During my many battles fighting against cronyism, I have often been accused of being hard on government while letting businesses off the hook. This accusation is weird. Defending the free market is quite different from a blanket defense of businesses….
Another week, another reminder that heavy-handed government industrial policy is in fashion. Nobel Prize-winning economist Michael Spence recently endorsed it as embodied in the newly passed CHIPS legislation, an attempt to bolster America’s semiconductor industry. The endorsement, like so many,…
The folly of the Biden administration’s recently announced “Inflation Reduction Act” recalls Orwellian slogans such as “Slavery is Freedom.” The plan will throw fuel on the flames of stagflation while accelerating environmental deterioration. The act would raise an estimated $739…
Mexico’s attempt at a government-run wholesale wireless communications network is the latest in a string of costly, inefficient, and ultimately disastrous government-driven communications infrastructure projects worldwide. Since its inception, the “Red Compartida” (or shared network) has been mired in impropriety…
Industrial policy is making a comeback. For those of you under the age of 50, this is just another term for corporate welfare — a lovely name for the unlovely practice of a government granting subsidies, protective tariffs, and other…
Always beware of the name given to a piece of legislation. It rarely describes accurately the likely impact of enacting a bill. In fact, statutes often do the opposite of what their names suggest. Take Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s proposed…
When you walk into a high-end cocktail bar these days, there’s a good chance you’ll notice something a little different. Many of these mixology havens are now offering drinks that seem to be missing a key ingredient: alcohol. This is…
Over at National Review last week, the Tax Foundation’s Alex Muresianu dug into the nuts and bolts of a carbon tax and argued (credibly) that a carbon tax could be preferable to our existing jumble of climate regulations. As Muresianu…
Growing up in Albania, a country still suffering from the grave wounds inflicted by communism, it was easy to distinguish right-wing principles: love for God, family, community, country, respect for culture, tradition, and history, limited government, free markets, anti-communism, tolerance…
Does anyone truly believe that our government — which consistently creates monopoly privileges for companies with its own cronyism — can be trusted to ensure that private markets remain competitive? Apparently so. Consider the resurgence of antitrust efforts against “Big…