Tweet [1]
Bryan Caplan learned a lot from Kristian Niemietz’s Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies [3].
Matt Ridley rightly decries the EU’s innovation-stifling bureaucratic risk-aversion [4].
David Henderson supports free trade for reasons economic, ethical, and national security [5]. A slice:
In the 18th century, the national security reason for allowing free trade was articulated succinctly by a French philosopher whom many signers of the Declaration of Independence read: Baron de Montesquieu, who wrote [6], “Peace is the natural effect of trade.” He then gave his reason: “Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has an interest in buying, the other has an interest in selling: and thus their union is founded on their mutual necessities.” In this century, two economists who examined a large number of trading nations, produced evidence for his view. Solomon W. Polachek and Carlos Seiglie of Rutgers University wrote [7], “[T]rading nations cooperate more and fight less. A doubling of trade leads to a 20% diminution of belligerence.”
T. Norman Van Cott celebrates a core insight from Adam Smith [8].
Phil Magness rebuts the New York Times’s attempted defense of its fanciful “1619 Project.” [9]
Also from Phil Magness is this splendid critical review of Lawrence Glickman’s Free Enterprise [10].