Got to Category

Donald J. Boudreaux Columns category

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
Donald Boudreaux: Essential questions on essential medicines
The clarity with which we humans express desirable objectives often hides reality’s complexity. That’s true for the increasingly common notion, as expressed by President Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro, that America should “bring home its … supply chains for essential medicines.” This sentiment is supported by U.S. Trade Representative Robert...
Donald Boudreaux: There’s no app for social engineering
During Monday’s Iowa caucuses, a mobile app designed to report results malfunctioned. Unsurprisingly, Republicans gloated that the glitch is a calamity for Democrats. Yet even The New York Times worried about what this snafu might signify. As Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote, “Maybe there’s a moral here in dreaming too...
Donald Boudreaux: Remembering not-so-noble Prohibition experiment
A century ago — on Jan. 17, 1920, one year after ratification of the 18th Amendment — the United States began its so-called “noble experiment” with nationwide alcohol prohibition. For the next nearly 14 years — until the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th — the force of the federal government...
Donald Boudreaux: Some hopes for 2020 & beyond
A traditional New Year’s practice is to express hope for the coming year. As 2020 dawns, I here convey some of my hopes not only for the coming year, but for the coming decade and beyond. I hope, first of all, for an end to this past decade’s infatuation with...
Donald Boudreaux: Talk of global supremacy meaningless
Often in political discourse we encounter statements that initially seem to make sense but that, when examined, turn out to be silly. Here’s a recent example from a Chatham House Royal Institute of International Affairs paper: “The current dispute between the U.S. and China goes far beyond trade tariffs and...
Donald Boudreaux: State of humanity is excellent — and improving
To encounter the news today is to encounter an America verging on destruction. Global warming will soon incinerate us, but not before income inequalities turn ordinary Americans into the slaves of oligarchs. And as these ghastly fates unfold, those of us who somehow escape being raped, robbed and cheated out...
Donald Boudreaux: Difficult-to-see consequences of minimum wage
Minimum-wage legislation artificially raises firms’ costs of employing low-skilled workers. In consequence, some workers who would have jobs in the absence of the minimum wage are cast by the minimum wage into the ranks of the unemployed. This understanding was long the consensus among economists. Starting in the mid-1990s, however,...
Donald Boudreaux: Nothing to fear from China’s economy
Among my favorite books of this decade is “How China Became Capitalist” by Nobel-laureate economist Ronald Coase and Ning Wang (2012). In addition to offering fascinating details of Beijing’s post-Mao intrigues, the authors conclude that China’s remarkable economic growth over the past four decades occurred only to the extent that...
Donald Boudreaux: Income inequality often a result of choice
Today’s obsession with income inequality is an obsession with just one of the countless dimensions along which we human beings differ from each other. Many of these differences reflect individual choices. I spend six hours weekly (and weakly) lifting weights at the gym. The modesty of my effort combines with...
Donald Boudreaux: Soaking the rich impoverishes us all
An obsession with income inequality would make sense only in a world in which wealth is created independently of the choices and actions of human beings. The same is true for the itch to soak the rich. If food, clothing, medical care, automobiles, houses, diamond rings, airplane seats, rolls of...
Donald Boudreaux: Draft’s end most pro-freedom move of past 50 years
From the late 1970s through the mid 1980s the United States government somewhat loosened its grip on the American people. This liberalization — mainly meant to spur economic growth — included the deregulation of transportation and financial markets, as well as significant tax reform. Most students of these reforms conclude,...


Editor's Picks

Front Porch Theatricals’ musical ‘Baby’ is a labor of love

Washington townhouse on the market for $1,225,000
Folk legend Bruce Cockburn gives uplifting performance at City Winery
‘Champagne & Chapeaux’: Westmoreland Symphony’s annual soiree for a good cause
Jimmy Stewart’s P-51 Mustang stops in hometown for museum anniversary
More Editor's Picks >