By Jim Harper
New Hampshire was the state where the “REAL ID rebellion” got its start. There, in 2006, Rep. Neal Kurk (R-Weare) took to the floor of the New Hampshire House to talk about his principled opposition to the federal national ID law. In stirring words, Kurk urged his colleagues to overturn a committee recommendation that no [...]
Cardless National ID and the E-Verify Rebellion is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Sallie James
A very good editorial on Bloomberg.com on farm subsidies, and why the “let’s swap direct payments for crop insurance” proposal is a bad deal for taxpayers. American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman isn’t exactly a poster child for the farm program reform movement, but here he writes something I didn’t think would ever flow from [...]
Agriculture and Trade Links is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Ikenson
Newt Gingrich defeated communism, someone hacked Anthony Weiner’s Twitter account, and President Obama saved the U.S. automobile industry. Grandiosity, denial, and revisionism are all noted indulgences of the political breed. That’s why we should always be skeptical of their words and pity the partisan lemmings who mindlessly parrot their rhetoric. In his SOTU speech last night, the president claimed [...]
The President’s Heroics and Other Tall Tales about the Auto Industry is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Sallie James
President Obama’s State of the Union address last night was, in my opinion, pretty awful (although James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute thinks it could have been worse). I know SOTUs are political theater at its worst, and I watch them always with something not unlike disgust, but I found almost nothing to like in the [...]
SOTU and Trade: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Ikenson
When China joined the WTO in December 2001, one of the many terms it agreed to was to allow the United States to continue to treat it as a “non-market economy“ under U.S. antidumping law for a period of 15 years. China has regretted that concession ever since, and there are precious few gestures that [...]
President Obama Could Improve Relations with China at the Stroke of His Pen is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By David Boaz
One of the most famous documents in the history of free-trade literature is Bastiat‘s famous “Candlemakers’ Petition.” In that parody, the French economist and parliamentarian imagined the makers of candles and street lamps petitioning the French Chamber of Deputies for protection from a most dastardly foreign competitor: You are on the right track. You reject abstract theories and have [...]
The Panel Makers’ Petition is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Ikenson
Remember the story of that once-great nation that sacrificed its well-paying manufacturing jobs for low-wage, burger-flipping jobs at the altar of free trade? At one time, that story was a popular rejoinder of manufacturing unions and their apologists to the inconvenient facts that, despite manufacturing employment attrition, the economy was producing an average of 1.84 [...]
Does the U.S. Economy Need More Boeings or More Facebooks? is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Griswold
Over at National Review Online this morning, I ask how the Ronald Reagan of 1980 would have fared in today’s Iowa caucuses given his views on how to tackle illegal immigration (“GOP Candidates Betray the Spirit of Reagan on Immigration”). My conclusion, based on the current mood of many Republicans, is that Reagan would have [...]
GOP the Loser in Primary Fight over Immigration is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Griswold
The news right now is full of retrospective stories about 2011. Not to be left out, here are a few observations on the real if modest progress made in 2011 to expand the freedom of Americans to trade in the global economy. (I’ll add links along the way to related Cato work.) After four years [...]
Our Freedom to Trade Expanded in 2011 is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
By Daniel Griswold
A powerful trend in today’s more globalized world is the growing competition among nations to attract and keep human capital — people with the skills and education necessary to make a modern, open, market economy hum. Nobody has done a better job of describing this phenomenon than British journalist Robert Guest in his new book, [...]
U.S. Falling Behind in Global Competition for Human Capital is a post from Cato @ Liberty – Cato Institute Blog
