Special Issue: Escaping Paternalism

by Classical Liberal Institute

The special symposium issues of the Review of Behavioral Economics on “Escaping Paternalism” (by Mario J. Rizzo and Glen Whitman) are now out. Edited by:Nick Cowen, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Lincoln, UK, ncowen@lincoln.ac.uk  Malte Dold, Economics Department, Pomona College, USA, Malte.Dold@pomona.edu 

Read the full post »

Richard Epstein in the Wall Street Journal on “Elizabeth Warren’s Corporate Illogic”

by Classical Liberal Institute

CLI Director Richard A. Epstein published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal (September 11, 2018) on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposed Accountable Capitalism Act. He writes: “If Ms. Warren’s proposal made business sense, surely some entrepreneur would by now have sought a corporate charter that says, explicitly and upfront, that it will reserve 40% of […]

Read the full post »

A Tribute to Mario J. Rizzo, Our Intrepid Co-Director, on His 70th Birthday

by Classical Liberal Institute

On July 6, 2018 Co-Director of the Classical Liberal Institute, Mario J. Rizzo celebrated his 70th birthday. As a tribute to Mario on this happy occasion, Dr. Andreas Hoffmann, co-editor of the ThinkMarkets blog, collected numerous messages from Mario’s colleagues and friends. Dr. Hoffmann wrote,  “There are very few economists who are as important to […]

Read the full post »

The Single-Payer Siren

by Richard Epstein

Defining Ideas

The United States is facing another crisis in organizing its health care system. It is clear that the private exchanges concocted under the Obama administration are failing at a record rate for the simple reason that they violate all known sound principles of insurance. The planners who put these programs together unwisely thought that universal coverage would overcome the […]

Read the full post »

Trump’s Forceful Syrian Gambit

by Richard Epstein

Defining Ideas

The Syrian government launched a chemical weapons attack against the town of Khan Sheikhoun earlier this month, killing more than 80 people, many of them children, and leaving hundreds more injured and in distress. Most people expected the United States to sit idly by, but that expectation was upended with President Donald Trump’s decision to […]

Read the full post »

Brussels Gets Brexit Wrong—Again

by Richard Epstein

Defining Ideas

Theresa May, the British prime minister, recently sent a letter to Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, announcing that the UK would withdraw from the EU under the procedures set out in Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. Her letter noted that, even though withdrawal was irrevocable, the UK seeks to forge the closest […]

Read the full post »

Our Energy Hysteria

by Richard Epstein

Defining Ideas

President Trump issued a long-anticipated Executive Order last week titled “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” which undid most of the Obama energy agenda as it pertains to the regulation of coal, carbon dioxide, and methane gas. Unfortunately, Trump tends to justify sound policies with bad reasoning—which, in this case, led him to announce, wrongly, […]

Read the full post »

Gorsuch V. Schumer

by Richard Epstein

Defining Ideas

It does not take a weatherman to tell which way the wind is blowing on Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination. Gorsuch will be confirmed, one way or another. If Senator Charles Schumer makes good on his pledge to filibuster the Gorsuch nomination, the Republicans will exercise their so-called nuclear option to end the filibuster rule for […]

Read the full post »

The Health Care Conundrum

by Richard Epstein

Defining Ideas

The Republican Party is facing resistance from both the left and the right as it tries to undo key provisions of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. Even if the current GOP bill, called the American Health Care Act (AHCA), bites the dust, some changes will surely have to be made, so […]

Read the full post »

The Government’s Civil Rights Bullies

by Richard Epstein

Defining Ideas

Earlier this month, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued its report Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties. The report, which was occasioned in part by the same-sex marriage debate, tries to determine the correct relationship between antidiscrimination laws and the First Amendment’s protection of the free exercise of religion. Currently, persons of […]

Read the full post »