Author Archive

More Divisive Thoughts on the Supreme Court and SSM

[UPDATE: I made a few edits to my original version. The substantive changes are adding the points about Sheldon Richman’s and Bryan Caplan’s recent posts.] I really thought I was done writing on this topic, but the further comments by many libertarians compel me to speak. In the interest of brevity, I’m going to fire […]

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OK Sumner, You Win This Time…

…but we’ll be back! Recently David R. Henderson had a very gallant post in which he admitted that he thought he was going to catch somebody in a bout of hypocrisy, but had been wrong. So let me do the same thing here. This morning, I read Scott Sumner really letting people have it for […]

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Tom Woods and I Are Pro-Choice?!

Check it out here.

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Unintended Consequences

My latest FEE article briefly describes five examples of “unintended consequences.” I bet you haven’t heard of all of them. Before you write and tell me, “Bob, you should’ve included such-and-such,” I want you to reflect on the fact that (a) there are thousands of possible examples and (b) the whole point was to include […]

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Potpourri

==> Justin Mohr asks me about the Great Depression. ==> Tyler Cowen posted this interesting excerpt on ACA (“ObamaCare”) enrollment. ==> Like Walter Block, Daniel Kuehn hates the term “market failure.” ==> MK Lords is disillusioned with certain elements of libertarianism. Just to warn all of you, after I get caught up on my day […]

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“Down There By the Train”

Johnny Cash opens his heart and soul.

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OMB’s Whitewash on the Social Cost of Carbon

Just in time for your barbecue on the 4th, the Office of Management and Budget released a 44-page response to critics of the White House’s handling of the Social Cost of Carbon. In this first of perhaps several posts at IER, I explain the deal with discount rates. An excerpt: Present dollars are more important […]

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Bernanke Bask

Hey kids, I am 95% sure that in December 2008 Ben Bernanke was called before Congress to testify about all the emergency loan programs etc. They asked him to divulge the names of the recipients of the loans, and he said no, it would defeat the purpose of the program (because investors/depositors would dump weak […]

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