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My intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy warns of the dangers of Uncle Sam’s ‘entitlements’ commitments.

“Thanks to Trump, Refugees Fleeing Authoritarian States Are No Longer Welcome” – that’s the title of my and GMU Econ grad-student Jeffrey Mason’s recent op-ed in The Morning Consult. A slice:

The Trump administration hasn’t just slashed the cap levels on refugee resettlement. It isn’t even attempting to meet those limits, leaving thousands of refugee-admission slots unused every year. This inaction comes at a time when the United Nations estimates there to be over 25 million refugees worldwide in need of resettlement. Few examples come to mind of a more needless and depraved abdication of responsibility by an American president, the costs of which are borne by the world’s most vulnerable people.

Phil Magness tells the story of Karl Marx’s London gravesite, and draws from it a lesson.

Well, well, well … minimum-wage diktats do indeed have negative consequences for those whom such diktats are meant to help (as Mark Perry here reveals).

From August 2008 is this plea by Bjorn Lomborg for free trade. A slice:

It is interesting to contrast global skepticism about free trade with support for expensive, inefficient methods to combat global warming. Many argue that we should act, even if such action will have no benefit for the next decades, because it will help lessen the impact of global warming by the century’s end.

But free trade also promises few benefits now and huge benefits in the future. Moreover, if we could stop global warming (which we can’t), the benefit for future generations would be one-tenth or less of the benefit of freer trade (which we certainly can achieve). Still, there are few celebrity campaigners calling on politicians to sort out the Doha Round.

Global fear about free trade leaves the planet at risk of missing out on the extraordinary benefits that it offers. Free trade is good not only for big corporations, or for job growth. It is simply good.

David Henderson properly praises Peter Van Doren’s recent piece on payday loans.

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