Americans are understandably sickened by the massacre of 17 people in Florida and want something done to prevent such school massacres from recurring. Less understandably, they don’t seem as concerned about the 110,000 people who have been killed as a result of the...
Bastiat
Consumption, Not Trade Balance, Is the Purpose of Production
Just about every argument opposing the unfettered freedom to exchange goods and services across all borders rests on the failure to appreciate that, as Adam Smith put it, “consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production.” For example, Kevin L. Kearns,...
Free Markets Reduce Consumption Inequality
How’s this for irony? While progressivism and socialism promise free goods and services but never deliver, markets deliver all the time. Free stuff in the marketplace? It sounds counterintuitive, and we’ve heard that “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” But in...
The Seen and the Catastrophic Unseen in Our Criminal Justice System
Thank you. Thank you to the Reason Foundation, and to the judges who saw merit in my work and honored me with this award. It's especially validating to get an award named after Bastiat—an award for which people like Milton Friedman and James Buchanan once served as...
Storm Clouds and False Silver Linings
As incurable optimists, human beings look for silver linings in the darkest of clouds. It’s an admirable trait, but some silver linings are illusions. Spotting them requires the economic way of thinking. In the wake of a natural or manmade disaster, such as Hurricane...
The Broken-Window Fallacy Is Still Alive and Well
As Hurricane Harvey, now tropical storm Harvey, makes its way across the southern US, estimates have already come in as to the cost of the storm. According to AccuWeather, Harvey is expected to cost upwards of $190 billion in damages, one percent of the national GDP....
A Celebration of Frédéric Bastiat: Free Trader, Economist, and Defender of Liberty
Claude-Frédéric Bastiat was born on June 29, 1801 in Bayonne, a small port city in Southern France. At age 10, Bastiat was orphaned by his parents and based on the recognition he gets as a historical figure and economist, one might think his life ended at that point....
Does Ignorance of Economics Breed Poverty?
Lopsided Brains In 2013 Adam Grant published an article titled “Does Studying Economics Breed Greed?” While his evidence is compelling and his solution is excellent, his solution is only half a solution, missing a vital component that could benefit all of society. We...
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