Bureaucracy and Regulation

A look at the differences between the Austrian School and the "Law & Economics" tradition, with respect to product safety regulation.

Tucker Carlson insists that capitalism is just a "tool" that governments can regulate and manipulate so as to better serve "the people." In practice, this just means one group of "the people" uses government policy to enrich themselves at the expense of others.

The relationship between the Nazi state and industry was not evidence that the Nazis had capitalist leanings, but that the German businessmen had socialist leanings.

In a city with rapidly rising housing needs, there is really only one way to keep housing prices stable or falling: produce a lot of housing.

There is a myth that Progressive humanitarians agitated for meat-packing regulations which now protect us from disease. The reality is that the big meat packers themselves wanted regulation to help crush the competition.

Rent controls are a recipe for less housing, and unaffordable rents. At least for most people.

Government anti-trust policy often results in destroying cost-saving measures adopted by larger firms, thus driving up prices for ordinary consumers.

Occupational licensing may increase quality for some higher income customers. But licensing increases monopoly power for dominant firms while driving lower-income customers out of the marketplace.

Mises states, quite rightly, that anyone who advocates governmental dictation over one area of individual consumption must logically come to advocate complete dictation over all choices.

Shannon O'Toole's memoir on working for the FDIC helps us understand why some have taken to calling federal employment "white collar welfare."