Economic History
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Bastiat Was Right: Tariffs Make The World Poorer
Protectionism promises stronger industries. History shows it delivers higher prices, fewer jobs, and weaker growth.
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Thomas Paine’s Challenge to a Complacent America
Paine warned that complacency endangers liberty, and that only when freedom is threatened do people discover whether they are willing to defend it.
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Why Much of Manhattan Would Be Illegal to Build Today
Zoning laws drive up housing costs and freeze cities in the past. New York City is a clear example.
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The Central Banker Who Defied Hitler
If we must tolerate government control of currency, we should emulate Hans Luther’s fearless defiance of political pressure.
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America Doesn’t Need a New East India Company
From semiconductors to artificial intelligence, modern proposals for public ownership risk repeating the mistakes Smith identified 250 years ago.
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Tariff Math Doesn’t Work, and the White House Already Admitted It
Trump’s new USMCA proposal acknowledges the limits of onshoring. Tariffs can’t undo global supply chains; they’re a consumption tax paid by American families.
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Sabotaging the Invisible Hand: Adam Smith Predicted Modern Policy Failures
Smith observed that significant economic inequalities arise not from voluntary exchange but from distortions that restrict competition, channel resources toward favored interests, and limit economic mobility.
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Measuring Trump 2.0 Against Trump 1.0: Tariff Boasts Meet the Data
Trump credits tariffs for an economic “turnaround.” The data show stronger economic performance in his first term than in his second.
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Did New Deal Spending End the Great Depression?
George Selgin’s ‘False Dawn’ empirically demolishes the claim that Franklin Roosevelt pursued a Keynesian recovery strategy.
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Ancient Clay Tablets Show Markets Worked 4,000 Years Before Economists Explained Them
Clay tablets unearthed in Asia Minor reveal a sophisticated commercial order emerging spontaneously nearly four thousand years before economists explained how markets work.
-
•
Bastiat Was Right: Tariffs Make The World Poorer
Protectionism promises stronger industries. History shows it delivers higher prices, fewer jobs, and weaker growth.
-
•
Thomas Paine’s Challenge to a Complacent America
Paine warned that complacency endangers liberty, and that only when freedom is threatened do people discover whether they are willing to defend it.
-
•
Why Much of Manhattan Would Be Illegal to Build Today
Zoning laws drive up housing costs and freeze cities in the past. New York City is a clear example.
-
•
The Central Banker Who Defied Hitler
If we must tolerate government control of currency, we should emulate Hans Luther’s fearless defiance of political pressure.
-
•
America Doesn’t Need a New East India Company
From semiconductors to artificial intelligence, modern proposals for public ownership risk repeating the mistakes Smith identified 250 years ago.
-
•
Tariff Math Doesn’t Work, and the White House Already Admitted It
Trump’s new USMCA proposal acknowledges the limits of onshoring. Tariffs can’t undo global supply chains; they’re a consumption tax paid by American families.
-
•
Sabotaging the Invisible Hand: Adam Smith Predicted Modern Policy Failures
Smith observed that significant economic inequalities arise not from voluntary exchange but from distortions that restrict competition, channel resources toward favored interests, and limit economic mobility.
-
•
Measuring Trump 2.0 Against Trump 1.0: Tariff Boasts Meet the Data
Trump credits tariffs for an economic “turnaround.” The data show stronger economic performance in his first term than in his second.
-
•
Did New Deal Spending End the Great Depression?
George Selgin’s ‘False Dawn’ empirically demolishes the claim that Franklin Roosevelt pursued a Keynesian recovery strategy.
-
•
Ancient Clay Tablets Show Markets Worked 4,000 Years Before Economists Explained Them
Clay tablets unearthed in Asia Minor reveal a sophisticated commercial order emerging spontaneously nearly four thousand years before economists explained how markets work.