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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Twelve Principles of International Trade: Part 3
“The notion that people will be enriched if their government artificially impedes their access to goods and services is as detached from reality as is the belief that the future can be revealed through astrology.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Heroes in a Year of Horrors
“There are other brave and intelligent people of integrity who have resisted Covid Derangement Syndrome and spoken out against the lunacy and oppression of lockdowns. To all of you I offer my apologies if you aren’t explicitly recognized here. But above all, I offer to you my heartfelt thanks, as well as my well-wishes for…
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Is Covid a High Risk to Younger Adults?
“Using actual data – and even assuming that all excess deaths in the 25-44 cohort are caused by Covid, and even if we annualize the authors’ excess-death figure to get excess deaths in this cohort of 28,800 – the chance that Covid will kill any randomly chosen member of this cohort is a minuscule 0.0329…
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Tyranny During Its Reign Is Unrecognized by Its Victims
“As with all tyranny, the truth will eventually emerge. In the future, people’s eyes will open to the exaggerations, half-truths, distortions, and outright lies used to excuse today’s tyrannical restrictions. Someday people will look back on 2020 and see it as a year in which tyranny darkened the globe.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Twelve Principles of International Trade: Part 2
“Foreigners do not treat us ‘unfairly’ if they insist on sending to us more imports in exchange for a given amount of our exports (or, what is the same thing, if they accept fewer of our exports in exchange for a given amount of what we import from them). Accusing foreigners in such a case…
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Twelve Principles of International Trade: Part 1
“Although it’s possible to imagine bizarre scenarios in which a country’s rising trade deficits might be evidence of economic decline, none of these scenarios is realistic in the case of the United States. American trade deficits are evidence of American economic health, at least relative to many other countries, rather than of economic hardship.” ~…
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Tyler vs. Tyler?
“Given that one of Tyler’s most intriguing arguments in Stubborn Attachments is that we discount the value of the future far too greatly – implying that we value the present far too much relative to the future – I believe that the 2018 Tyler Cowen would be a most intriguing, perhaps even confrontational, guest of…
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Wishing that Hans Rosling Were Still Alive
“People around the world, engulfed by the fear instinct, have allowed themselves to be stirred by the media – and by their political ‘leaders’ – into an hysterical terror over Covid-19. It’s too bad that Hans Rosling is not alive in 2020 to help the forces of sanity fight Covid Derangement Syndrome.” ~ Donald J.…
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Keeping Covid Perspective
“What I believe is deranged is the failure to put Covid-19 in proper perspective. It is deranged to behave as if the risks that Covid poses to kindergartners, to college students, and to healthy young people are indistinguishable from the risks that Covid posed to your elderly father, or poses even to me, a 62-year-old.”…
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Agreeing and Disagreeing with Tyler Cowen on Covid-19
“By failing to take account of Covid’s differential impact on people according to their age, governments have compromised their credibility. By falsely treating everyone from kindergartners through college students and even middle-aged folks in normal health as if they all are as imperiled by Covid as are residents of nursing homes, governments signal a disregard…
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•
Twelve Principles of International Trade: Part 3
“The notion that people will be enriched if their government artificially impedes their access to goods and services is as detached from reality as is the belief that the future can be revealed through astrology.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Heroes in a Year of Horrors
“There are other brave and intelligent people of integrity who have resisted Covid Derangement Syndrome and spoken out against the lunacy and oppression of lockdowns. To all of you I offer my apologies if you aren’t explicitly recognized here. But above all, I offer to you my heartfelt thanks, as well as my well-wishes for…
-
•
Is Covid a High Risk to Younger Adults?
“Using actual data – and even assuming that all excess deaths in the 25-44 cohort are caused by Covid, and even if we annualize the authors’ excess-death figure to get excess deaths in this cohort of 28,800 – the chance that Covid will kill any randomly chosen member of this cohort is a minuscule 0.0329…
-
•
Tyranny During Its Reign Is Unrecognized by Its Victims
“As with all tyranny, the truth will eventually emerge. In the future, people’s eyes will open to the exaggerations, half-truths, distortions, and outright lies used to excuse today’s tyrannical restrictions. Someday people will look back on 2020 and see it as a year in which tyranny darkened the globe.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Twelve Principles of International Trade: Part 2
“Foreigners do not treat us ‘unfairly’ if they insist on sending to us more imports in exchange for a given amount of our exports (or, what is the same thing, if they accept fewer of our exports in exchange for a given amount of what we import from them). Accusing foreigners in such a case…
-
•
Twelve Principles of International Trade: Part 1
“Although it’s possible to imagine bizarre scenarios in which a country’s rising trade deficits might be evidence of economic decline, none of these scenarios is realistic in the case of the United States. American trade deficits are evidence of American economic health, at least relative to many other countries, rather than of economic hardship.” ~…
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•
Tyler vs. Tyler?
“Given that one of Tyler’s most intriguing arguments in Stubborn Attachments is that we discount the value of the future far too greatly – implying that we value the present far too much relative to the future – I believe that the 2018 Tyler Cowen would be a most intriguing, perhaps even confrontational, guest of…
-
•
Wishing that Hans Rosling Were Still Alive
“People around the world, engulfed by the fear instinct, have allowed themselves to be stirred by the media – and by their political ‘leaders’ – into an hysterical terror over Covid-19. It’s too bad that Hans Rosling is not alive in 2020 to help the forces of sanity fight Covid Derangement Syndrome.” ~ Donald J.…
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•
Keeping Covid Perspective
“What I believe is deranged is the failure to put Covid-19 in proper perspective. It is deranged to behave as if the risks that Covid poses to kindergartners, to college students, and to healthy young people are indistinguishable from the risks that Covid posed to your elderly father, or poses even to me, a 62-year-old.”…
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•
Agreeing and Disagreeing with Tyler Cowen on Covid-19
“By failing to take account of Covid’s differential impact on people according to their age, governments have compromised their credibility. By falsely treating everyone from kindergartners through college students and even middle-aged folks in normal health as if they all are as imperiled by Covid as are residents of nursing homes, governments signal a disregard…