President Trump was elected on an anti-trade agenda in 2016, and promised that tariffs and protectionist measures could restore the US manufacturing sector. After winning the White House, the president imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of...
Economics
An Economy Cannot Be Crippled
Lockdown doesn't cripple "the economy." It cripples people who are trying to live. Strictly speaking, there's no economy. There are people interacting in particular ways regularly.
TGIF: Is Socialism Good in Theory?
This is an expanded version of something I wrote for The Freeman, October 2003, during my tenure as the editor. Socialism has been mortally discredited on economic grounds, thanks to Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, and history. But for many people it has not been...
What ‘Experts’ Miss About Economic Inequality
How can the U.S. reduce economic inequality? That’s a question USA Today posed to three “policy experts on the left and the right” in this recent article. The responses, while unsurprising, were nevertheless disappointing. For libertarians, economic inequality itself...
F.A. Hayek’s Conception of Private, Fiat Money
The most famous Austrian economist is 1974 Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek. Because of his moderate views excusing state interventions in various circumstances, hardcore Rothbardians tend to regard Hayek as less than pure in many areas. However, one area where Hayek is...
Debt Without Integrity
“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” — Matthew 7:5 I grew up going to numerous youth group events, Christian summer camps, weekly chapels at my Christian high school, and...
How to Misuse Global COVID-19 Statistics
Have you heard about Somalia's COVID-19 policy? In the official statistics, Somalia has just 3,362 confirmed infections and 97 confirmed deaths from COVID-19. On a per capita basis, the country has a death toll just barely above New Zealand, and below other widely...
A Rejoinder to the Looters: It’s More Than ‘Just Property’
It’s now become fashionable on the left to defend looting as a means of redistributing wealth from allegedly unworthy business owners to the more deserving looters themselves. “It’s just property!” is the refrain, with the implication being that property owners should...
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