By Andrew J. Coulson
Somewhat belatedly, I’ve come upon this essay in which a “libertarian economist retracts a swipe at the left—after discovering that our political leanings leave us more biased than we think.” It presents a problem for anyone trying to communicate ideas that lack popular support: we are all “my-side biased,” tending to block out arguments and [...]
A Cautionary Tale is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel J. Mitchell
The Laffer Curve is a graphical representation of the relationship between tax rates, tax revenue, and taxable income. It is frequently cited by people who want to explain the common-sense notion that punitive tax rates may not generate much additional revenue if people respond in ways that result in less taxable income. Unfortunately, some people [...]
The Laffer Curve Shows that Tax Increases Are a Very Bad Idea – even if They Generate More Tax Revenue is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Neal McCluskey
When you’ve been fighting over the same thing for well-nigh 90 years, there’s a good chance some new policy won’t suddenly make it divisive. Nonetheless, that’s what an L.A. Times article, citing critics, suggests about a new law in Tennessee allowing in-class discussions critical of evolutionary theory and other scientific topics: The measure will allow classroom debates over evolution, permitting discussions of [...]
Pretty Sure It’s Already Divisive is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Alberto Mingardi
David Boaz has already explained how “social darwinism” is nothing more than a nasty smear. The term was made popular by Richard Hofstadter in his Social Darwinism in American Thought. Hofstadter aimed to bring to justice the business titans of the Gilded Age by targeting authors that he identified as the most relevant preacher of [...]
More on ‘Social Darwinism’ is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By David Boaz
Sen. Rand Paul, recently hailed as “America’s most important anti-war politician,” will join the distinguished list of speakers at this year’s session of Cato University. This year Cato University will be held for the first time in the magnificent new F. A. Hayek Auditorium at the Cato Institute in Washington. From July 29 to August [...]
Rand Paul at Cato University is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Jason Kuznicki
Ideologies grow and develop over time. Those that don’t die out. Where is classical liberalism headed next? At Cato Unbound this month, Matt Zwolinski and John Tomasi argue that we who favor limited government and strong private property rights can — and should — make our case in terms of social justice: Among its many [...]
This Month’s Cato Unbound: The Past, Present, and Future of Classical Liberalism is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Mark A. Calabria
Perhaps it is fitting, at least to me, that George Mason University Economics Professor Richard Wagner has written a useful overview and remembrance of Cato’s William Niskanen for the journal Public Choice. Fitting in that I was first exposed to Niskanen’s work, long before I came to Cato, in Wagner’s graduate public choice class. Niskanen’s [...]
Richard Wagner on Remembering Bill Niskanen is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By David Boaz
The arbiters of appropriate expression in America get very exercised when conservatives call Barack Obama a “socialist.” They treat the claim in the same way as calling Obama a Muslim, Kenyan, or “the anti-Christ.” But headlines this week report that President Obama accused the Republicans of “social Darwinism,” and I don’t see anyone exercised about that. [...]
Socialism and Social Darwinism is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel J. Mitchell
I wrote last year about a backlash from long-suffering Greek taxpayers. These people – the ones pulling the wagon rather than riding in the wagon – are being raped and pillaged by a political class that is trying to protect the greedy interest groups that benefit from Greece’s bloated public sector. We now have another [...]
Revolt of the Irish Tax Slaves is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By David Boaz
On the front page of the Washington Post a four-column headline reads Britain’s Conservatives push for gay marriage This change in Conservative direction was foreshadowed in a widely reported speech at the Cato Institute in February 2010 by Nick Herbert, then the Conservatives’ shadow environment secretary and now Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice [...]
Conservatives Shift on Gay Marriage is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
