Art Carden
Senior Fellow
Art Carden is a Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. He is also an Associate Professor of Economics at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.
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New Ideas are the Key to Economic Development
For all our progress, it is important to remember that critics and regulators have still won a lot of battles. They could win more.
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How Everyone Messes Up at Once: Austrian Business Cycle Theory, Summarized
If markets are so great, why do we have business cycles?
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Growth Is Good
In his 2018 book Stubborn Attachments, Tyler Cowen defends a thesis that is likely to be as unpopular as it is misunderstood: over the long run, differences in growth rates swamp just about everything. Therefore, increased economic growth is a moral imperative. At the very least, more economic growth should be more of a priority…
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How Economics Can Ruin Christmas, in a Good Way
Some time ago, I resigned myself to the fact that economists are the wet blankets of the world. We can ruin almost any proposal and almost any situation with just a couple of analytical tools and the words “unintended consequences.” Rent control? It causes shortages and hurts poor people. Minimum wages? They reduce employment and hurt…
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Gary Becker: A Birthday Appreciation
For Becker (and so many after him), economics wasn’t just about stock markets, exchange rates, and the money supply.
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You Are Harming No One or Anything by Not Spending on Black Friday
With Black Friday upon us, here’s something important to remember: you’re not “helping the economy” by spending intemperately and making imprudent impulse purchases. You’re just… spending intemperately and being imprudent. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Maybe you have a very high time preference such that you want stuff now now now and are willing…
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Why that Hotel Shop Undershirt Is So Expensive
“What do you need?” “Undershirts.” I was in a hotel gift shop and not optimistic. “Right this way.” I was surprised. I guess they have undershirts after all, I thought. I had my usual rhapsodic feelings about how people who don’t necessarily care about me are nonetheless able to care for me by having shirts…
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The Market Is a Symphony of Creation
I just ate a delicious sandwich. It was called the blue river brisket, and it had brisket, cheddar cheese, bacon, purple slaw, garlic mayo, and barbecue sauce heated and served on a kaiser roll. With a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup, it was a perfect meal on a dreary and stressful day. As I write…
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The Struggle to Get Education Away from the State
Education reform is a perennial hot-button issue, with teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association spending vast sums to elect their preferred candidates and lobby them for reforms they find favorable. Interest in free-market alternatives to government education has increased since the middle of the 1950s, when Milton Friedman…
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•
The Case for Open Borders Is Stronger than You Think
The status quo is moral and economic madness: at the very least, immigration restrictions should be dramatically reduced.
-
•
New Ideas are the Key to Economic Development
For all our progress, it is important to remember that critics and regulators have still won a lot of battles. They could win more.
-
•
How Everyone Messes Up at Once: Austrian Business Cycle Theory, Summarized
If markets are so great, why do we have business cycles?
-
•
Growth Is Good
In his 2018 book Stubborn Attachments, Tyler Cowen defends a thesis that is likely to be as unpopular as it is misunderstood: over the long run, differences in growth rates swamp just about everything. Therefore, increased economic growth is a moral imperative. At the very least, more economic growth should be more of a priority…
-
•
How Economics Can Ruin Christmas, in a Good Way
Some time ago, I resigned myself to the fact that economists are the wet blankets of the world. We can ruin almost any proposal and almost any situation with just a couple of analytical tools and the words “unintended consequences.” Rent control? It causes shortages and hurts poor people. Minimum wages? They reduce employment and hurt…
-
•
Gary Becker: A Birthday Appreciation
For Becker (and so many after him), economics wasn’t just about stock markets, exchange rates, and the money supply.
-
•
You Are Harming No One or Anything by Not Spending on Black Friday
With Black Friday upon us, here’s something important to remember: you’re not “helping the economy” by spending intemperately and making imprudent impulse purchases. You’re just… spending intemperately and being imprudent. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Maybe you have a very high time preference such that you want stuff now now now and are willing…
-
•
Why that Hotel Shop Undershirt Is So Expensive
“What do you need?” “Undershirts.” I was in a hotel gift shop and not optimistic. “Right this way.” I was surprised. I guess they have undershirts after all, I thought. I had my usual rhapsodic feelings about how people who don’t necessarily care about me are nonetheless able to care for me by having shirts…
-
•
The Market Is a Symphony of Creation
I just ate a delicious sandwich. It was called the blue river brisket, and it had brisket, cheddar cheese, bacon, purple slaw, garlic mayo, and barbecue sauce heated and served on a kaiser roll. With a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup, it was a perfect meal on a dreary and stressful day. As I write…
-
•
The Struggle to Get Education Away from the State
Education reform is a perennial hot-button issue, with teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association spending vast sums to elect their preferred candidates and lobby them for reforms they find favorable. Interest in free-market alternatives to government education has increased since the middle of the 1950s, when Milton Friedman…
-
•
The Case for Open Borders Is Stronger than You Think
The status quo is moral and economic madness: at the very least, immigration restrictions should be dramatically reduced.