Tweet [1]
Matthew Sickmeier helps to expose some fallacies at the root of the “buy local” craze [2].
George Will wonders if Trump’s victory is Pyrrhic for the G.O.P [3].
Speaking of the coming U.S. presidency of Trump, here’s my colleague Tyler Cowen [4].
My Mercatus Center colleague Dan Griswold ponders trade policy under President Trump [5].
Cato’s Dan Ikenson does the same [6].
Richard Epstein offers sound advice to president-elect Trump [7]. A slice:
You [Pres. Trump] should take a similar hard look to actions take by the Department of Labor that disrupt all businesses. The recent decision to roughly double the wage and overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act to people who earn under $47,476 per year cannot be ducked by any firm. The administrative and financial burdens make it especially difficult for tech start-ups to sign up employees and for universities to compensate the graduate students so necessary for engineering and the natural sciences. These rules have to be pulled right away to give breathing room to American firms. In the slightly longer horizon, once your administration can name a majority of the members to the National Labor Relations Board, it has to reverse ground on virtually every major ruling that has come down, and to immediately terminate with prejudice the litigation that seeks to treat franchisors like MacDonald’s as “joint employers” subject to the jurisdiction of the NLRB. The Obama administration takes the view that successful business models have to be destroyed in the name of social justice, even if job stagnation results.
And Bob Higgs offers advice to liberty-loving people on the eve of Trump’s presidency [8].
Here’s George Selgin on the prospects of genuine monetary reform [9].