Articles by Donald Boudreaux
Recycle Nation
Everyone's talking about the environment these days, whether it's Al Gore's army of global warming slide show presenters or billionaire Richard Branson's quest for alternative fuels. I'm nostalgic for the old days when all the environmentalists wanted was for us...
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Lifestyles of the Superrich and Not So Famous
When I lecture to teenagers and twentysomethings here in the United States, I often ask members of the audience to "raise your hand if you're wealthy." Except for the young woman years ago who announced that her father owned a...
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Cut the Minimum Wage With Ockham's Razor
Do we know with certainty what effect raising the minimum wage will have? Maybe not. But even if we don't, that doesn't mean we can't take a position on the matter. Consider a recent post on the economics blog, Marginal...
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Absorption Nation
In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson complained that King George III "has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migra
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Dobbs's Disciples
Economist Paul Craig Roberts has joined recently with the likes of Lou Dobbs and Sen. Charles Schumer to denounce so-called "outsourcing" -- that is, the importation of services. Roberts is aware that, throughout history, free trade has raised the living...
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Triumph of the Individual
Today is the fourteenth anniversary of the death of F.A. Hayek -- the greatest social scientist of the 20th century. Born in Austria in 1899 before the Pax Britannica collapsed into the vicious statism that marked much of the 20th...
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Political Boundaries Are Not -- and Ought Not Be -- Economic Boundaries
What is the American economy? It is conventionally identified as that mix of industrial and commercial activities carried on within the borders of the United States. Its participants are people living within these borders and its resources are the natural...
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Stop Worrying About the Trade Deficit
America's trade deficit -- in December reaching a near-record $64.7 billion -- is unfortunate, right? Wrong. Contrary to popular opinion, this so-called "deficit" is a blessing. Consider that if Americans export lumber, sheetrock, and architectural blueprints to Ch
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Sound Assumptions
The most hackneyed justification for dismissing economic analysis is the alleged unreality of the assumptions that economists use as bedrocks for their analyses. "Silly economists!" exclaim opponents of policies that enjoy widespread consensus among the intellectua
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Trade Grade
One of the most persistent arguments for raising tariffs, such as those currently imposed on foreign steel, is that imports are often subsidized by foreign governments. How can American producers compete fairly without protection against foreign competitors whose c
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