Art Carden
Independent Institute
Birmingham, AL, United States
Contact Art
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Past articles by Art:
Masters of Puppets and Men of System: Review of Mario Rizzo and Glen Whitman, Escaping Paternalism: News: The
In the beginning, there was paternalism. This was the simple thought that people could not be trusted to do what was right and good and therefore had to be controlled by an enlightened cadre of priests, princes, or philosophers. Paternalism would make people better--and better off--by standards ascertainable only by the Anointed, Thomas Sowell's word for the enlightened few who know how everyone… → Read More
“The Market” Can Deliver Pho and Spring Rolls. It Can Deliver Vaccines. –
"I doubt we would be in this mess if we had left vaccine production and distribution to Walmart, Amazon, Grubhub, and Chick-fil-A. In the middle of a global pandemic, it’s too important not to." ~ Art Carden → Read More
Those Shelves Wouldn’t Be Empty If We Hadn’t Stopped “Capitalism”
This is a difficult time for a lot of people, and it’s understandable and admirably humane to want to help others in their time of need. We aren’t doing them any favors, however, by saying that they won’t be allowed to pay very much for a bottle of hand sanitizer they can’t get anyway. → Read More
Price Gouging Laws Are Knowledge Embargoes That Should Be Repealed
As Hurricane Dorian approaches Florida, government officials are making things worse by prohibiting "price gouging." → Read More
Should You Vote? The Answer Isn’t As Obvious As You Might Think
There are a lot of ways to make the world a better place. Voting is one option among many, and it probably isn't effective. → Read More
Should You Vote? The Answer Isnt as Obvious as You Might Think: News: The
It seems my friend Jason Brennan, a philosopher at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, has blasphemed. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that the author of books titled The Ethics of Voting, Against Democracy, and When All Else Fails: The Ethics of Resistance to State Injustice has controversial and unpopular opinions. The reaction to his most recent heresy, however, are… → Read More
Planning and the Pokemon Problem –
People solve the Pokemon problem and show that they are potential trading partners who won’t take advantage of others by tending to their reputations. → Read More
The Essential Milton Friedman Shows A Great Mind at Work: News: The
Any list of the most influential thinkers of the last century should include the famous University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006), who is the subject of the latest installment in the Fraser Institute's Essential Scholars series. In the series' (short) <a href= target=_blank title= rel=nofollow no → Read More
Tariffs On European Booze Will Hurt American Consumers
Whether you're talking about wine, cheese, sugar, cherries, steel, or shrimp, tariffs hurt American consumers. → Read More
Don’t Pick And Choose: Give Everyone An Exemption From Trump Tariffs
My first thought when I read the headline “I Support Trump’s Tariffs but Need an Exemption” was wow, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency is really going to knock this one out of the park. Then I realized it wasn't McSweeney's. → Read More
Vernon L. Smith: A Birthday Appreciation
A very productive Nobel Laureate turns 93 today. → Read More
New Ideas are the Key to Economic Development –
For all our progress, it is important to remember that critics and regulators have still won a lot of battles. They could win more. → Read More
The Wicked Politics of Cherry Tariffs
By Art Carden | If the result of all the efforts of all the economists over all of history results in tariffs that are one percentage point lower than they would otherwise be, we will have earned our keep. → Read More
Happy Birthday Deirdre McCloskey
By Art Carden | Deirdre Nansen McCloskey is a one-woman university, a polymath’s polymath in an age of ever-increasing academic specialization. She has done ground-breaking work across several fields, and her academic appointments show it. → Read More
Milton Friedman: A Birthday Appreciation
By Art Carden | Milton Friedman was the very model of a careful thinker, a first-rate scholar, and a clear communicator. He left an intellectual and institutional legacy that will be often imitated but likely never equaled. Our world is better because he was with us. → Read More
There Is No One Answer to Rule Them All
By Art Carden | We aren’t respecting others’ liberty, dignity, and autonomy as independent and independently valuable moral agents when we coerce them. → Read More
Are Intelligent Machines Coming for Your Job and Your Wages?
I really doubt it. A lot of things can be automated, but mass immiseration caused by widespread technological unemployment isn't on the horizon. → Read More
Consumers Say "End of the Road" for Volkswagen's Iconic Beetle
It looks like consumers have voted with their dollars for a world without new Volkswagen Beetles. → Read More
Why I am Not a Socialist
By Art Carden | Empirically, the socialist record is one of dismal and at times murderous failure. Why, then, do intellectuals, scholars, and commentators continue in their romantic attachment to it? → Read More
Government Is Not a Wise Steward
By Art Carden | "Every individual, it is evident, can, in his local situation, judge much better than any statesman or lawgiver can do for him." ~ Adam Smith → Read More