Donald J. Boudreaux
Associate Senior Research Fellow
Donald J. Boudreaux is a Associate Senior Research Fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research and affiliated with the F.A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University; a Mercatus Center Board Member; and a professor of economics and former economics-department chair at George Mason University. He is the author of the books The Essential Hayek, Globalization, Hypocrites and Half-Wits, and his articles appear in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, US News & World Report as well as numerous scholarly journals. He writes a blog called Cafe Hayek and a regular column on economics for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Boudreaux earned a PhD in economics from Auburn University and a law degree from the University of Virginia.
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The Invisible Hand Relies Upon Visible Prices
“Prices are among the visible results of the invisible hand’s successful operation, as well as the single most important source of this success. The market’s invisible hand, in short, alone makes possible – yet equally depends upon – visible market prices.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Beware of Totalitarian Scare-Mongering
“Perspective matters. Truth matters. Failure to provide either is an easy way to dupe people into accepting from the state an awful offer that they certainly should refuse.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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“Externality” Is No Good Excuse for Mandatory Vaccination
“That the choice to remain unvaccinated against Covid creates some risks for strangers is indisputable. Yet this fact about this choice does not distinguish it from many other choices with similar consequences, nearly all of which choices, again, do not justify government intervention.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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The Graduation Speech That I Would Have Given If Invited
“You’ll be part of a huge peaceful legion of people whose cooperation and peaceful competition within markets and civil society will change the world for the better, a little bit each and every day, and yet in ways that no one today can possibly foresee. Remember, open-endedness and unpredictability are good! Happy graduation!” ~ Donald…
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Low Wages Are Not Proof that Workers Have Poor Bargaining Power
“Pouring salt into this economic wound, a minimum wage – by pricing these workers out of jobs – prevents them from getting the skills and experience that would enable them tomorrow to bargain for better jobs.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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It’s Appropriate to Demand That Intellectuals Put Their Money Where Their Mouths Are
“Whenever I encounter intellectuals who declare that their econometric research or armchair theorizing reveals that workers are underpaid or that consumers are overcharged, I feel fully justified by responding with: ‘Prove it! Put your money where your mouth is.'” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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This Claim of Market Failure Deserves No Credit
“If you who claim to identify a market failure could, but don’t, voluntarily put your own money where your mouth is in an attempt to address that alleged failure, why should anyone listen to your pleas for government to coercively put other people’s money where your mouth is?” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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If I Could Paint
“How I wish that I could make more visible – literally visible – to the eye the economy’s teeming, streaming, pulsing, gargantuan – yet almost completely invisible and silent – interconnectedness and complexity. The person who paints such a picture would provide a great service to humankind.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Thank Goodness for Economic Ignorance!
“The world would in fact be a much better place if economic fallacies were less prevalent and less widespread. Not the least of these fallacies is the one that holds that economies fail to the extent that they don’t protect existing jobs.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Some Problems with the ‘Repatriating Critical Supply Chains’ Argument
“Even if political pressures were miraculously to disappear, government officials would remain ignorant of most of the detailed bits of knowledge about how resources are, and potentially can be, used. And so any errors these officials make in distinguishing ‘critical’ from not-critical goods and services will result in resources being used more wastefully than otherwise.”…
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•
The Invisible Hand Relies Upon Visible Prices
“Prices are among the visible results of the invisible hand’s successful operation, as well as the single most important source of this success. The market’s invisible hand, in short, alone makes possible – yet equally depends upon – visible market prices.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Beware of Totalitarian Scare-Mongering
“Perspective matters. Truth matters. Failure to provide either is an easy way to dupe people into accepting from the state an awful offer that they certainly should refuse.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
“Externality” Is No Good Excuse for Mandatory Vaccination
“That the choice to remain unvaccinated against Covid creates some risks for strangers is indisputable. Yet this fact about this choice does not distinguish it from many other choices with similar consequences, nearly all of which choices, again, do not justify government intervention.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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•
The Graduation Speech That I Would Have Given If Invited
“You’ll be part of a huge peaceful legion of people whose cooperation and peaceful competition within markets and civil society will change the world for the better, a little bit each and every day, and yet in ways that no one today can possibly foresee. Remember, open-endedness and unpredictability are good! Happy graduation!” ~ Donald…
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•
Low Wages Are Not Proof that Workers Have Poor Bargaining Power
“Pouring salt into this economic wound, a minimum wage – by pricing these workers out of jobs – prevents them from getting the skills and experience that would enable them tomorrow to bargain for better jobs.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
It’s Appropriate to Demand That Intellectuals Put Their Money Where Their Mouths Are
“Whenever I encounter intellectuals who declare that their econometric research or armchair theorizing reveals that workers are underpaid or that consumers are overcharged, I feel fully justified by responding with: ‘Prove it! Put your money where your mouth is.'” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
This Claim of Market Failure Deserves No Credit
“If you who claim to identify a market failure could, but don’t, voluntarily put your own money where your mouth is in an attempt to address that alleged failure, why should anyone listen to your pleas for government to coercively put other people’s money where your mouth is?” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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•
If I Could Paint
“How I wish that I could make more visible – literally visible – to the eye the economy’s teeming, streaming, pulsing, gargantuan – yet almost completely invisible and silent – interconnectedness and complexity. The person who paints such a picture would provide a great service to humankind.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Thank Goodness for Economic Ignorance!
“The world would in fact be a much better place if economic fallacies were less prevalent and less widespread. Not the least of these fallacies is the one that holds that economies fail to the extent that they don’t protect existing jobs.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Some Problems with the ‘Repatriating Critical Supply Chains’ Argument
“Even if political pressures were miraculously to disappear, government officials would remain ignorant of most of the detailed bits of knowledge about how resources are, and potentially can be, used. And so any errors these officials make in distinguishing ‘critical’ from not-critical goods and services will result in resources being used more wastefully than otherwise.”…