Bureaucracy and Regulation

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.

Today we are featuring the winning essays in the Student Essay Contest for undergraduates at the Austrian Economics Research Conference.

In the early republic, debates over constitutional rights were centered on state bills of rights. But, over time the state charters were gradually co-opted by federal judges and courts.

There has been much hysteria over the rise of artificial intelligence, much of it overblown and downright silly. No, AI is not about to impose tyranny on helpless humanity. Like all other technology, AI is a tool that can be used for good or ill.

In less than a century, Argentina went from being one of the world’s wealthiest nations to one that struggles with poverty and massive inflation. Human Action provides lasting wisdom to improve life in that country.

While politicians and bureaucrats always claim to work in the "public interest," the rewards they gain for making bad economic decisions are more important to them than any satisfaction they get from supposedly "serving the people."

Like so many other places where politicians promise something for nothing, Argentina has imposed rent controls in the name of “affordable housing.” President Milei is doing what he can to repeal these policies.

For more than a century, elite progressives have imposed draconian measures to curb population growth, which they said would destroy the earth. The population has grown, but the earth seems to be doing quite well, thank you.

California’s legislature wants to combine the idea of two-part price discrimination with a soak-the-rich mentality in charging for utilities. What possibly could go wrong?

When the government wants to make something more affordable, that usually means new subsidies, laws, and regulations that drive up the real price. Higher medical prices will mean more medical bankruptcies.