By Steve Pociask, American Consumer Institute To retitle the familiar song by Prince, it now appears the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is going to “party like it’s 1914.” The well-known consumer welfare standard – the principle that has focused antitrust enforcement onto whether consumers are harmed – is getting shelved by the […]
Tag: statism
AEC Announces Austrian Economics Conference in Vienna
By The Austrian Economics Center The 10th AEC International Conference, “The Austrian School of Economics in the 21st Century” will be held live in Vienna, Austria on November 4 and 5, 2021. Offered by the Austrian Economic Center (AEC) and Foundacion Internacional Bases, the event will not be online or zoom, but a […]
Public Spending Will Not Lower Broadband Prices
By Caroline Wang, American Consumer Institute President Biden has focused his efforts on making broadband internet access more affordable to Americans. It is a part of the American Jobs Plan he announced late March, a wide-ranging stimulus plan that forms a key component of the Administration’s post-Covid recovery efforts. The plan, […]
Basic Income: High Praise but Poor Results
By Kerry Jackson, Pacific Research Institute Handing out taxpayer dollars in the form of basic incomes is the latest policy rage. The Los Angeles Times reports there’s “a growing enthusiasm for basic income programs.” Vox says “guaranteed income is graduating from charity to public policy.” At KQED, they’re giving Oaklanders tips on […]
We need more borders and more states
By Ryan McMaken, Fundación Internacional Bases In the context of trade and immigration, borders are often explained as a means of excluding foreign workers. Thinking in a certain way, borders offer an opportunity for states to exclude private actors, such as workers, merchants and entrepreneurs. On the contrary, borders can also serve a […]
Washington’s War on Big Tech Continues
By Edward Longe, American Consumer Institute In an era of deep political divisions, no issue unifies Republicans and Democrats quite like punishing big tech. In the last twelve months, Senate Democrats and Republicans have released their own punitive proposals to reform America’s antitrust law. Additionally, Democrats in the House of Representatives just published […]
Washington Beyond the Headlines: Tax, Tax, Healthcare and…Tax
By Andy Blom, TES Washington Editor Joe Biden is bumbling through Europe, getting greeted (for better or worse) as “not Trump”. Benjamin Netanyahu gave his exit speech as Prime Minister of Israel and sounded more like Arnold Swarzenegger than Golda Meir (“I will be baaacckk!”). Aren’t political leaders fun? While our leaders […]
Visionary Milton Friedman and the Chinese Economy
By Rainer Zitelmann In October 1976 it was announced that the Nobel Prize in economics for that year would be awarded to the American economist Milton Friedman. Almost exactly a month before that announcement, Mao Zedong had passed away. Just four years after his death, Friedman visited China for the first time. […]
Roll out Renewables before Biden’s Blackouts Roll in
ByOliver McPherson-Smith. American Consumer Institute Commuters in California will be familiar with radio ads that ask them to ration electricity when they get home from work. The campaign begs consumers to power down between 4 pm and 9 pm, when renewable energy generation dips and utilities struggle to power the grid. […]
How ‘functional finance’ becomes heavier taxation
by Enrico Colombatto, Austrian Economics Center Even before Western governments decided to fight Covid-19 by freezing their economies and inflating their debts, many countries had problematic public finance situations. Now, public debt is soaring almost everywhere and dealing with it has become a major issue. The solution so far has been to resort […]