Robert E. Wright
Robert E. Wright is the (co)author or (co)editor of over two dozen major books, book series, and edited collections, including AIER’s The Best of Thomas Paine (2021) and Financial Exclusion (2019). He has also (co)authored numerous articles for important journals, including the American Economic Review, Business History Review, Independent Review, Journal of Private Enterprise, Review of Finance, and Southern Economic Review. Robert has taught business, economics, and policy courses at Augustana University, NYU’s Stern School of Business, Temple University, the University of Virginia, and elsewhere since taking his Ph.D. in History from SUNY Buffalo in 1997. Robert E. Wright was formerly a Senior Research Faculty at the American Institute for Economic Research.
Find Robert
- SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=362640
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3792-3506
- Academia: https://robertwright.academia.edu/
- Google: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D9Qsx6QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
- Twitter, Gettr, and Parler: @robertewright
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History Lessons: The Case Against Regulating ESG Ratings Agencies
“This history lesson strongly suggests to us that security regulators should refrain from endorsing any particular ESG metric. Sadly, security regulators around the world appear to be intent on repeating the mistakes made by the SEC in the 1970s.” ~ Robert E. Wright & Andrew Smith
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Owl Creek Bridge Redux?
“Sometimes I feel like the entire world is in its final throes as humanity’s storyline becomes increasingly surreal. Judging by how often I hear other people say ‘unbelievable,’ ‘beyond belief,’ or ‘incredible,’ many others seem to feel likewise.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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Dandy Horses, Memes, and Private Security
“Some policy memes, like some of the political cartoons of old, constitute powerful ways of spreading important policy points in pithy, thoughtful ways. Many, though, are the weak tea products of minds ignorant of even the most basic tenets of business, economic, and policy history.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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The Hoary Origins of Maskachusetts and Taxachusetts
“One cannot lay all of the blame for high taxes, silly regulations, and the Covid policy catastrophes of 2020-21 at the feet of John Winthrop and other Puritans but the concept of path dependence suggests that their role was larger than one might at first suspect.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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What Will America’s 250th Birthday Look Like?
“Today, America’s putative leaders care nothing about liberty and want to preserve America only to the extent necessary to extract rents from it. That has to change, and soon, or July 2026 will be no time to celebrate much of anything.” ~ Robert E. Wright
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Death by Policy Lottery
“Despite the costly consequences of bad policies, Americans just won’t give up their beloved policy lotteries. Many date to the New Deal and Progressive eras and hence were deliberately and structurally racist. Yet somehow the same government that perpetrated them is being entrusted to ameliorate their intentional effects with additional lottery-like policies instead of radical…
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Private Cannon Ownership in Early America
“Although I hesitate to bring this to President Biden’s attention, individuals and nonprofits own cannon today. In 2019, for example, Brown’s Company of Artillery fired for five hours in Lebanon … the one in Connecticut. And the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, a private artillery company organized in Massachusetts in 1638, still exists!” ~ Robert…
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What’s Going On Under the Masks?
“Just as masks hide the condition of people’s mouths, so too do various commissions hide special interest policymaking. America needs to return to the commonsense view that regulations ought to have a solid empirical basis: a claim about the real world supported by data and the best available theory, not bureaucratic or commercial self-interest.” ~…
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Universities That Should Lose Their Accreditation Immediately
“Accreditation is the ‘key to the kingdom’ of federal and state subsidies and widespread recognition of some minimal level of curricular competence. Most students will not attend a university that is not accredited because they cannot obtain financial aid and most employers will not recognize any coursework or degree as a bona fide credential unless…
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The Woke Business Complex
“Just think, though, of the uproarious applause that would occur if governments would stop over-regulating and over-taxing economic agents and allow every human to thrive instead of diverting resources to the Woke Business Complex! But curbing government overreach would require a more ‘equitable’ distribution of political and soft power. Where’s the meme for that?” ~…
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History Lessons: The Case Against Regulating ESG Ratings Agencies
“This history lesson strongly suggests to us that security regulators should refrain from endorsing any particular ESG metric. Sadly, security regulators around the world appear to be intent on repeating the mistakes made by the SEC in the 1970s.” ~ Robert E. Wright & Andrew Smith
-
•
Owl Creek Bridge Redux?
“Sometimes I feel like the entire world is in its final throes as humanity’s storyline becomes increasingly surreal. Judging by how often I hear other people say ‘unbelievable,’ ‘beyond belief,’ or ‘incredible,’ many others seem to feel likewise.” ~ Robert E. Wright
-
•
Dandy Horses, Memes, and Private Security
“Some policy memes, like some of the political cartoons of old, constitute powerful ways of spreading important policy points in pithy, thoughtful ways. Many, though, are the weak tea products of minds ignorant of even the most basic tenets of business, economic, and policy history.” ~ Robert E. Wright
-
•
The Hoary Origins of Maskachusetts and Taxachusetts
“One cannot lay all of the blame for high taxes, silly regulations, and the Covid policy catastrophes of 2020-21 at the feet of John Winthrop and other Puritans but the concept of path dependence suggests that their role was larger than one might at first suspect.” ~ Robert E. Wright
-
•
What Will America’s 250th Birthday Look Like?
“Today, America’s putative leaders care nothing about liberty and want to preserve America only to the extent necessary to extract rents from it. That has to change, and soon, or July 2026 will be no time to celebrate much of anything.” ~ Robert E. Wright
-
•
Death by Policy Lottery
“Despite the costly consequences of bad policies, Americans just won’t give up their beloved policy lotteries. Many date to the New Deal and Progressive eras and hence were deliberately and structurally racist. Yet somehow the same government that perpetrated them is being entrusted to ameliorate their intentional effects with additional lottery-like policies instead of radical…
-
•
Private Cannon Ownership in Early America
“Although I hesitate to bring this to President Biden’s attention, individuals and nonprofits own cannon today. In 2019, for example, Brown’s Company of Artillery fired for five hours in Lebanon … the one in Connecticut. And the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, a private artillery company organized in Massachusetts in 1638, still exists!” ~ Robert…
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•
What’s Going On Under the Masks?
“Just as masks hide the condition of people’s mouths, so too do various commissions hide special interest policymaking. America needs to return to the commonsense view that regulations ought to have a solid empirical basis: a claim about the real world supported by data and the best available theory, not bureaucratic or commercial self-interest.” ~…
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•
Universities That Should Lose Their Accreditation Immediately
“Accreditation is the ‘key to the kingdom’ of federal and state subsidies and widespread recognition of some minimal level of curricular competence. Most students will not attend a university that is not accredited because they cannot obtain financial aid and most employers will not recognize any coursework or degree as a bona fide credential unless…
-
•
The Woke Business Complex
“Just think, though, of the uproarious applause that would occur if governments would stop over-regulating and over-taxing economic agents and allow every human to thrive instead of diverting resources to the Woke Business Complex! But curbing government overreach would require a more ‘equitable’ distribution of political and soft power. Where’s the meme for that?” ~…