July 31, 2024

A Free Market Wish List for the Next Administration

For those who believe in the instrumental and moral value of free markets, these are not good times. Both major political parties routinely exhibit ever increasing departures from limited government and economic freedom. It is therefore unrealistic f...

May 27, 2016

Too Few Jobs: Trade Is Not the Problem, Slow Growth Is

The irrefutable evidence of economic history over several centuries is that the wealth of societies (later nation states) significantly increases as trade expands.  Being able to obtain goods from others who can produce those goods more cheaply ...

April 2, 2016

Demagoguery and the Minimum Wage

On Monday, California governor Jerry Brown announced that he would sign a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15/hr. The increase from the current minimum of $10/hr. would be fully completed by 2022. Last year, New York passed legislatio...

March 1, 2016

Trump vs. Adam Smith

In the 1980s Reagan Republicans were fond of wearing Adam Smith neckties. (I personally still have two hanging in my closet that hail from that era.) Adam Smith, of course, was the 18th Century Scotsman who wrote An Inquiry into the Nature ...

February 11, 2016

Economic Libertarians Will Have a Friend in Ted Cruz

In considering the current crop of presidential candidates, economic libertarians and others who place a high value on property rights, the right to earn a living, and the right to open a business will find no better friend than Texas senator Ted Cru...

February 6, 2016

The Federal Reserve and the Inflation Tax

Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution states, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.” In other words, the Framers wanted to make sure that, when taxes are imposed on the people, the legislation ...

February 3, 2016

Capital Accumulation: The Missing Variable in Economic Policy Debates

Americans are rightly concerned about their current and future economic well-being. For several years, middle class household incomes have seen little overall growth, and tepid growth in hourly wages has meant that the purchasing power of income...

January 25, 2016

The Real Ted Cruz

Contrary to some who have expressed concerns about Ted Cruz’s temperament and qualifications to be an effective president, my experience in working with the Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate during the early 2000s convinces me...