I’ve had the great good fortune to meet and work with some of America’s nicest and most highly respected public intellectuals. These people have a mission, to advance human freedom and well-being. They do so through their knowledge of human propensities and ambitions. They work to understand society’s organization and coordination and then explain it […]
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The 1973 Yom Kippur War pitting Israel against Syria and Egypt motivated an Arab petroleum boycott, instigating congressional passage of the 1975 Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Known by its acronym, CAFE, the program does not mandate that every car sold in the United States be parsimonious but defines an average that each manufacturer’s cars […]
Read MoreTonight I will show that no government can successfully turn on its owncitizens when they own guns. No government in history turned on its ownpeople as malevolently or on as large a scale as Hitler’s Third Reich. Itkilled seven million of its own citizens, six million of them Jews — andthe Nazis could not have […]
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What accounts for Detroit’s failure to produce a commercially viable electric car? When I discuss this question with students, I sometimes get conspiracy theories. They cite the 2006 documentary film “Who killed the electric car.” The film attributes the demise of GM’s all-electric car, the EV-1, to collusion among the carmakers, the government, and oil […]
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In 1983, Professor Bruce Yandle of Clemson provided an economic perspective on prohibition. His paper, “Bootleggers and Baptists: The Education of a Regulatory Economist,” described how an alliance of bootleggers and Baptists, who for quite different reasons, had incentives to seek restrictions on the Sunday sale of alcohol. Baptists sought moral improvement, while bootleggers supported […]
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The version of the economic stimulus bill lumbering through Congress contains a pernicious provision barring foreign steel and iron from infrastructure projects and requiring that all such projects use only American-made equipment and goods. Steel and iron manufacturers and labor unions no doubt promote these “Buy American” provisions. But can they explain how banning inexpensive, […]
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Where I grew up in the Midwest, cars were keys. Owning one marked maturity and provided a passport to liberty. All of my friends had cars and I had some pickups, my first a 1931 Model A Ford for which I paid $35 drove 100 miles home. Presaging future problems, the first Volkswagen had just […]
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It’s not news that Gallatin County, like much of the West, is growing rapidly. Planners, politicians, and preservationists worry about the shape of our future. Restricting growth to preserve agriculture and open space increases housing costs (think Boulder, CO). Unchecked growth keeps home prices down but consumes land and other qualities that make this place […]
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Americans are incredibly generous. We contribute around $250 billion annually to a wide array of charitable causes. Our culture of philanthropy is an expression of the highest of American ideals; it shows our commitment to the well-being of our neighbors — and of strangers in need. Philanthropy is critically important in Montana, a small state […]
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Two years ago my cousin Antonio Glassberg lost a battle to cancer. He was 21. Although my uncle lost his only child at an unbearably young age, the most horrific part of his passing was not his youth, but the circumstances surrounding his death. Antonio’s intensive chemotherapy treatment caused endless pain. He often couldn’t sleep […]
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