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Jeffrey Tucker explains that what he calls the “identitarians” of the right are, at root, the same as the identitarians of the left [2].  A slice:

Incredibly, these groups don’t mention (with any consistency) the elephant in the room: the state itself. Here is the real source of oppression and exploitation of everyone regardless of sex, gender, race, religion, or ability. The state works to pit people against each other, as a way of distracting the public from the misdeeds of its tax, regulatory, and penal system. So long as we not looking at the real source of the problem head on, and are rather looking at each other in a dog-eat-dog struggle, society cannot improve.

Mark Perry elaborates on an important point about trade from a 1996 pamphlet by Doug Irwin [3].  A slice:

The “businesses are consumers too” is just one of the three excellent principles that Professor Irwin highlights in his essay [4], the other two are: a) a tax on imports is a tax on exports and b) trade imbalances reflect capital flows. There is a lot of sound economic thinking on trade and trade policy in the 27 pages of Irwin’s easy-to-read, non-technical pamphlet — maybe it should be required reading for Trump’s trade team?

Matt Ridley reflects on government bureaucrats [5].

Kay Hymowitz pushes back against those who argue that poverty in the United States is a function of an insufficiently generous welfare state and has little or nothing to do with children living with single parents [6].

The Tea Party is Dead. [7]

Marc Joffe describes Trump’s new budget plan as “a fiscal disaster. [8]

Rob Bradley remembers the late, great Julian Simon, who today – February 12 – would have turned 86 [9].

My colleague Pete Boettke reminds us of the important public purpose of economics [10].  A slice:

I retain faith that if we economist do our job and explain clearly and concisely the logic of economic forces at work, and expose the public to the true costs and benefits, and who gains and whose expense, then a lot of bad public policies would cease to find popular support, and even more so, certain cherished ideological beliefs would be abandoned.  Reason and Evidence, not Passionate Emotions and Primitive Intuitions, can be the guide to policy, and result in peace and prosperity and general human flourishing.

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