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TGIF: The Income Stagnation Myth

TGIF: The Income Stagnation Myth

by | Mar 21, 2025 | , , , , , ,

Many people, including some free-market advocates, think Americans are materially worse off today than they were in the 1970s. Some subscribers to that view blame globalization, that is, free trade in goods, which means in labor services. By any reasonable measure, those people are wrong. Stagnation is a myth. Living standards have never been higher. That goes for an increasing portion of the rest of the world too. After thousands of years, extreme poverty has plummeted to under 10 percent in just a few decades. This is all well documented. Trade specialist Daniel Griswold writes, This...

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The Abduction of Mahmoud Khalil

by | Mar 16, 2025 |

The Trump administration's abduction and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old green-card holder and permanent legal resident of the United States, is horrifying not just for him and his pregnant wife, a U.S. citizen, but as a sign of things to come. Khalil, who is a Syrian-born Algerian of Palestinian descent, has been detained pending deportation without being charged with any crime against persons or property, but because he engaged in speech and other peaceful activities on behalf of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. He was a graduate student at Columbia University at...

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TGIF: Say No to a Sovereign Wealth Fund

TGIF: Say No to a Sovereign Wealth Fund

by | Mar 14, 2025 | , , , , , ,

Donald Trump wants to create a sovereign wealth fund (SWF). It's a bad idea if your standard is freedom, free enterprise, and free markets. That's not Trump's standard, but we already knew that. A sovereign wealth fund is a government-run investment program. Where does the money come from? In the private sector, people save money (defer consumption) and let entrepreneurs and capital owners (perhaps including themselves) use it to produce goods and services that serve consumers sooner or later. They do so because they anticipate a worthwhile future return (interest, dividends, capital gains)...

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TGIF: A New Washington Post?

TGIF: A New Washington Post?

by | Mar 7, 2025 | , , , ,

If Jeff Bezos is as good as his word, the advocates of full liberty will owe him a standing ovation. As everyone knows by now, Amazon.com founder Bezos, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time—a man whose profit-making activities have benefitted mankind worldwide—has announced that the editorial page of his newspaper, the Washington Post, will be devoted to promoting the free market and personal liberty. Before Bezos bought the Post in 2013, it was a leading champion of government intervention throughout the economy, which means throughout our lives. If he consistently follows through,...

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Abolish Draft Registration, Mr. Trump

by | Mar 6, 2025 | , ,

During Friday's famous White House meeting, VP Vance criticized Ukrainian President Zelensky for his government's abduction of men from the streets to fight against Russia. Good for Vance. Conscription is one of the worst things a government can do, especially during a war. As a form of slavery, it goes against every libertarian, or classical liberal, principle. It's indecent. Presumably, President Trump shares Vance's horror. So this is a good time to abolish draft registration here. The penalty for not registering is a maximum five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. President...

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Let’s Not “Run after a Share in the Trouble”

by | Mar 3, 2025 | , ,

Of course “principles,” phrases, and catch-words are always invented to bolster up any policy which anybody wants to recommend. So in this case. The people who have led us on to shut ourselves in, and who now want us to break out, warn us against the terrors of “isolation.” Our ancestors all came here to isolate themselves from the social burdens and inherited errors of the old world. When the others are all over ears in trouble, who would not be isolated in freedom from care? When the others are crushed under the burden of militarism, who would not be isolated in peace and industry? When...

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TGIF: The Aim of Classical Liberalism

TGIF: The Aim of Classical Liberalism

by | Feb 28, 2025 | , , , ,

These are dark days for liberalism. I mean full, across-the-board, laissez-faire free-market, classical liberalism, otherwise known as libertarianism. While some budget-cutting and bureaucracy slimming will probably go through, those steps, though necessary to advance toward liberalism, are not sufficient. What's conspicuously missing from the regime's activities is a ringing and unmistakable endorsement of full individual liberty, which requires a free-market economy. The imagined dichotomy between economic liberty and personal liberty is a snare and a delusion. What's more personal than...

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TGIF: Free the Housing Market!

TGIF: Free the Housing Market!

by | Feb 21, 2025 | , , , , ,

Economist Bryan Caplan has done it again. His latest graphic nonfiction book is Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation, illustrated by Ady Branzei and published by the Cato Institute. (His first was Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration.) Caplan's target is a worthy one: zoning and other (anti-)housing regulations, which damage many people in various ways, some that will surprise you. While he could have written a conventional book, it almost certainly would have been dreadfully dull and accessible to only a few academics and policy wonks. That is no...

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