Complex systems, by definition, are systems that are too complex for any single individual (or group of individuals) to grasp and understand. What difference does that make? It makes a huge difference. Most of us wouldn’t walk into a chemistry lab and start pouring solutions from one beaker into another—at least if we don’t...
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It’s May Day—International Workers’ Day—a time for us to celebrate the workers of the world, who, as Marx told us, had nothing to lose but their chains and therefore would inevitably mount a worldwide revolution to throw off the hated capitalist system that had forged their chains. But something happened on the way to...
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President Obama’s policies have been criticized by some as harming the economy. The “stimulus” policies he has put into place are not working, according to critics. Indeed, the economic recovery has been unusually slow. Here and here are two of the many articles critical of the president’s economic policies. When I Googled “stimulus not...
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States have been trying to collect sales tax on internet purchases for decades—since the beginning of internet commerce. The holdup has been a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that states cannot require businesses in other states to collect taxes for them. Now, legislation is moving through the U.S. Senate to facilitate internet sellers to collect...
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Join the Independent Institute this summer for its college seminars in Colorado Springs and Berkeley. These five-day programs feature lectures, readings, multimedia presentations, and group discussions on the fundamentals of free societies. Students will learn about ethics and liberty, Austrian economics, public choice, money and banking, the follies of socialism and interventionism, myths of...
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Margaret Thatcher’s death caught up with me in the worst of places: a speech in Argentina. What to do? Should I follow my conscience and say a few words in memory of her—and risk offending an audience sensitive to the legacy of the Falklands War—or should I keep silent? I opted for saying a...
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In January I left Suffolk University to start the new Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University. I remain affiliated as a Senior Fellow with the Independent Institute and plan to continue my productive relationship with them well into the future. Since I’ve continued to write commentary for Independent some of you might have...
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The term crony capitalism has appeared frequently in the popular press of late, but rarely has it been used—let alone defined—in the academic literature. Independent Institute Research Fellow Randall G. Holcombe, a frequent contributor to The Beacon, helps remedy this deficiency in an article published in the Spring 2013 issue of The Independent Review. “Crony capitalism,”...
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From the early days of the United States to the post-Reconstruction era and beyond, Americans viewed the separation of the military from law enforcement as essential for the health of the republic. In recent years, however, the line between the police and the military has become increasingly blurred, with police departments across the United...
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Economists and other social scientists have a long history of conducting analyses based on cross-sectional international data. Sometimes these studies examine a handful of countries; sometimes they examine scores of countries. The studies with the larger samples are, it seems, generally viewed as more solidly based than those with smaller samples. It is common...
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