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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Will 2020 Prove to Be the Beginning of the End of Modernity?
“Abruptly starting 16 months ago, humanity was encouraged to hold in contempt – even to censor – the relative few persons who refused to abandon liberal sensibilities. Abruptly starting 16 months ago, there quite possibly began the end of liberal civilization.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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The Buchanan Thesis
“Those of us who decry large and intrusive government should demand that government annually balance its budget. The tighter the constraint on government’s access to resources, the freer and more prosperous the people will be.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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The Covid-19 Emergency Did Not Justify Lockdowns
“Whatever the novelty and dangers of Covid-19, the novelty and dangers of Covid-19 lockdowns are at least arguably of the same magnitude. The dismissal of the unknown possible horrors of lockdowns in order to focus attention exclusively on the unknown possible horrors of SARS-CoV-2 is as unjustified by science as it is unpardonable as policy.”…
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Government ‘Discrimination’ and the Age Profile of Covid-19 Fatalities
“It is, I believe, deeply misguided to insist that the principle of government even-handedness requires that government ignore the age profile of a disease’s victims. It is misguided to demand – either on grounds of equity or by noting, correctly, that all lives are sacred – that the policy response to a disease that overwhelmingly…
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The Great Barrington Declaration and Ad Hominem Argumentation
“The greatest compliment paid to the Great Barrington Declaration, therefore, is one wholly unintended: Many of its staunchest opponents offer against it nothing beyond ad hominem attacks and accusations of guilt by association. This Declaration must indeed be powerful!” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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On Vaccine Passports and the Interpretation of Reality
“Where I see liberal civilization being brutally transformed by a Covidocracy into what David Hart calls a ‘hygiene socialist’ society, other people see civilization being compassionately reset into a safer and more humane arrangement in which, presumably, no one ever again will be killed or even discomforted by pathogens. Where other people see a dream,…
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Why the Silence in the Face of Covid Tyranny?
“When one weighs whatever is the quantum of tyranny that might realistically be ascribed to Trump against the quanta of tyranny that infest and fuel Covid lockdowns, mask mandates, school closures, and the Covid hysteria still being stirred up by government officials, the tyranny of the Covidocracy is far, far greater than was the tyranny…
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Markets Are More Knowledgeable Than Intellectuals
“Nothing is easier than for intellectuals to express displeasure with the observed manner in which individuals make trade-offs, and then to assert that this manner of making trade-offs implies a market failure. But assertions are not analyses. When analyzed carefully through the lens of economics, the need for producers to adjust to changes in consumer…
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The Mischief of “Pecuniary Externalities”
“Perhaps my long discourse on ‘pecuniary externalities’ strikes the reader as ponderous or even pointless. Ponderous it probably is, but pointless it is not. If the above reality were more widely understood, many fewer people would complain about foreigners using their exports as a means of ‘stealing our jobs.'” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Stop the Cartoonish Excuses for Covid Restrictions
“Pro-lockdown economists faux scientifically chant ‘Reduce externalities!’ Libertarians with a weak commitment to liberty self-righteously claim to be the true upholders of liberty by repeating nonstop ‘We must honor the non-aggression principle!’ But neither these economists nor these libertarians take the time to consider the complex real-world details from which individuals’ rights emerge and in…
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•
Will 2020 Prove to Be the Beginning of the End of Modernity?
“Abruptly starting 16 months ago, humanity was encouraged to hold in contempt – even to censor – the relative few persons who refused to abandon liberal sensibilities. Abruptly starting 16 months ago, there quite possibly began the end of liberal civilization.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
The Buchanan Thesis
“Those of us who decry large and intrusive government should demand that government annually balance its budget. The tighter the constraint on government’s access to resources, the freer and more prosperous the people will be.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
The Covid-19 Emergency Did Not Justify Lockdowns
“Whatever the novelty and dangers of Covid-19, the novelty and dangers of Covid-19 lockdowns are at least arguably of the same magnitude. The dismissal of the unknown possible horrors of lockdowns in order to focus attention exclusively on the unknown possible horrors of SARS-CoV-2 is as unjustified by science as it is unpardonable as policy.”…
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•
Government ‘Discrimination’ and the Age Profile of Covid-19 Fatalities
“It is, I believe, deeply misguided to insist that the principle of government even-handedness requires that government ignore the age profile of a disease’s victims. It is misguided to demand – either on grounds of equity or by noting, correctly, that all lives are sacred – that the policy response to a disease that overwhelmingly…
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•
The Great Barrington Declaration and Ad Hominem Argumentation
“The greatest compliment paid to the Great Barrington Declaration, therefore, is one wholly unintended: Many of its staunchest opponents offer against it nothing beyond ad hominem attacks and accusations of guilt by association. This Declaration must indeed be powerful!” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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•
On Vaccine Passports and the Interpretation of Reality
“Where I see liberal civilization being brutally transformed by a Covidocracy into what David Hart calls a ‘hygiene socialist’ society, other people see civilization being compassionately reset into a safer and more humane arrangement in which, presumably, no one ever again will be killed or even discomforted by pathogens. Where other people see a dream,…
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•
Why the Silence in the Face of Covid Tyranny?
“When one weighs whatever is the quantum of tyranny that might realistically be ascribed to Trump against the quanta of tyranny that infest and fuel Covid lockdowns, mask mandates, school closures, and the Covid hysteria still being stirred up by government officials, the tyranny of the Covidocracy is far, far greater than was the tyranny…
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•
Markets Are More Knowledgeable Than Intellectuals
“Nothing is easier than for intellectuals to express displeasure with the observed manner in which individuals make trade-offs, and then to assert that this manner of making trade-offs implies a market failure. But assertions are not analyses. When analyzed carefully through the lens of economics, the need for producers to adjust to changes in consumer…
-
•
The Mischief of “Pecuniary Externalities”
“Perhaps my long discourse on ‘pecuniary externalities’ strikes the reader as ponderous or even pointless. Ponderous it probably is, but pointless it is not. If the above reality were more widely understood, many fewer people would complain about foreigners using their exports as a means of ‘stealing our jobs.'” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Stop the Cartoonish Excuses for Covid Restrictions
“Pro-lockdown economists faux scientifically chant ‘Reduce externalities!’ Libertarians with a weak commitment to liberty self-righteously claim to be the true upholders of liberty by repeating nonstop ‘We must honor the non-aggression principle!’ But neither these economists nor these libertarians take the time to consider the complex real-world details from which individuals’ rights emerge and in…