If a business overcharges a customer, beyond the listed price of an item, the customer expects a refund, and should one not be forthcoming, a local consumer protection agency’s liable to spring into action. That’s as it should be — the customer may seek recourse if she wishes (and a business’s greatest punishment comes from…
Free Markets
Free Markets
The Volokh Conspiracy – – How Low Do You Think the Dow Will Fall?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at law professor Eugene Volokh’s group blog, Orin Kerr offers readers a poll question on the Dow Jones Industrial Average: ”How Low Do You Think the Dow Will Fall?” I’d guess that it will keep falling, over the next five years (Kerr’s time frame), but like all guesses of this kind, it’s a tenuous…
City, Free Markets, Libertarians
Mercatus Center at George Mason University – Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom
by JOHN ADAMS •
For George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, professors William Ruger and Jason Sorens, tenured elsewhere, have published a study of American liberties entitled, “Freedom in the Fifty States.” The scholars define “individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does…
City, Free Markets, Inbox Reader Mail
Inbox: Reader Mail from the Phantom Stranger
by JOHN ADAMS •
I received a message recently from the Phantom Stranger, whose storied career hardly need be recounted on these pages. He has been in Whitewater for a while, and dropped me a line. It’s my pleasure to hear from him. Here’s what he had to say, with my remarks thereafter in blue. Nice to see Walgreen’s…
Economy, Free Markets, Libertarians
Reason.tv: Economist Lee Ohanian Explains the “Bailout Puzzle”
by JOHN ADAMS •
Note 1: Ohanian and colleague Harold Cole calculated in 2004 that “FDR’s policies prolonged Depression by 7 years,” as announced in a UCLA press release. Note 2: The actual study — not a press release — is considerable. Although the University of Chicago’s online version of the Journal of Political Economy is a subscription-only journal,…
Economy, Free Markets, Libertarians
Reason.tv Asks: “Where’s My Bailout?”
by JOHN ADAMS •
Free Markets
Predictive Political Markets — Predictive, Indeed
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, I posted about the political trading market at Intrade.com as a predictive political market. See, Political Market’s Election Prediction: Obama 364, McCain 174. (For an earlier post on this topic, see also Predictive Political Markets, about the Iowa Electronic Markets.) What did the traders say, as of yesterday morning? Electoral College: Obama 364, McCain…
Free Markets
A Political Market’s Election Prediction: Obama 364, McCain 174
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve posted before about predictive political markets. (See, Predictive Political Markets, about the Iowa Electronic Markets, and later I started following the market at Intrade.com.) What do they say for today, as of this writing, based on the trading preferences of large numbers of buyers and sellers at Intrade.com? Here we go — Electoral College:…
Economy, Free Markets
Fortune Comes Around on the Bailout
by JOHN ADAMS •
In September, it was “Paulson to the Rescue,” and Fortune asked: “The Steely-Eyed Treasury Chief is Betting Billions on Bailouts. Can He Save Us from a Meltdown?’ Now, in November, Fortune sees something different when it asks, “Who Pays for the Bailout? You Do, Of Course!” “Of Course!” Wait, wait, wait — you breathless cheerlearders…
Economy, Free Markets, Libertarians
Saving Social Security: Run, Sonny, Run
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the final segment of a five-part series from Reason.tv entitled, Saving Social Security. The animated video comes from Lineplot, a company that creatively describes financial topics. I posted the first of the series, Pimp My Walker, on October 4th, the second part, Boom Baby Boom! on October 11th, the third, Policy Warrior on October…
Free Markets
Digital Millennium Copyright Act — Ten Bad Years Against Innovation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Economy, Free Markets, Libertarians
Saving Social Security: Broken Trust
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the fourth part of a five-part series from Reason.tv entitled, Saving Social Security. The animated video comes from Lineplot, a company that creatively describes financial topics. I posted the first of the series, Pimp My Walker, on October 4th, the second part, Boom Baby Boom! on October 11th, and the third, Policy Warrior on…
Free Markets, Libertarians
Defending Freedom: Update
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, I published a post entitled, “Defending Freedom: Welch vs. Weisberg,” in which I described the reply of libertarian Matt Welch to Jacob Weisberg’s attack on libertarian philosophy in Slate. Welch handled the issue well, I thought, and now he has an update, in which others take on Weisberg’s argument. He links to nine other…
Free Markets, Libertarians
Defending Freedom: Welch vs. Weisberg
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at Reason’s Hit & Run, Matt Welch responds to the big-government loving author of In Defense of Government, Jacob Weisberg of Slate. Weisberg, in a Slate post entitled, “How the Financial Collapse Killed Libertarianism” contends that The best thing you can say about libertarians is that because their views derive from abstract theory, they…