Bureaucracy and Regulation

Rent control always results in housing shortages and deteriorating housing stock. Governments and activists, unfortunately, never learn any lessons.

As we see from Jamaica‘s experience, attempts by the government to be entrepreneurial misallocate resources, waste money, and achieve poor results.

Britain‘s new Labour Government is doing what leftist governments always do: raising taxes on everyone, but pretending that only the wealthiest citizens will pay more. Middle-class British farmers are quickly finding out that the taxman is coming for them too.

A common refrain among college fans is, "The Transfer Portal and NIL are ruining college sports." But are they? Before we can answer that question, we have to be able to explain what is happening, and Austrian economics provides the best analytical tools.

US coins in circulation get damaged and are eligible to be redeemed through the US Mint Mutilated Coin Redemption Program, begun in 1911.

The great free-market classical liberal William Leggett believed that Americans do not need politicians telling us on which days Americans ought to be thankful.

Critics of free markets claim that the 1980s and 90s were near-pure laissez-faire when, in reality, the regulatory state only got stronger. 

As Joseph Schumpeter noted, markets need “creative destruction” to survive and advance. However, Europe‘s Digital Market Act (DMA)—while written to ostensibly protect competition—gives the digital economy uncreative destruction.

Murray Rothbard wrote that egalitarianism is a “revolt against nature.” Progressives claim that inequality harms society and is morally unacceptable, but in reality, it is necessary for division of labor, which enables social cooperation.

"Hurry up and wait" is often the reality of medical care. We shouldn't be surprised to know that long lines and government intervention go together.