Jeffrey Tucker
AIER Editorial Director – 2017-2021
Jeffrey A. Tucker served as Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research from 2017 to 2021.
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Something to Celebrate: New CAFE Regulations
The car was the foundation of the second industrial revolution. Encroaching government regulations are robbing it of its future. We once dreamed of a flying car. The regulators are putting us in the position of just dreaming about returning to the glory days of the 1970s. That’s just pathetic.
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Your Signature No Longer Matters
The personal signature has a notorious history: J.S. Bach’s on his compositions, the founding fathers on the Declaration of Independence, Picasso on his paintings, and the president’s today on executive orders. Creating your own was a right of passage. With credit card companies admitting the obvious that it does nothing to verify your identity, does…
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Two Trade Wars: 1807 and 2018
The legal uncertainties surrounding trade with China have sent people looking for historical precedent for this mess. One jumps out: the targeted trade embargo that the US imposed against Britain in 1807. Let’s look at the parallels and lessons.
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Cities Offloading Public Property
The enthusiasm for imperious government impositions at the level of cities and states has waned dramatically. Governments are out of money. More importantly, they are out of ideas. All the most exciting innovations of our time come from the private sector and the brilliant process of market competition. With stretched budgets and a dearth of…
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The Cash Register: In Memoriam
There is real inspiration to be had by looking at the iterative process of innovation, how that funny little machine from 1883 gradually evolved into the tiny payment processing units we use routinely today, an epic story of improvement in machinery in which the current stage is knitted to all previous stages through an invisible…
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No One Wins a Trade War
The results of this war are as follows. US consumers get to pay more for imports from China. American companies lose markets as Chinese consumers and importers turn to other countries to provide wines, pork, and fruit. And this is only round one. The financial markets have suffered a terrible quarter one, just as all…
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Power and the Main Threat to Liberty
It used to be a cliche to observe that libertarianism is neither left nor right. I don’t hear that much anymore, so it needs to be restated. Mostly it needs to be understood. Left and right emerged in the 19th century as a revolt against liberalism. They each favored different forms of statism to push back…
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To Lift Your Spirits, Fill Your Head with Economics
Economics is lovely because it unlocks the great mysteries of the material world: why we thrive, why we experience progress, how we can build prosperity and peace, the path toward making the best out of our limited time in this world, and leave something better for the next generation. Knowing and contemplating these things is…
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The Reason Congress Won’t Control Spending
The crucial answer: the federal government has access to a printing press that can run without limit. The Federal Reserve is the reason. This is why their default risk premium on US debt is completely unlike that of Illinois, Microsoft, or you and me.
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We Created Our Own Data Breach
I seriously doubt there will ever be another Facebook. The solutions of the future will be decentralized. Already, most of us run a half dozen – or maybe several dozen – apps in our suites of software that allow chat, sharing, conversations, groups, and so on. The competition will never end, and we will all…
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•
Something to Celebrate: New CAFE Regulations
The car was the foundation of the second industrial revolution. Encroaching government regulations are robbing it of its future. We once dreamed of a flying car. The regulators are putting us in the position of just dreaming about returning to the glory days of the 1970s. That’s just pathetic.
-
•
Your Signature No Longer Matters
The personal signature has a notorious history: J.S. Bach’s on his compositions, the founding fathers on the Declaration of Independence, Picasso on his paintings, and the president’s today on executive orders. Creating your own was a right of passage. With credit card companies admitting the obvious that it does nothing to verify your identity, does…
-
•
Two Trade Wars: 1807 and 2018
The legal uncertainties surrounding trade with China have sent people looking for historical precedent for this mess. One jumps out: the targeted trade embargo that the US imposed against Britain in 1807. Let’s look at the parallels and lessons.
-
•
Cities Offloading Public Property
The enthusiasm for imperious government impositions at the level of cities and states has waned dramatically. Governments are out of money. More importantly, they are out of ideas. All the most exciting innovations of our time come from the private sector and the brilliant process of market competition. With stretched budgets and a dearth of…
-
•
The Cash Register: In Memoriam
There is real inspiration to be had by looking at the iterative process of innovation, how that funny little machine from 1883 gradually evolved into the tiny payment processing units we use routinely today, an epic story of improvement in machinery in which the current stage is knitted to all previous stages through an invisible…
-
•
No One Wins a Trade War
The results of this war are as follows. US consumers get to pay more for imports from China. American companies lose markets as Chinese consumers and importers turn to other countries to provide wines, pork, and fruit. And this is only round one. The financial markets have suffered a terrible quarter one, just as all…
-
•
Power and the Main Threat to Liberty
It used to be a cliche to observe that libertarianism is neither left nor right. I don’t hear that much anymore, so it needs to be restated. Mostly it needs to be understood. Left and right emerged in the 19th century as a revolt against liberalism. They each favored different forms of statism to push back…
-
•
To Lift Your Spirits, Fill Your Head with Economics
Economics is lovely because it unlocks the great mysteries of the material world: why we thrive, why we experience progress, how we can build prosperity and peace, the path toward making the best out of our limited time in this world, and leave something better for the next generation. Knowing and contemplating these things is…
-
•
The Reason Congress Won’t Control Spending
The crucial answer: the federal government has access to a printing press that can run without limit. The Federal Reserve is the reason. This is why their default risk premium on US debt is completely unlike that of Illinois, Microsoft, or you and me.
-
•
We Created Our Own Data Breach
I seriously doubt there will ever be another Facebook. The solutions of the future will be decentralized. Already, most of us run a half dozen – or maybe several dozen – apps in our suites of software that allow chat, sharing, conversations, groups, and so on. The competition will never end, and we will all…