Economic Theory
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Ownership Is Not a Bundle
” If property is a bundle of a finite number of previously separate use-rights, put together by government (the bundler), then in what sense does the government ever tread on liberty?” ~ Dan Klein
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The Simple Logic of Free Markets and Retaliation
“If the U.S. retaliates against Chinese industrial policy with American industrial policy, both countries end up in the box in the lower left-hand corner – for each, the worst possible outcome.” ~ Donald Boudreaux
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The Struggle Over “Basic Economics”
“If any economist in the classical tradition, from Smith to Hayek, ever argued that free markets and competition yielded “perfect” outcomes, I am not aware of it. But the mathematical and graphical modelling of perfect competition and “supply and demand” stand as the gutted remains of basic economics.” ~ Max Gulker
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Good Riddance to “Basic Life Skills”
“We are able to lead fuller and richer lives thanks to the global division of labor, and the “basic” life skills about which so many people fret are, it turns out, not so basic after all.” ~ Art Carden
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How a Free Society Deals with Pandemics, According to Legendary Epidemiologist and Smallpox Eradicator Donald Henderson
“We have a very thin record of writings that make the case that freedom, market forces, and private governance are better than government quarantines and closures in dealing with pandemics. So where do we turn for better arguments and a better case?” ~ Edward Stringham
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There Will Be No Recovery Without Production
An essential purpose of allowing markets to be free and open in all circumstances is precisely to take advantage of what people can imagine, create, and produce to meet changing patterns of demand in their respective corners of society in ways that others might not and, indeed, cannot anticipate.
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We Don’t Need One Big Plan to End the Lockdown
The transition back to normal life involves the coordination of the disparate and often-incompatible plans of billions of minds–and if we wish for that coordination to make the best use of knowledge in society, we are making a mistake if we are looking for a plan.
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•
The Struggle for Science in Demented Times
During a crisis, fate appears to hang in the balance, and mental and material resources must be coordinated and that requires a commander who is in control of the process. But that will not work if curiosity is squashed in the effort to courageously command.
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•
The Magnitude of the Economic Challenge Even in Normal Times
To rely only on select and officially approved researchers, or to ignore ideas from all or even some foreigners, is to unnecessarily reduce the number of human beings working to discover from among an incalculably vast number of possible chemical arrangements the one or a few that might render the coronavirus harmless.
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•
Governments Don’t Have Magic Wands To Ward off Asymmetric Information
With the “asymmetric information” argument, the left got a seemingly bulletproof theory with which to whack markets and subject them to government regulation: capitalists prey on the uninformed consumer and extract unfair rents from them in the informational version of haves that take advantage of have-nots. If not remedied, beneficial exchange disappears.
-
•
Ownership Is Not a Bundle
” If property is a bundle of a finite number of previously separate use-rights, put together by government (the bundler), then in what sense does the government ever tread on liberty?” ~ Dan Klein
-
•
The Simple Logic of Free Markets and Retaliation
“If the U.S. retaliates against Chinese industrial policy with American industrial policy, both countries end up in the box in the lower left-hand corner – for each, the worst possible outcome.” ~ Donald Boudreaux
-
•
The Struggle Over “Basic Economics”
“If any economist in the classical tradition, from Smith to Hayek, ever argued that free markets and competition yielded “perfect” outcomes, I am not aware of it. But the mathematical and graphical modelling of perfect competition and “supply and demand” stand as the gutted remains of basic economics.” ~ Max Gulker
-
•
Good Riddance to “Basic Life Skills”
“We are able to lead fuller and richer lives thanks to the global division of labor, and the “basic” life skills about which so many people fret are, it turns out, not so basic after all.” ~ Art Carden
-
•
How a Free Society Deals with Pandemics, According to Legendary Epidemiologist and Smallpox Eradicator Donald Henderson
“We have a very thin record of writings that make the case that freedom, market forces, and private governance are better than government quarantines and closures in dealing with pandemics. So where do we turn for better arguments and a better case?” ~ Edward Stringham
-
•
There Will Be No Recovery Without Production
An essential purpose of allowing markets to be free and open in all circumstances is precisely to take advantage of what people can imagine, create, and produce to meet changing patterns of demand in their respective corners of society in ways that others might not and, indeed, cannot anticipate.
-
•
We Don’t Need One Big Plan to End the Lockdown
The transition back to normal life involves the coordination of the disparate and often-incompatible plans of billions of minds–and if we wish for that coordination to make the best use of knowledge in society, we are making a mistake if we are looking for a plan.
-
•
The Struggle for Science in Demented Times
During a crisis, fate appears to hang in the balance, and mental and material resources must be coordinated and that requires a commander who is in control of the process. But that will not work if curiosity is squashed in the effort to courageously command.
-
•
The Magnitude of the Economic Challenge Even in Normal Times
To rely only on select and officially approved researchers, or to ignore ideas from all or even some foreigners, is to unnecessarily reduce the number of human beings working to discover from among an incalculably vast number of possible chemical arrangements the one or a few that might render the coronavirus harmless.
-
•
Governments Don’t Have Magic Wands To Ward off Asymmetric Information
With the “asymmetric information” argument, the left got a seemingly bulletproof theory with which to whack markets and subject them to government regulation: capitalists prey on the uninformed consumer and extract unfair rents from them in the informational version of haves that take advantage of have-nots. If not remedied, beneficial exchange disappears.