F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman are rightly recognized as two of history's most influential champions of the liberal market order, and perhaps the two most influential and important ones of the past 100 years. Both men adamantly insisted that they were liberals and not conservatives, both were founding members of the Mont Pelerin Society, and ...

In her excellent AIER essay "The Charge to Change Capitalism and Why the Profit Motive Must be Preserved" Kimberlee Josephson wisely warns of the dangers posed to the economy by ESG investing, "common-good capitalism," and other schemes to achieve allocations of resources different from the allocations that would be achieved by markets. ...

There's been much talk lately of "common good capitalism." Among the leading voices insisting that the state must engineer capitalism to ensure that it serves the common good are Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and American Compass founder Oren Cass. Also writing favorably about "common good capitalism" (although the full measure of his support ...

Recently during a stop at a rest area on the New Jersey Turnpike I marveled at the variety of people there, all of whom were complete strangers to me. I saw people much younger than me and a few much older. Many were clothed and coiffed – or tattooed and body-pierced – in manners that I would never dream of for myself, and that are sported by ...

Among the many recurring myths about free trade is that a country, especially a high-wage country such as the United States, can one day find itself the high-cost producer of every good and service and then … what? Recently, a correspondent, one who is by no means hostile to free markets, after reading this earlier AIER essay of mine emailed me ...

It seemed to work in New Zealand and Australia, but now ruinous, oppressive lockdowns are back. Much of the pathology underlying Covid policy arises from the fantasy that it is possible to eradicate the virus. Capitalizing on pandemic panic, governments and compliant media have used the lure of zero-Covid to induce obedience to harsh and ...

There are two different ways for you to acquire your daily bread, beef, and beer. Using the first way, you produce each of these goods yourself directly. You spend part of each day growing wheat and milling it into flour, with other parts of each day devoted to raising and slaughtering cows and distilling hops. But you likely acquire these ...

Any competently taught course in principles of economics should give each student the thrilling sense that he or she is being fitted with an almost miraculous pair of eyeglasses. This special ocular device, however, is worn not on the nose but in the mind. And the fact that it is thus invisible to the eye is itself ironic, for this ...

Opinions vary enormously about the merits of government-imposed lockdowns in response to the coronavirus. Some data get flung here, other data are paraded there, all amidst fiery discussions of the reality and relative importance of concepts that most of us had never heard of until just a few months ago – concepts such as herd ...

They Overrate Drug Autarky. Since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, many calls have gone out for America to become self-sufficient in medical supplies. Self-sufficiency in the production of such supplies sounds appealing. If we produce all of our drugs and medical equipment ourselves, we won’t be at the mercy of foreigners who, in times of ...

Quoting F.A. Hayek’s 1960 claim that free markets will bring about a “balance … between exports and imports,” Oren Cass argues that the string of annual U.S. trade deficits over the past 44 years proves that Hayek was wrong – that history has “broken” Hayek’s “promise.” Being a non-economist, Mr. Cass can be forgiven for missing Hayek’s ...

The North American Free Trade Agreement — NAFTA — is turning 25. And yet, a quarter century later, it continues to divide Americans. NAFTA is often cited as the quintessential example of what's wrong with free-trade agreements. One of its most vocal critics, President Trump, has called it "one of the worst deals our country has ever made from ...

The Labor Department isn’t being straight about the likely effect of adding people to the overtime rolls. Many salaried workers in the U.S. may soon be obliged to punch a time clock, thanks to the Labor Department’s proposed regulation raising the income level for workers to qualify for overtime. More overtime pay sounds great. But what ...

A world forced to rely on renewable energy would be cold, dark and haunted by hunger. Richard Branson,Arianna Huffington and several other business icons recently called on world leaders to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Such a commitment, they vow, would “drive innovation, grow jobs, build prosperity and secure a ...

Liberals misread the great free-market scholar in order to hijack his legacy..

With the possible exception of Adam Smith, no person in history is more widely recognized as ably championing free markets than Milton Friedman. Justly so: For more than 60 years until his death in 2006, he pressed the case for capitalism and freedom with impeccable ...