Recently, the United Kingdom signed two “free trade deals” with India and the United States. Adam Smith and David Ricardo would justifiably take issue with the label of free trade because these deals have not established what the term refers to in the classical...
Economics
Trump Calls Big Government ‘Beautiful’
by Thomas Eddlem | May 26, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics
“I’m a fiscal hawk,” Trump announced to the press on May 21, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson in tow, with typical Trumpian humbuggery. “I’m a bigger fiscal hawk. There’s nobody like me as a fiscal hawk.” Of course, only the last part of that statement was true. Truly,...
A Libertarian Critique of the ‘Great, Big, Beautiful Bill’
by Joseph Solis-Mullen | May 26, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics
On May 22, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed H.R. 1, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a sprawling reconciliation package championed by President Donald Trump as “arguably the most significant piece of legislation” in American history....
TGIF: Maestro Trump and Drug Prices
by Sheldon Richman | May 23, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
When encountering a public problem, people tend to fall into one of two camps: one camp, the larger one, says, "There oughta be a law." The other one asks, "How has the government created or aggravated the situation?" We know which camp Maestro Trump belongs to. Take...
TGIF: Individuals, Not America, First
by Sheldon Richman | May 16, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Let's hear no more about America First! It's a fraud, a cover for collectivist nationalism, and a distraction from what matters. (It also looks like camouflage for Trump Family First, but let's take it at face value for now.) On foreign policy, America First does not...
British-American Trade Deal Raises Questions About U.K. Food Standards
by Patrick Carroll | May 13, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles
President Donald Trump announced a new trade deal between the United States and United Kingdom on Thursday that would drop certain trade barriers between the two countries. Though the details are still fuzzy, some of the main industries involved are agriculture, the...
TGIF: On the Importance of Undesigned Order
by Sheldon Richman | May 9, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian approach to economics, was not the first or last thinker to see similarities between a society and a living organism, suggesting the existence of undesigned, spontaneous order. The names Adam Ferguson and Adam Smith, before...
What Trump Misunderstands About William McKinley
by Patrick Carroll | May 8, 2025 | Economics, Featured Articles
It’s no secret that one of Donald Trump’s favorite U.S. presidents is William McKinley, who led the country from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. Indeed, Trump recently changed the official name of Denali back to Mount McKinley in honor of the late president. In...