Season 2, Episode 3 Health Care
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Permission Slips for Innovation
Part Two: How Certificate of Need laws limit access to health care, and why those rules can be so difficult to dislodge.
Free Markets
Google Goes On Trial (Again) Today
Democrats' aggressive antitrust agenda threatens to upend Google's ad tech business—and make U.S. markets less free.
Season 2, Episode 1 Free Markets
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Can Mark Cuban Make Prescriptions Affordable Again?
Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs project brings a bit of free market flair to the health care industry, but the lack of meaningful price signals is only part of the problem.
The Government's Permitting Regime Is Choking the Economy
Housing costs, job availability, energy prices, and technological advancement all hinge on a web of red tape that is leaving Americans poorer and less free.
Leave U.S. Steel Alone
Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and J.D. Vance agree that U.S. Steel needs to be controlled from Washington. They are all wrong.
Season 2 Podcasts
Trailer: Why We Can't Have Nice Things Season 2
A new season brings six new stories about how the government is making Americans poorer and sicker.
Gavin Newsom's 'Price Gouging' Shtick Is Running on Empty
Gas prices in California are exceptionally high because of the state's high taxes and anti-oil regulations, not because gas station owners there are greedier.
Hair-Braiding Business Denied Permission To Operate Over Fears of Competition
Since when do government officials get to decide that a market is “oversaturated”?
Kamala Harris' 'Price Gouging' Ban: A New Idea That Has Failed for Thousands of Years
A half-baked idea that is just as dubious as Donald Trump's tariffs.
Harris Joins the FTC's Food Fight Against Kroger-Albertsons Merger
Amid rising grocery costs, the FTC's fight against the merger may end up hurting the very consumers it's supposed to protect.
Federal Court Rules That Google Illegally Maintained a Monopoly
Google is "the best," the court says. But being on top is dangerous.
RFK Jr. Pays Lip Service to the Debt While Pushing Policies That Would Increase It
It's good to hear a candidate actually talk about our spending problem. But his campaign promises would exacerbate it.
The 'Pro-Worker' GOP Is Anti-Worker
The New Right talks a big populist game, but their policies hurt the people they're supposed to help.
'The Problem Is Spending': Libertarian Presidential Nominee Chase Oliver's Vision for the Future
The candidate supports gun rights, wants to privatize government programs, and would radically reduce the number of federal employees.
Have Republicans Abandoned Free Markets?
Reason's Emma Camp attended the Republican National Convention to ask attendees if they still believe in the power of free markets.
Biden and Trump Are Pushing the Same Failed Trade Policies
Tariffs lead to trade wars, limit competition, and reduce innovation. But both Trump and Biden want more of them.
MAGA Voters Try To Convince a Libertarian To Vote Trump
Reason's Emma Camp attended the Republican National Convention to ask delegates and voters who they think libertarians should vote for this year and why.
FTC Opens a Backdoor Route to Age Verification on Social Media
In a "novel" order concerning the app NGL, the agency takes aim at online anonymity and at minors on social media.
'I Don't Support Mandates From Government': John Stossel Interviews Libertarian Presidential Nominee Chase Oliver
The candidate makes the case against the two-party system.
Boom in DIY Medical Testing Gives Americans More Control Over Their Health
Thanks to clever inventions and investments from venture capitalists, the average American can head to CVS and purchase kits to test for drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDs, diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol.
Government Subsidies Keep Your Food Boring
The feds’ focus on large-scale crops hinders the resurgence of heritage grains and results in less food diversity.
Biden Keeps Blaming Others for His Economic Mistakes
The president has tried to shift blame for inflation, interest rate hikes, and an overall decimation of consumers' purchasing power.
'Right to IVF Act' Would Mandate Insurance Coverage for IVF, Surrogacy, Egg Freezing, and More
It's the contraception mandate in reverse, with no exception for religious employers.
News Publishers Try To Sic the Government on Google AI
A journalism industry trade group is asking the federal government to thwart a tech tool that could make news publishing less profitable.
Louisiana Finally Fixes America's Dumbest Licensing Requirement
Louisiana lawmakers approved a bill to end the testing requirement for florists. Going forward, only a fee will be required.
California's $20 Fast Food Minimum Wage Law Is Already Having Disastrous Unintended Consequences
Many have seen their hours reduced—or have lost their jobs entirely.
The Best of Reason: Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning Work
Revolutionary AI technologies can't solve the "wicked problems" facing policy makers.
American Manufacturers Need Tax and Regulatory Reform, Not Tariffs
Despite both presidential candidates touting protectionist trade policy, tariffs do little to address the underlying factors that make it difficult for U.S. manufacturers to compete in the global marketplace.
Marco Rubio Used To Know How Tariffs Work. What Happened?
The economics of tariffs have not changed in the past eight years. Marco Rubio has.
Trump Promised To 'Drain the Swamp.' He Did the Opposite.
Total spending under Trump nearly doubled. New programs filled Washington with more bureaucrats.
Not Even Artificial Intelligence Can Make Central Planning Work
Revolutionary AI technologies can't solve the "wicked problems" facing policy makers.
No One Can Make Government Work
If businesses don't serve customers well, they go out of business. Government, on the other hand, is a monopoly.
China Is Doubling Down on Electric Vehicle Subsidies
Electric vehicles are not a bad thing, especially in heavily polluted China. But the market should drive demand, not central planners.
Another Illegal Power Grab From the FTC
Banning noncompete agreements goes well beyond the FTC's legal authority.
Capitalism Makes Society Less Racist
In the Jim Crow South, businesses fought racism—because the rules denied them customers.
New Privacy Rights Act Exempts Government and Gives More Power to the FTC
An interview with Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski.
Javier Milei and Elon Musk Bond Over Markets
Argentine President Javier Milei and Tesla CEO Elon Musk met for the first time in Austin, Texas, where they "agreed on the need for free markets."
Politicians Are Showering Manufacturing Companies With Crony Subsidies for 'Job Creation.' It Won't Work.
These handouts will flow to businesses—often big and rich—for projects they would likely have taken on anyway.
Trump and Biden Both Get Globalization Wrong
Free trade brings us more stuff at lower prices.
A Social Anarchist Issues a Challenge
Jesse Spafford's new book argues that libertarian premises lead to left-anarchist conclusions. Is he right?
Biden's Antitrust Case Against Apple Is Truly Stupid
Plus: A listener asks about the absurdity of Social Security entitlements.
The Absurd Apple Antitrust Lawsuit
If you fail to see a problem with Apple's actions, you may not be an overzealous government lawyer.
The Government Can't Save India's Suffering Farmers
Protests in the country come from an understandable place. But their demands are divorced from certain unfortunate economic realities.
David Boaz: Libertarianism Is the Intellectual Core of Liberalism
How Vietnam, Watergate, and stagflation supercharged the libertarian movement.
Pornhub Pulls Out of Seventh State
The company leaves Texas over an “ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous” age-verification law.
Magatte Wade on Africa, Foreign Aid, and Free Markets
"We are poor because we don't let our entrepreneurs work," says the director of the Center for African Prosperity at the Atlas Network.
Virginia Surrogacy Bill Doesn't Go Far Enough
Allowing surrogacy brokers to be paid is good. Allowing surrogates themselves to be paid would be better.
Milei's Free Market Reforms Can Reshape Argentine Cinema
Decades of protectionism have led to the film industry’s decline, but a free market can make it bloom.
