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My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy worries that the strength of that great geyser of cronyism, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, will be restored [2]. A slice:

One of the core businesses of the Ex-Im Bank is backing loans made to foreign customers of domestic companies. For the most part, both the clients getting the loans and the domestic firms being subsidized are large and successful companies with plenty of access to capital. On the domestic side, before Ex-Im lost a large portion of its lending authority in 2015 due to the lack of quorum on its board of directors (it needs three members to approve deals above $10 million), 65 percent of its activities benefited 10 very large and successful companies, like GE, Caterpillar, Applied Materials and the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation.

My GMU Econ colleague Bryan Caplan is grateful for the entrepreneurs and businesses that make our world what it is – and he laments that so many other people are ungrateful [3]. A slice:

When I reflect on the last two decades of the internet, I can only conclude that we live in a world of ingratitude.  Stellar companies do a bang-up job, and “opinion leaders” – most of whom could barely design a webpage – desperately hunt for dark linings in the silver clouds of progress.  Yes, even stellar companies aren’t perfect.  But unlike pundits and politicians, they’ve earned our trust [4] – and keep earning it every day.  On the whole, I’m not just a satisfied customer.  I’m an enthusiastic customer.  You should be too.

Mark Jamison explains why – contrary to many reports – today’s tech firms do not possess inordinate ‘market power [5].’

Mike Munger busts the myth that the state is the only alternative to private, for-profit markets [6].

Pierre Lemieux points us to a clear explanation of why the common assertion that imports reduce GDP is mistaken [7].

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, my Mercatus Center colleague Dan Griswold correctly argues that trade wars make poorer the peoples of all governments that wage these wars [8].

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