Connor O'Keeffe | The Libertarian Institute

Thanks to Government, Maui’s Lahaina Fire Became a Deadly Conflagration

by Connor O'Keeffe | Aug 17, 2023 | Featured Articles

The most destructive natural disasters are never 100 percent natural. Human choices, land use, and government policies play a big role in how harmful hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flash floods, and wildfires are to the affected communities. And after catastrophes like the wildfire that destroyed much of the historic Hawaiian city of Lahaina last week, it’s worth taking stock of how much of the disaster was the result not of natural or accidental factors, but of policies and institutions that can be changed. Though details are still emerging, it’s becoming clear that government failure...

Did Unions Kill America’s Oldest Trucking Business?

by Connor O'Keeffe | Aug 7, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

On July 30, Yellow, one of the oldest and largest trucking businesses in the United States, ceased operations and moved to declare bankruptcy. According to reports, the final nail in the coffin of the ninety-nine-year-old business was a labor dispute with the Teamsters Union. Yellow’s executives also deserve some blame, however. The trucking networks acquired in the 2000s and 2010s were poorly managed, delaying their integration. That said, when the company finally sought integration, the efforts were blocked by the union. The standoff sent Yellow into a dire financial situation which...

For 90 Years, U.S. Farmers Have Been Getting This Handout

by Connor O'Keeffe | Apr 13, 2023 | Featured Articles

The 2018 Farm Bill is due to expire this year, and U.S. lawmakers have already begun working out the next version. This food-related omnibus bill was introduced ninety years ago as a “temporary” measure during the Great Depression. It’s been reauthorized by Congress every five years since, and recent ones cobble together two seemingly unrelated programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called food stamps, and federal farm subsidies. However, the two share an important link. One program gives tax dollars to those who cannot afford food; the other seeks to make...

The Early Bird Stops the Central Bank’s Digital Currency Designs

by Connor O'Keeffe | Feb 6, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

Whether you like it or not, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are coming. That’s the message in a recent tech column in the Wall Street Journal. A similar tone can be found coming from organizations like the World Economic Forum, the International Monetary Fund, and the Atlantic Council. Reading these sources could lead you to conflate so-called CBDCs with autonomous trucks or artificial intelligence (AI) writers—technology that meets the needs of consumers so well that it’s hopeless to resist. But that isn’t true. CBDCs are not a groundbreaking new development in financial technology....

Stop Confusing Globalization With Globalism

by Connor O'Keeffe | Jan 5, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

After the 2008 financial crisis, calls rang out across establishment publications and the executive offices of Wall Street that we were witnessing the death of globalization. The calls grew louder and more numerous after Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, the pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Yet the data appears to dispute this narrative. Global trade hit a record $28.5 trillion last year with projections to grow in 2023. The pace, however, is expected to slow. The reason for this is less a problem with globalization itself and more the historic setbacks that globalism has...

We Need More Energy, Not Energy Regulation

by Connor O'Keeffe | Dec 13, 2022 | Featured Articles

Energy is a highly regulated industry across the world. There is less debate about the need for government control when it comes to the oil and gas sector. The arguments that most people accept for government intervention in energy, whether in the name of energy access, national security, or climate change mitigation, all share the same general premise: that energy is too important to be left to the whims of the free market. But this year, the world has been thrust into an energy crisis, not by the free market or any natural disaster, but by politics. What 2022 has demonstrated is that the...

How to Sell Progressives on Lower Taxes

by Connor O'Keeffe | Nov 29, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles

As Democrats and Republicans across the country fought over control of Congress in this past midterm election, progressives in Massachusetts and California continued with one of their favorite pastimes: trying to raise taxes on the rich. In Massachusetts, voters were presented with a proposal to add a 4.00 percent tax on annual incomes above $1 million in addition to the state’s current flat tax of 5.00 percent. In California, Proposition 30 aimed to establish a 1.75 percent tax on annual incomes over $2 million. The Massachusetts proposal passed while Californian voters rejected Prop. 30....

‘Greedflation’ Is a Red Herring

by Connor O'Keeffe | Nov 21, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles

Even as price inflation slows and we move past June’s peak, progressives continue to push the concept of “greedflation”—that this year’s price inflation is caused by corporate greed and price gouging. This is inaccurate, based on bad economics, and it blames a consequence of the problem rather than the problem itself. If we want to address the real issues in the economy and avoid similar pain in the future, we need to get serious and drop “greedflation” from the discussion. The standard response to the assertion that this episode of price inflation has been caused by greed is to point out...