Trump's Washing Machine Tariffs Cleaned Out Consumers
A new report finds the tariffs raised $82 million for the U.S. Treasury but ended up increasing costs for consumers by about $1.2 billion.
Economics
Will 2020 Democrats Spook the Stock Market?
If so, it could undercut one of Trump's best re-election selling points: the strong economy.
Supreme Court To Consider Whether Civil Rights Act Protects Gay and Transgender Workers
Does current precedent forbidding discrimination on the basis of sex-based stereotypes apply here?
Are Food-Stamp Receipts Beyond the Reach of FOIA? Supreme Court Hears Arguments Today
Plus: Violence in Sri Lanka leads to social media suppression, and the White House wants to make it harder for pretrial diversion participants to get government jobs.
Andrew Yang: The Capitalist Candidate Championing a Universal Basic Income
The 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful is running on a "Freedom Dividend" plan which promises a $1,000 per month UBI.
Simon Abundance Index Launch on Monday at the Cato Institute
Mark the 49th anniversary of Earth Day by celebrating human ingenuity.
Is Nationwide Marijuana Legalization Just Around the Corner?
Erik Altieri of NORML sees a bright future for American pot.
Is Marginally Loosening California's Zoning Restrictions Racist?
A new mailer from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation argues that allowing the construction of apartment buildings near transit stops is tantamount to "negro removal."
Bernie Sanders Is a Millionaire. That's Great!
The democratic socialist gets rich—and makes the argument for capitalism.
Defenders of Bans on Cashless Businesses Say They're Defending Choice. They're Not.
Prohibiting businesses from going cardless ignores the choices of consumers and businesses alike.
Happy Tax Day! Here Are 6 Infuriating Ways the Government Spends Your Money
Surprised? Yeah, neither are we.
They Said This Law Would Fix Blighted Neighborhoods. Instead It's Being Used to Steal People's Homes
And the Pennsylvania state lawmaker who wrote the law is now the judge who hears a lot of the cases.
GAO: Current Federal Fiscal Situation Is 'Unsustainable'
America will face "serious economic, security, and social challenges" if the national debt keeps growing at this rate.
Arizona Is Close to Abolishing an Absurd Licensing Law Requiring 1,000 Hours of Training to Blow-Dry Hair
Another victory for licensing reform in the Grand Canyon State.
Everybody Hates Howard Schultz
Behind the usual partisan contempt for deficit-minded centrism lies an accurate critique that the billionaire outsider has naive, do-something ideas.
After the Supreme Court Said Unions Can't Force Non-Members to Pay Dues, Almost All of Them Stopped
After the Janus ruling, AFSCME lost 98 percent of its agency fee-paying members, while the SEIU lost 94 percent.
Why Tyler Cowen Loves Big Tech (And Thinks You Should, Too)
A love letter to getting good stuff cheaply
Bryan Caplan's New Book on Open Borders
It should be of great interest to anyone who follows debates over immigration.
Standing on the Shoulders of Tyrants
Donald Trump's rhetoric is breathtakingly authoritarian, but so far he's done less than his predecessors to expand executive power.
Mark Zuckerberg Calls for Government Regulation of Political Speech on Facebook
He's got his reasons, but they all suck. And will accelerate Facebook's decline as a destination in cyberspace.
Trump Wants to Name Political Loyalists to Federal Reserve Board
Fed governors like Herman Cain or Stephen Moore are likely to want to goose short term apparent prosperity to help the president politically. That's a bad idea.
Will Today's Global Trade Wars Lead to World War III?
The splintering of international economic interdependence is a worrying sign for peace through trade.
Government-Mandated Paid Leave Programs Don't Work
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
What Brothels Can Teach All of Us About Risk
Allison Schrager's An Economist Walks Into a Brothel demystifies sex work, big-wave surfing, horse-breeding, and other high-risk professions.
An Economist Walks Into a Brothel: What Prostitutes and Big-Wave Surfers Can Teach Us About Risk
Allison Schrager wants to change the way you take chances.
Bad Math and Worse Policy Ideas on Equal Pay Day
Plus: closing the border is bad for U.S. "profits" and Jesse Singal on left-wing identitarianism.
Mark Zuckerberg: 'I Believe We Need a More Active Role for Governments and Regulators'
Facebook and the end of the open Internet era
These Three Cities Spent $70 Million on Stadiums to Lure Minor League Baseball Teams. They All Struck Out.
Across the country, minor league teams are exploiting civic enthusiasm for small town sports.
Los Angeles Legalized Pot Sales. Now It May Launch a New War on Weed.
High taxes and slow bureaucracy keeps the black market alive.
Arthur Brooks Wants You To Love Your Enemies: Podcast
The president of the American Enterprise Institute says we need to reboot politics and that libertarians may hold the key.
Why Do You Need a License To Blow Dry Hair? Arizona Gov. Ducey Fights the 'Bullies' in His State
When "somebody packs up that moving van in Chicago, Illinois, they don't lose their skills on the way to the state of Arizona," says Gov. Doug Ducey.
Michigan's Legal Marijuana Market Will Be Uncompetitive With Illegal Dealers
The black market is how you get things done when government gets in the way.
February's Budget Deficit Was the Largest in American History
The feds are $234 billion in the red. Looking for hope? Sen. Mike Enzi has some ideas.
Modern Art Critic Assumes 1939 Painting Is All About Homophobia. It's About Murderous Union Thugs.
Paul Cadmus's Herrin Massacre is "The Painting Our Art Critic Can't Stop Thinking About." If only he'd thought harder.
Trump Was Asked Whether Imported Cars Are a National Security Risk. His Answer: 'No.'
That should be enough to end this silly debate. But what the president says and what the president does are not always the same.
Netflix's Love, Death and Robots Is a Sci-Fi Demo Reel For the Untapped Potential of Animation
An anthology series about sad salesmen, space marines, super-intelligent yogurt, and the national debt
Free Markets Are Moral, Not the 'Lesser of Two Evils'
A system that lets us make our own decisions about our own lives is more moral than one that transfers them to powerful strangers.
Cindy Yang Says Democrats Are Playing Politics With Request for FBI to Investigate Her
Plus: An Ohio city just abolished its entire vice policing unit, and unfunded liabilities in public pension plans are now more than $5.96 trillion.
RIP Economist Alan Krueger, Whose Work Spurred Calls for Occupational Licensing Reform
Krueger's work included highlighting the breadth of licensing in American labor markers, and the economic costs of mandatory government permission slips.
Trump's New Budget Uses More Realistic Assumptions Than His Predecessors' Did
Trump's budget projects 10 straight years of 3 percent growth. If this forecast fails to materialize, it will make the budget deficits worse than projected.
The 4 Contradictions of Beto O'Rourke
He's a free trader against dumping, a deficit hawk for Medicare expansion, and an anti-drug warrior who wants to imprison pharma execs.
Remy: Affluenflammation (Red Hot Chili Peppers Parody)
When quality of life improved, doctors discovered a new affliction.
Beto O'Rourke, 2012: 'We Cannot Continue to Spend Ourselves into Ruin'
The 2020 presidential candidate ran on spending cuts, troop withdrawls, and means-testing Social Security while primarying an incumbent Democrat 7 years ago.
Public Universities Are Paying NCAA Tournament Head Coaches $96 Million a Year
Here's how much each coach earns.
Trump's Trade War Was Supposed to Protect American Tech Companies. Instead It's Hurting Them.
"Bilateral tariffs result in lower GDP, employment, investment, and trade for the U.S.," a new report concludes.
