservative
Why Small Firms Sell Out
Among some conservatives’ main complaints about Big Tech is the way it acquires smaller competitors, stopping them from displacing them like Facebook displaced MySpace. The…
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Keep Driving Fees Flat No Matter the Vehicle
It’s plain that the federal gas tax is past its sell-by date. Originally introduced as a fair way for automobile drivers to pay for the…
The Dispatch
The Rejection of Globalism—on the Left and the Right—Is Changing Our Political Alignments
Many traditional conservatives are dumbstruck when they see Republicans like Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley or venture capitalist/potential candidate J.D. Vance espousing what they regard as…
National Review
Biden’s ‘Infrastructure’ Plan: If You Build It, You Will Pay
You and I come by road or rail. Economists travel on infrastructure,” Margaret Thatcher once told an audience — pillorying economists’ love of jargon…
National Review
The Answer to Our Big Tech Problem Is Decentralization
Before the “great de-platforming” following the events at the Capitol on January 6, defenders of a laissez-faire approach to social media were able to tell those…
The Kansas City Star
Political Realignment Provides Hope For A Less Polarized Society In America’s Future
Fortune
The Facebook Antitrust Suit is a Major Assault on Entrepreneurs
The new antitrust actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and several states aimed at breaking up Facebook are being …
The Oklahoman
Point of View: America’s Political Realignment is Still Underway
National Review
Why Are We Even Contemplating Canceling Aristotle?
There is a good piece hidden in philosopher Agnes Callard’s recent article for the New York Times about cancel culture. Unfortunately, that piece is lost in the framing device.
National Review
Socialists on the March
Last week, several self-proclaimed Democratic Socialists defeated long-serving Democratic incumbents in New York State primaries. One of the insurgents, Zohran Mamdani, tweeted out the words, “Socialism won.” His pinned tweet on…
The Capitalist League
Iain Murray: Socialism, Capitalism, and American Values
One of the most important things I learned at the feet of Fred Smith, founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, was that most Americans don’t…
Town Hall
Socialism and the Cultural Revolution
In the 1953 classic film The Wild One, a girl asks Marlon Brando’s smoldering Johnny Strabler what he is rebelling against. He answers, “What’ve you got?”…
National Review
Socialism and the Corporation: A Love-Hate Relationship
Socialists would rather the traditional American firm did not exist. Animosity towards the capitalist boss for reaping all the rewards of his employees’ labor, or (perhaps…
Real Clear Markets
An Effective Pandemic Response Would Be Deregulation
During a pandemic, regulations should not get between sick people and health care, or between hungry people and food. This also applies in normal times.
National Review
Pandemics, Stimulus, and the Limitations of Flash Policy
Over the past two weeks, America has faced the onset of a pandemic, an oil-price war, and a stock-market crash. In the face of these…
The Hill
The British Election Will Show the Undeniable Power of Nationalism
My home town of South Shield in the northeast of England last elected a Tory as its member of Parliament in 1834. Now the conservative…
Fox News
Lassman & Murray: Is New Conservatism Really Progressivism?
For much of the past century, conservatives in America largely fused the ideas, means and political factions of two distinct worldviews: traditional social arrangements informed by…
Law and Liberty
When Commerce Is Not Enough
Why is anger a large part of your customer base? That’s the question we should ask when we look at what “woke capitalism” is doing…
The Wall Street Journal
Free-Marketeers Have Taken Social Conservatives for Granted
For many free-market advocates, the recent conservative dalliance with noncapitalist policies has been as stunning as it has been swift. While President Trump’s antipathy to…
Fox Business
Big Tech vs. Free Speech? It’s Not that Simple
After Facebook and other social media companies’ recent moves to ban Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and other extremists some pundits are calling for the end of the safe harbor that…
CNS News
Facebook Moves on from ‘Move Fast and Break Things,’ Calls for Regulation
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s motto used to be “Move fast and break things.” Now that his company is under increased political scrutiny—and facing calls for…
National Review
Breaking Up Platforms Has Sickening Implications
Hipster antitrust sickens me. Literally. I was under the weather last week. Feeling ill, I spent a good amount of time at local pharmacies, searching…
The Washington Examiner
On Trade, Conservatives Need to Stick to the Knitting
Successful companies tend to “stick to the knitting,” focusing on things they are good at, note Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in their seminal book…
Fox Business
The New Congress Must Repeal All of Trump’s New Tariffs ASAP: CEI
In two years, President Trump has doubled tariffs in the United States. Allies and adversaries alike have reciprocated, and the economic effects are already visible,…
The Hill
Congress must restrain power of new consumer financial director
The new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathleen Kraninger, will have a unique opportunity to end past abuses against American financial institutions, a…
Fox Business
Conservatives should resist the urge to regulate Big Tech
Nearly every day there seems to be another story that demonstrates that Big Tech is biased against conservatives. Recently, we saw the “lifetime” ban of conservative…
Fox Business
Conservatives Should Resist the Urge to Regulate Big Tech
Cayman Financial Review
The Administrative State
King George III, decried Thomas Jefferson in America’s Declaration of Independence, “has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to…
National Review
USMCA Sets a Worrying Precedent
Economists—and the world—breathed a sigh of relief when the United States, Canada, and Mexico stepped back from the brink of a trade war. That’s good…
Morning Consult
Trump’s Trade War Isn’t Working Because Tariffs Hurt Americans
The Trump administration recently announced a trade agreement that will replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The new…
National Review
A New Kind of Trade Agreement
America’s old trade alliances are breaking down. NAFTA is being renegotiated, and might even exclude Canada. The successful Korea–U.S. deal has also been redone. We…
The Hill
If a Conservative Facebook is Such a Good Idea, Why Hasn’t it Happened?
Donald Trump Jr. has joined in his father’s attacks on social media — but with a twist. He told Axios that “if a Trump supporter…
National Review
The EU Attempts to Become the World’s Antitrust Regulator
The European Union recently announced it would fine Google $5 billion for alleged anti-competitive practices in the licensing of its Android smartphone operating system. There…
Compliance Week
Counterpoint: Chevron Case Creates Imbalance
The famous passage from James Madison in the Federalist Papers, Essay 51—“If men were angels, no government would be necessary”—reveals where the problems lie with…
Forbes
Trump’s Executive Branch Restructuring: What If The Federal Government Is Beyond Streamlining?
Can the federal government shrink? Or is the situation like the waistlines that paradoxically parallel the growth of the diet and fitness industry?…
The Hill
When a Bureaucrat Asks for Less Power, Give it to Him
Former Congressman Mick Mulvaney is now a bureaucrat — so he proclaimed at a Congressional hearing on April 18. The acting director of…
Fox Business
Dropbox IPO Shows Tech Upstarts Still Have It
The long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) by Dropbox, Inc. was a success, shares soared about 40% in the debut. The pop also tells us a…
Newsmax
Mulvaney Must End CFPB’s Big Brother Role
Just after Thanksgiving, when the drama of the dueling directors began at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), I told The Washington Examiner that the new…
The Washington Times
Protecting Consumers from Fraud and Abuse
Following Richard Cordray’s resignation as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the smart money is betting that President Trump will appoint Mick Mulvaney, head…
Investor's Business Daily
Competition In Technology Is More Vibrant Than It Looks
The clamor is rising for Big Tech firms to be broken up. With Amazon and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, reporting record profits, voices from both…
National Review
More Antitrust Revisionism Aimed at Big Tech
In a long but surprisingly weak story, the New York Times’ Charles Duhigg is the latest analyst to try to find an argument for why antitrust law…
National Review
Time to Fix the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The Trump administration’s proposed budget contains an interesting line item that isn’t mentioned in the summary text. It calls for reductions in spending at the…
National Review
Misplaced Trust in Antitrust
I was mystified to see Robert VerBruggen’s story in the latest issue calling for “gentle approaches” to solving what he regards as a monopoly…
USA Today
Businesses Already Serve a Social Purpose
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s letter to CEOs demanding that their companies “serve a social purpose” is the latest example of what economist Milton Friedman dubbed…