Bureaucracy and Regulation

The economic doctrine of “externalities” has become an excuse for governments to intervene economically in heavy-handed ways, all in the name of “saving” the environment.

American journalists and academics have invented a fairy tale in which “free market orthodoxy” has dominated political thinking in America for the past forty years. This is not even slightly true, but pundits repeat the lie again and again.

When there is a cascade of failing businesses at one time, it is easy to think of it as an economic contagion that is a by-product of capitalism. Yet, a cluster of business errors can be laid firmly at the feet of government.

For more than 40 years, the Farmland Protection Policy Act has socialized US farmlands and transferred wealth to politically-connected people. What it hasn’t done is protect farmland.

For more than 40 years, US farm policy has socialized farm land and transferred wealth to politically-connected people. 

What are the things that undermine and ultimately destroy an economy and our standard of living? Dr. Mark Thornton presents seven reasons why our economy is deteriorating.

While US politicians are presenting policy prescriptions to make life more affordable, none of them are proposing what really would end this crisis: free markets.

Politicians now are campaigning on “affordability,” but their idea of making things in life more “affordable” consists of numerous interventions into free markets that ultimately make things more costly.

As the US economy slowly implodes, the government causing the implosion is not done with its economic destruction. The Federal Reserve remains the engine of inflation, while tariffs and other interventions help to finish the job.

Government transit in the US is going from bad to worse. Systems are breaking down and law-abiding riders face dangers of assault, robbery, and murder. The current “solution”? Spend even more money on these systems.