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In August 1971, President Richard Nixon enacted comprehensive wage-and-price controls in a misguided effort to contain inflationary pressures. (Contrary to the faulty memories of some Americans, this initial round of controls wasn’t due to the OPEC oil embargo , which didn’t occur until 1973.) Free-market economists like to use the long lines at

On April 16, 2018 I participated in a debate with George Selgin, hosted by Gene Epstein’s Soho Forum . I was arguing in the affirmative for the resolution: “Fractional reserve banking poses a threat to the stability of market economies.” The full video is available here (and note that some of my remarks allude to the opening comedy from Dave Smith

In a recent series of posts ( here and here ), I amplified some of Oren Cass’s strongest criticisms of the typical case for a US carbon tax. Seeing an opportunity for a zinger, Josiah Neeley at R Street  put up a post entitled, “Prominent carbon tax skeptic admits it could increase economic growth.” Although I appreciate being dubbed “prominent,”

America’s most famous Keynesian, economist Paul Krugman, predictably used his New York Times column to excoriate President Trump’s State of the Union infrastructure proposal. Yet ironically, Krugman’s own positions on the economy and climate change should lead him to applaud Trump’s ideas. This is just another episode where Krugman displays his

The Trump Administration has enacted tariffs on imported solar cells and larger modules (as well as on washing machines). In general, tariffs are counterproductive, because they only help some producers at the expense of others, and they unambiguously raise prices for consumers. That logic applies to this case as well. However, insofar as the

Various reports suggest that policymakers—including President Trump himself—are considering raising the federal gas tax, by as much as 25 cents per gallon. Supporters argue that a hike is necessary to replenish the Highway Trust Fund, and—for those concerned about climate change—some also argue that a higher gas tax is needed to encourage drivers

In a recent blog post , Paul Krugman tried to illustrate a point about the GOP tax cut plan by imagining interplanetary trade with Martians. (At least he’s now entertaining voluntary transactions, rather than an alien invasion .) Yet in his zeal to downplay the potential benefits to workers from a corporate tax cut, Krugman ends up shortchanging

At the Mises Institute’s upcoming Austrian Economics Research Conference (AERC), there will be a panel commemorating the 30 th anniversary of the second debate over socialist calculation. This second debate began with Israel Kirzner’s 1988 Review of Austrian Economics article that analyzed the original debate between Mises, Hayek, and the market

Presumably bolstered by the fiery claims of Greta Thunberg and the general theme of Climate Week, people on Twitter have been declaring that capitalism threatens humanity. This angst rekindled interest in a  Guardian article  that ran a few months ago, in which author George Monbiot argued that the very nature of capitalism is “incompatible with

As a co-host (along with Tom Woods) of the podcast Contra Krugman , I spend a lot of my time contrasting the typical Keynesian approach with that of the Austro-libertarian. And as fun as that is, it’s even more interesting to show how Austrians differ from another market-friendly paradigm, namely the “Law & Economics” paradigm associated with the