The FTC is placing itself as the primary arbiter when it comes to business transactions, and it is conveying that it can predict what the future holds for innovations and acquisitions. This creates an environment of not only great uncertainty for business, especially now that previous transactions may be revisited and reconsidered, but also great risk for the competitiveness of US firms.
MARKETS
Ludwig Von Mises, F.A. Hayek and the Price Generation, Not Calculation, Debate
The problem economically with socialism is not calculation of given data, but the generation of the data that would be required, but does not yet exist.
Bud Light Sales Implosion After The Mulvaney Ads Explained (By Mises)
The company was openly insulting its consumer base, describing Bud Light as a “fratty” beer and “out of touch” brand “in decline.” It’s one thing to disregard your boss. It’s another thing to openly insult her.
Microsoft-Activision Merger: The FTC Should Answer Its Call of Duty to Gamers
All too often, unscrupulous businesses weaponize the United States’ antitrust laws — which are only supposed to be utilized to protect consumers against higher prices and other consequences of monopoly power — for their own self-serving purposes.
The “Anti-Capitalist Business”: The Impossible Dream
The cause of The Anarchist’s struggle for survival and impending demise is its anti-capitalist business model, rooted in the proprietor’s Marxist strawman-view of capitalism.
Krugman’s Magic Act: On Premium Bonds & The Trillion-Dollar Coin
The trillion-dollar coin is simply FedGov borrowing $1 trillion from us.
Taylor Swift and the Real Lesson From the Ticketmaster Antitrust Hearings
In a true capitalist system or free market, there would be no antitrust laws.
“Common Good Capitalism” vs. Capitalism
Far from ordinary Americans being crushed in the last few decades by globalization and the entrepreneurial dynamism ordinary Americans’ economic opportunities have expanded and their standard of living has skyrocketed.
Establishment of Gold as Money (Part 6 of 10)
The establishment of gold as money is essential to the achievement of a capitalist society.
The Knowledge Problem: National Conservative Industrial Policy vs. Capitalism’s Free Market
National conservatives believe that the allocation of resources brought about by the free market is in fact a less-efficient allocation — one that is worse for the country — than is the allocation that would be brought about by their industrial policy.
The Freedom of Production and Trade Under Capitalism (Part 3 of 10)
An appropriate vehicle for the establishment of the freedom of production and trade, whether all at once or gradually, would be the establishment of one last regulatory-type agency: the Deregulation Agency.
Fake Banks and Real Banks
We observe a run on deposits in a commercial bank, then observe that the same thing can happen to other financial institutions, then mistakenly assume these institutions are essentially the same.
Big Tech and Monopoly Power: Freedom is a Virtue, Antitrust is a Vice
So, whether it’s Lina Khan at the FTC or Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in Congress, antitrust advocates should take a hard look in the mirror. The only true monopoly within the US marketplace is where these politicians are fulfilling their posts.
Understanding Bank Failures and the Objective Role of the Lender of Last Resort
Since government regulatory practice has gone beyond making loans to illiquid-but-solvent banks, to paying back all the deposits of insolvent banks, the result is that there is no reason for depositors to care about whether their bank is taking excessive risks.
Minimum Wage Hurts Whom It Claims to Help
If you care about the people struggling to keep their jobs in a difficult economy, you should oppose raising the minimum wage: it hurts the very people you want to help
The Amazing Benefits of International Trade
Trade allows each of us to turn our unique talents into the fruits of the talents of everyone with whom we trade.
Robert Reich’s Anti-Capitalist Rant Against The Kroger-Albertson Merger
What Robert Reich Gets Wrong about the Kroger-Albertson Merger and What He Misses Completely
National Conservatives, the American System, and the Founders
While Hamilton, who died in a duel in 1804, did indulge protectionist arguments during his stint as Secretary of the Treasury, the rebranding of Jefferson and Madison as American System enthusiasts runs directly contrary to historical evidence.
Unions Should Not Be Protected Against Suits for Deliberate Property Damage
Unions must go about their objectives of trying to organize workers without committing acts of destruction.
A Parable: Who Will Build the Roads?
The owners of private roads, those few in the know knew, would provide better roads at lower cost than Leviathan ever could.
Don’t Ask ‘Who Will Build the Roads?’ Ask ‘Do We Even Want Roads?’
What unseen effects did the “small present good” of a $558 billion highway network mask?
Microsoft-Activision Meger: Will Antitrust Undermine the Future of Online Gaming?
The future of gaming won’t be determined by the Microsoft-Activision merger. But it could very well be undermined if the FTC succeeds in blocking the merger.
Individuals, Not Government Subsidies & Tariffs, Have a Comparative Advantage at Improving Comparative Advantages
There is no plausible case to be made that for us Americans to improve our comparative advantages, we need the government to protect any of us from foreign competition, other than the protection of individual rights.
Wage and Price Controls Are Not the Answer to Inflation
Reinforcing what economic theory tells us, evidence of the harm of price controls abounds in history, from the infamous 303 A.D. Edict of Emperor Diocletian in Ancient Rome to America’s 1970s gasoline price controls and, perhaps most infamously, New York City’s disastrous eight-decade-long experiment with rent control.