Despite the Doomsday Narrative, Global Inequality Has Significantly Declined
This progress has been widely shared, to the great benefit of the people at the bottom of the distribution.
Free Trade
Politicians Say They Want To Fight Climate Change. So Why Are They Fighting China on Electric Vehicles?
Rather than posing a national security threat, the growth of China's E.V. industry is an opportunity for global innovation.
Season 1, Episode 6 Podcasts
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Can You Afford Tariffs on Tin Cans?
"There's nobody that says, wait, is this good for America? Is this good for the American consumer?"
Trump's Tariffs Didn't Reduce the Trade Deficit. Why Would They Work Now?
Donald Trump's latest argument for protectionism is undermined by the realities of his own trade policies.
Season 1, Episode 5 Podcasts
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: The 'Chicken Tax' That Makes Pickup Trucks More Expensive
"It's not easy to make one of these rules, but it's a thousand times harder to get rid of one."
Republicans Should Be Pouncing on Biden's Opposition to Free Trade
Instead, Donald Trump is proposing a 10-percent automatic tariff on all imports, a trade policy even worse than Biden's.
Season 1, Episode 4 Podcasts
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Bootleggers, Baptists, and Ballots
"You need an argument for why this is good for society. That's important, but you also need money."
Trump Floats Tariff Plan That Will Make Everything More Expensive
The "Tariff Man" promises to strike again.
China's Industrial Policy Is Failing. Will American Politicians Take Notice?
Panic over China's rapid economic growth has fueled all manner of big-government proposals. They're looking even more foolish now.
A New Podcast Explains Why We Can't Have Nice Things
The answer? Because special interests and government prevent the free market from working the way it should.
Season 1, Episode 3 Free Trade
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Jones Act Traffic Jam
"It's just a very classic case of everything wrong with Washington."
Eric Boehm: How Protectionist Trade Policies Screw Us All
The host of Why We Can't Have Nice Things explains how indefensible tariffs cause baby formula shortages, screw Hawaii residents, and increase traffic in the Northeast.
When Trade War Threatens Real War
Biden is blurring the lines between economic policy and military action.
Season 1, Episode 2 Free Trade
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: The Ghosts of Protectionism Past
The U.S. tariff code is "quite regressive and somewhat misogynist" because the most powerful lobbyist in Washington is muscle memory.
Biden Escalates Trade War With China
A new national emergency declaration will allow for the creation of an outbound investment screening system targeting Americans' investments in China.
Season 1, Episode 1 Podcasts
Why We Can't Have Nice Things: The Great Baby Formula Shortage of 2022
A combination of "absurdly high" federal tariffs and excessive FDA regulations created the conditions for a crisis.
The Democratic Governor Who Wants Drug Legalization and Free Markets
"Government in general does a lot of things that aren't necessary," says Jared Polis.
Season 1 Free Trade
Trailer: Why We Can't Have Nice Things Season 1
A six-part podcast series on trade policy launching next week
Biden Administration Considering New Tariffs That Will Hike Prices for Canned Goods
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission are considering a petition that would impose tariffs of up to 300 percent on tinplate steel.
Trade War Heats Up With China's Export Restrictions on Two Critical Minerals
China and the U.S. are locked in a mutually destructive economic conflict.
This Election Season, Beware of These False Promises
Many politicians offer a simplified view of the world—one in which government interventions are all benefits and no costs. That couldn't be further from the truth.
Soho Forum Debate: Gene Epstein vs. David Friedman on the Nonaggression Principle
Economists Gene Epstein and David Friedman debated how best to persuade people to become libertarians at the Porcupine Freedom Festival.
Thank Dutch Merchants, Not a Strong State, for Capitalism
Pioneers of Capitalism chronicles centuries of bottom-up economic evolution in the Netherlands.
The FTC Is Investigating Anti-Competitive Baby Formula Contracts. Bad Federal Policy Is To Blame.
If the FTC wants to know why there's such a notable lack of competition within America's baby formula market, it ought to ask other parts of the federal bureaucracy.
Josh Hawley Wants the Debt Ceiling Deal To Include a Massive Tax Hike on Americans
Hawley might call them "tariffs on China," but that's obvious nonsense: Tariffs are paid by Americans.
Conservatives Pushing 'Common Good Capitalism' Sound a Lot Like Progressives
The ideology champions the same tired policies that big government types predictably propose whenever they see something they don't like.
Biden's Industrial Policy Promises a Return to the 1970s
The hard lesson that free markets are better than state control may have to be relearned.
Debate: The E.U. Was a Mistake
Are the plausible alternatives to continental governance any better?
Biden and Congressional Democrats Support Policies That Will Undermine Their Own Clean Energy Goals
The House passed a resolution that will reimpose tariffs on solar panels from China, while the EPA sits on applications for carbon capture technology that may soon be mandatory.
Is the Jones Act Unconstitutional?
An argument that the wasteful law violates the Constitution's Port Preference Clause.
Ian Vásquez: COVID Accelerated the Global Decline in Human Freedom
Overall human freedom peaked in 2007, according to the Cato Institute, and governments' COVID response merely exacerbated the trend toward a radically less-free planet.
Biden's 'Buy American' Rules Are Getting in the Way of Biden's Rural Broadband Push
Industrial policy is never as simple as it seems.
Trump's Indictment Illustrates How the Wackos Have Hijacked Politics
Also: The sensitivity readers come for sci-fi anarchist Ursula Le Guin, how foreign trade can make American supply chains more resilient, and more...
Banning Chinese Products in the Name of 'National Security' Could Have Disastrous Consequences
It would result in shortages, decreases in productivity, and higher production costs affecting millions of American workers and nearly every consumer.
U.S. Trade Commission Admits Tariffs Raised Prices for American Consumers
American companies and consumers "bore nearly the full cost of these tariffs because import prices increased at the same rate as the tariffs."
America Needs a Better Kind of Capitalism
Big corporations and entire industries constantly use their connections in Congress to get favors, no matter which party is in power.
Politicians Use Subsidies To Squeeze Semiconductor Manufacturers
When politicians manipulate industry, the public pays the price.
The Jones Act Is Driving Up Prices and Making Crises Worse
The legislation, which forbids shipping anything between American ports in ships that are not U.S. built and crewed, is just another a special deal that one industry has scammed out of Congress.
Now the CHIPS Act Is Going To Subsidize Child Care Too
If Congress wants to spend taxpayer money on child care services, it should pass a bill authorizing that.
The Answer to Population Decline Is More Immigration
Politicians' go-to fixes like child tax credits and federal paid leave are known for creating disincentives to work without much impact on fertility.
Russia's War in Ukraine Threatens Starvation for the World's Poor
Global hunger declined for decades before pandemic policies and Russia’s invasion broke the world.
For Joe Biden, Competition Is Essential. Except When It Must Be Banned.
It's a fundamental contradiction that's affected the Biden administration's economic policy for the past two years.
Mike Pompeo Says He 'Grew Up Libertarian'
These days, he may run for president. His politics have changed.
Tariffs Targeting Carbon Emissions Would Be a Costly Blow to Free Trade
Joe Biden could take advantage of the expanded executive authority over trade that Donald Trump helped create.
Is It 'Treason' To Support Free Trade?
Shipping industry insiders floated a recommendation to charge critics of the Jones Act with treason, according to documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
China Is Scaling Back Its Failed Semiconductor Industrial Policies. America Should Do the Same.
The warning signs are flashing "don't be like China."
