Scholars have wrangled with the questions of social capital for centuries. Can we make sense of it?
read more...Malaise is in the future.
read more...Social attitudes play a large role in determining a nation’s long-run prosperity. But how easily can they be changed?
read more...Will this be the “spread the wealth around” of the 2016 campaign?
read more...Decades of large government are taking their toll on Italy. Past generations mortgaged the future to support unsustainable policies, and now the bills are coming due.
read more...I believe that protecting the environment is both a good thing and a legitimate function of government. But I’m rational. So while I want limits on pollution, such policies should be determined by cost-benefit analysis. Banning automobiles doubtlessly would reduce pollution, for instance, but the economic cost would be catastrophic. On the other hand, it’s good to […]
read more...It’s difficult to promote good economic policy when some policy makers have a deeply flawed grasp of history. This is why I’ve tried to educate people, for instance, that government intervention bears the blame for the 2008 financial crisis, not capitalism or deregulation. Going back in time, I’ve also explained the truth about “sweatshops” and “robber barons.” […]
read more...I periodically try to explain that there’s a big difference between being pro-market and pro-business. Simply stated, policy makers shouldn’t try to penalize businesses with taxes,mandates, and regulations. But neither should politicians seek to subsidize businesses. That’s why I’m against bailouts, subsidies, and other distortions that provide special favors for politically connected companies. I have nothing against companies earning money, to be sure, but […]
read more...I hate to sound like a broken record, but the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is once again pushing for bigger and more intrusive in the United States. The international bureaucracy’s “Economic Survey” of the United States reads like it was produced by some interns at the Democratic National Committee. Since the OECD […]
read more...I very rarely feel sorry for statists. After all, these are the people who think that their feelings of envy and inadequacy justify bigger and more coercive government. And I get especially irked when I think about how their authoritarian policies will hurt the most vulnerablein society. But I nonetheless feel sorry for statists when I […]
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