The attacks against deregulation of the California power industry by the enemies of capitalism are attacks against a straw man. Deregulation means that government removes onerous regulations that violate the rights of producers and consumers to trade freely (markets...
Dr. Thomas Sowell has just released his latest treasure -- it's title is "Basic Economics." Reading through the book reminded me of a 30-plus-year-old conversation I had with Professor Armen Alchian, one of my tenacious mentors during my graduate training at UCLA....
It was only a passing news item when the financial information service Standard & Poor's lowered the rating it gave to bonds issued by the state of California. But it has big implications and it also shows the big difference between economics and politics. At the...
If Bush administration officials think they have their hands full shepherding the president's tax-cut package through a closely divided Congress, wait until they turn their full attention to reviving a moribund U.S. trade policy. As U.S. Trade Representative Robert...
Leaders of 34 American countries are meeting this weekend in Quebec City at the Summit of the Americas to discuss the establishment of a free trade zone extending from Canada to Chile. A Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is a top priority of the Bush...
The last time so many people were as bedeviled as the people of California are today by electrical blackouts was back in 1979, when motorists in cities across the country were lined up for hours at filling stations, waiting to get gas. Both shortages had the same...
The antitrust laws are thus a palpably unjust legal doctrine, and respect for individual rights demands that the District Court’s judgment against Microsoft be reversed and the antitrust laws held invalid and unconstitutional.
The Federal Reserve Board's recent decision to put downward pressure on interest rates has temporarily quieted those who claimed George W. Bush was exaggerating the possibility of an economic downturn solely to boost his tax cut plan. Many critics, however, continue...
The federal government's persecution of Microsoft is a travesty--the worst combination of third-rate economics and special- interest politics. Last year's ruling against the company may be a victory for envy-driven bureaucrats at the U.S. Justice Department, but it...
One of the reasons for the confusion surrounding so many economic issues -- such as the current electricity crisis in California -- is an underlying confusion about what economics itself is all about. To many people, economics is about money. But economies and...
The power crisis in California now threatens to shut down Silicon Valley--and if Silicon Valley goes, it could end up shutting down America's economy. To save itself -- and the rest of us -- what should California do? That depends on what the problem is. Some say the...
The biggest question about anti-trust law is whether there really is any such thing. There are anti-trust theories and anti-trust rhetoric, as well as judicial pronouncements on anti-trust. But there is very little that could be called law in the full sense of rules...
As an economist, whenever I hear the word "shortage" I wait for the other shoe to drop. That other shoe is usually "price control." So it was no great surprise to discover, after the electric power shortage in California made headlines, that there were price controls...
Think about the government's case against Microsoft and, just as importantly, it's implications for our liberty. Let's ask a general question just to get started. If there's an act we all agree is immoral and unacceptable when done by an individual, does that act...
The Microsoft antitrust case represents a breathtaking and frightening extension of antitrust law to a new American technological industry that is the envy of the rest of the world.
Is the protection of domestic jobs more important than the protection of individual rights?
Rather than my usual fall schedule of teaching in the Economics Department at George Mason University, I taught "The Economic Foundations of Legal Studies" at the university's School of Law to first-year law students. Economics is no stranger at George Mason's Law...
I was saddened to see the lead article in last Tuesday's (12/5/00) Wall St. Journal "Microsoft Tries to Lob Monkey Wrench Into AOL-Time Warner Deal." In the story, reporters alleged Microsoft might be cooperating with the Federal Trade Commission to provide evidence...
Crane hunting is the craze for foreign investors traveling in China. Seemingly every morning an American wakes up bright and early in his five star hotel built in the coastal cities expressly for the purpose of pampering foreign investors with expense accounts. He...
Keynesians continue to peddle their snake oil because the real function of their “economics” is to justify Big Government and the redistribution of income.
George W. Bush might lose this election -- not to Al Gore but, paradoxically, to the Reagan Economy. At Willoughby South High School in Ohio, Dick Cheney, the Republican vice presidential nominee, explained why when he declared that the good economy Americans are...
In a decision generally hailed as a victory for Microsoft, the Supreme Court rejected the government's plea to hear a direct appeal of the government's Antitrust case against Microsoft. In April, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft had violated...
There's a certain economic platitude that outrages me every time I hear it repeated by the financial press and political economists. Put simply, it's the familiar comment that economic growth causes inflation. It has many variations, including "high employment causes...
Most of us can name no more than a dozen antitrust prosecutions under the Clinton Administration. However, since 1994, the Department of Justice has filed over 500 antitrust suits against American companies. The majority of suits went unnoticed, and only a select few...
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