Calculating America’s Lead over Europe

There’s an enormous amount of data showing that people in the United States enjoy much higher livings standards than Europeans. That’s not too surprising since most European governments have adopted large-sized welfare states while Americans are (comparatively!) lucky in that we have a medium-sized welfare state. That’s all very straightforward and uncontroversial. What’s not completely […]

Calculating America’s Lead over Europe

The Merciful Maximization of the Market

An excerpt from Chapter 2 of *Unbeatable*

The Merciful Maximization of the Market

Should gdp include defense spending?

Maybe not, isn’t that a form of double counting?  After all, defense spending is there to enable the production of other goods and services, it is not useful per se.  Chandler S. Reilly and Vincent Geloso recalculate the history of U.S. economic growth using this new method: In fact, our corrections applied to the entire […]

Should gdp include defense spending?

#TheGreatEscape

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BPNasgcGh/

The Mainstream World Is Not Free-Market

An excerpt from Chapter 1 of *Unbeatable*

The Mainstream World Is Not Free-Market

A new chapter in Canadian constitutional history? The King’s return to Parliament

Mark Carney announced last week that the King will open the Canadian Parliament in person later this month. It’s unusual for the Canadian Monarch to give the Speech from the Throne. The last time this happened was in 1977 when Queen Elizabeth II opened Parliament during her Silver Jubilee tour. Carney’s invitation is notable because […]

A new chapter in Canadian constitutional history? The King’s return to Parliament

The price of “free” healthcare is the wait

While healthcare in Canada’s single-payer health care system is technically free, its real price is measured in wait times.  In 2023, the median wait time from a general practitioner’s referral to treatment reached 27.7 weeks—the longest ever and nearly triple the 9.3 weeks reported in 1993. (MuskegonPundit) To see this, think of “free” as…

The price of “free” healthcare is the wait

Capitalism, Socialism, and Social Desirability Bias

An excerpt from the Introduction of *Unbeatable*

Capitalism, Socialism, and Social Desirability Bias

Auckland Uni students react to Treaty ‘indoctrination’

Compulsory first-year courses come under fire. Graham Adams writes –  This year, the University of Auckland launched mandatory courses focused on a particular view of New Zealand history, Te Tiriti, and indigenous “knowledge systems”— which is to say mātauranga Māori — for all first-year students.  It doesn’t matter whether you’re studying engineering, accounting, science or arts, you […]

Auckland Uni students react to Treaty ‘indoctrination’

Why the housing market imploded

In a recent paper, Christopher L. Foote, Kristopher S. Gerardi, and Paul S. Willen report (pdf): This paper presents 12 facts about the mortgage market. The authors argue that the facts refute the popular story that the crisis resulted from financial industry insiders deceiving uninformed mortgage borrowers and investors. Instead, they argue that borrowers and […]

Why the housing market imploded

Smoking

https://www.facebook.com/share/1FxVRG2WzA/

Socialism Is an Economic Cancer

Building on my four-part series (here, here, here, and here) explaining the case against socialism and my five-part series (here, here, here, here, and here) on socialism in the modern world, today’s column will look at the economic argument against that statist ideology. Practically speaking, this seems unnecessary. After all, we can simply look at […]

Socialism Is an Economic Cancer

Marriage is in decline

Interview with Robert Barro: Empirical Macroeconomics

Jon Hartley serves as interlocutor in “Revisiting Empirical Macroeconomics with Robert Barro” (Hoover Institution, Capitalism and Freedom Podcast, March 25, 2025, audio and transcript available). Here are a few of the comments from Barro that especially caught my eye. One basic question in economics is about “the multiplier”–that is, how much will an increase in…

Interview with Robert Barro: Empirical Macroeconomics

My debate with Dani Rodrik about tariffs and free trade

This occurred in Knoxville, you can watch it here.  Lots of fun, and p.s. I am more of a free trader than he is.  We did have some disagreements.

My debate with Dani Rodrik about tariffs and free trade

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