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January 14, 2020|Carl Benedikt Frey, Growth, inequality, innovation, Technology

Is There a Technology Trap?

by Michael C. Munger|

Waiter robot serves customers on July 25, 2019 in Rapallo, Italy. The "Gran Caffè Rapallo" restaurant in Liguria is the first restaurant in Italy to use robot waiters (Image: Stefano Mazzola/Shutterstock.com).
The categorical claim, made now by many alarmists, that “this time is different; jobs are gone forever” is no more plausible now than in the past.

November 4, 2019|David Soskice, Growth, industrialization, National Conservatism, Torben Iversen

Keep Calm and Self-Govern On

by Andy Smarick|

Rally for Donald Trump at Southern New Hampshire University on August 15, 2019 (Lev Radin/Shutterstock.com).
Today’s denigration of democracy is unbecoming and unwise, but so too is our elite's apocalyptic thinking.

May 22, 2019|Growth, inequality, Interventionism, Paul Collier, Poverty

Paul Collier and the False Promise of “Centrism”

by Nikolai G. Wenzel|

The New York Stock Exchange (Matej Kastelic/Shutterstock.com).
We need to recognize that the first step—rather than further government "medicine"—is to stop poisoning the patient, and return to capitalism.

October 31, 2018|development, Growth, inequality, Stolper-Samuelson

Inequality Is Declining in Developing Nations and Will Decline in the West, Too

by James R. Rogers|

View of business district in Bangkok, Thailand (Image: Iam_Anupong/Shutterstock.com).
The Western experience with increasing economic inequality cannot be generalized worldwide.

September 6, 2018|decline, economic policy, Growth, industry, Labor, manufacturing, Peter L. Singer, William Bonvillain

Advanced Manufacturing: A Law & Liberty Symposium

by Law & Liberty Editors|

Ford Motors Headquarters, Dearborn, Michigan, August 2015 (James R. Martin/Shutterstock.com).
It is a commonplace that American manufacturing is in decline. But is this true, and if it is, what are the appropriate remedies?

September 6, 2018|economic policy, Growth, manufacturing, Peter L. Singer, William Bonvillain

Is There A Manufacturing Crisis After All?

by Michael C. Munger|

Jenson/Shutterstock.com
Bonvillain and Singer mischaracterize the symptoms of a problem, misdiagnose the underlying “disease,” and then botch the prescription for a cure.

July 27, 2017|Central Banking, employment, Entitlements, Growth, Ray Fair, Spending, taxes

Democratic Accountability and the Economy

by John O. McGinnis|

Ray Fair, a fine Yale economist, has the best economic model for predicting the outcome of presidential and congressional elections.  The model has the virtue of simplicity, weighting incumbency, length of time a party holds the Presidency, and  news about the economy on growth and employment relatively shortly before election. It has not been perfect in predicting each party’s share of the two party vote, but it has been good–good enough to be taken seriously outside the academy. The New York Times in fact devoted a whole interview to him, sadly marred by the seeming inability of the interviewer to understand why, Fair, despite being a Democrat, used his model to predict a Republican victory!

But the relative success of his model makes one doubt how strong is democratic accountability for the economic performance of government. Few, if any economists, would say that the news about growth and unemployment shortly before an election is a good proxy for that party’s economic stewardship. Business cycles are not in the control of the government. And perhaps more importantly, the most important policies a government undertakes likely take longer than a few years to bear fruit. Thus, the tax cutting policies of the Reagan era may be largely responsible for the prosperity of the Clinton years as businesses and people invested more.

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July 28, 2015|deregulation, Growth, Immigration, inequality, innovation, patents, Too Big To Fail

Demand a Politics of Innovation

by John O. McGinnis|

2016 is shaping up as an election in which one of our parties will emphasize the need for growth and the other will call for greater economic equality. These concepts are often seen in substantial tension with one another. In my view, however, if the government encourages innovation we can have both growth and greater equality in the relatively short run.

As I wrote in yesterday’s Washington Times for the celebration of Liberty Month:

In this age of accelerating technology, there is no more important policy than to encourage innovation. Innovation is the primary source of economic growth. New innovative businesses, like Google and Uber, transform our lives for the better. And innovation builds on innovation, compounding growth from generation to generation. As the Nobel Prize winning economist Bob Lucas once said: “Once one thinks about exponential growth, it is hard to think about anything else.”

Innovation in the modern era also tends to make us more equal. Innovation creates a stream of new ideas that are rapidly enjoyed by the great mass of people. Material goods are scarce, because individuals can by and large not enjoy the same material simultaneously. But ideas can be enjoyed by all. To be sure, some innovations are patented, but these patents expire. And, as better innovations come along, the old patents rapidly become less valuable. That is one reason that smart phones have so rapidly become available to people of modest means. Thus, the greater the supply of innovations, the great the common pool from which almost everyone can benefit quite rapidly.

We thus need to ask all Presidential candidates what they will do to promote innovation.

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July 22, 2014|Crony Capitalism, Elizabeth Warren, Equality, Growth

Eleven Propositions that Sum to Zero

by John O. McGinnis|

2014 Democratic State Convention

Over the weekend Elizabeth Warren, the Senator from Massachusetts and a former professor at Harvard Law School, outlined eleven propositions, dubbed by the National Journal as “eleven commandments” for progressives.  Warren is a very bright leader of today’s progressivism. Her propositions provide a window on the future trajectory of the Democratic party and its approach to law, three aspects of which seem particularly notable:

1.Opposition to crony capitalism. Warren wants government to make sure the banking system and Internet are run for the benefit of the people not big corporations.

2.Use of the regulatory system rather than tax system. Nowhere does Warren expressly call for higher taxes. But she does endorse a slew of regulatory interventions—a higher minimum wage, stronger protections for unions and “equal pay” provisions for women.

3. A relentless focus on equality.  In marriage, in pay, and in access to higher education and contraceptives paid for by the government.

If these are the tenets of future progressivism, friends of liberty need to sharpen their critique.

1. They need to co-opt the attack on crony capitalism.

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February 13, 2012|Growth, Immigration

Looking High and Low for Sources of Economic Growth

by Donald Boudreaux|

We should look to both high-skilled and low-skilled immigrants when we try to explain growth.

Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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About

Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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