Experience is the best teacher. 

So, while my first introduction to the idea of entry barriers was undoubtedly as an undergraduate student, my first encounter with them was six months into my first job after college. 

I was working as an assistant project manager at an eight-month-old tech startup. It was much more than a ramshackle operation, as one might picture in someone’s garage—though some of the biggest firms of all time had their start that way. We hovered around forty employees and had secured tens of millions in funding. I mention these facts only to establish that it’s not merely mom-and-pops which run aground on the entry barriers I’ll be describing.

“I personally think the Department of Education should not exist,” former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently proclaimed. “Government has never made anything better or cheaper, more effective or more efficient. And nowhere is that more true than in education.” 

Back in 2019, a federal study found that the Department of Education does not know where the money goes, does not evaluate data well, and does nothing to solve longstanding problems. Federal agencies were not built for performance, the study found, and we should not be spending billions to get poor results. 

From time to time, looking at the depressing panorama of Latin America, I think of Carlos Rangel, one of the region’s most admirable classical liberals of the second part of the 20th century. His books, more relevant than ever despite having been published nearly half a century ago, implicitly tell us two things. First, that it makes no sense to demand from the immediate present results that contravene a very old illiberal heritage, so it is up to each generation of classical liberals to gradually build on what the previous one has done. 

2020’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) continues to be an $800 billion example of waste and fraud in government spending that keeps on giving. And giving. However, calling it a “costly mess” or “the biggest fraud in a generation” doesn’t do justice to describe just how bad it is.

It started with good intentions. The PPP program was rushed through the U.S Congress to provide relief for businesses whose operations were shut down by state and local government-mandated lockdowns early in the coronavirus pandemic. The idea was to give them loans to keep paychecks flowing to their idled employees. The loans would be forgiven if the businesses used at least 75% of the funds they received to keep their workers on their payroll.

What is the dumbest thing the federal government has wasted money on lately?

That’s a difficult question to answer, but only because politicians waste so much of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Fortunately, government spending watchdog OpenTheBooks provides their answers to that question in their annual “Where’s the Pork?” report.

“The former Minneapolis Police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman while responding to her 911 call in 2017,” CNN reports, “was released from prison Monday after serving over three years behind bars.” The officer, Mohammed Noor, was convicted of third-degree murder in April 2019. His release last month came just 18 days from the fifth anniversary of his crime.  

As we noted, Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual citizen of Australia and the United States, heard a woman being assaulted and called 911. When Minneapolis police arrived, Damond approached their car, and officer Noor shot her dead. The 40-year-old woman was to be married within a month. 

Actually, it’s a trick question. 

Google (excuse me, Alphabet) doesn’t have a monopoly. 

Not by any sensible definition of the word. Is Google the only way to “search” to find information? No, there are libraries full of books, and there are other people, many of whom know things. 

Even regular moviegoers might have been a bit baffled on March 27, 2022 when CODA won the much coveted Best Picture Academy Award. Critics derided it as a “feel good” coming-of-age drama. Simultaneously released on AppleTV+ streaming service, the movie also didn’t spend much time in commercial movie theaters. Nevertheless, the American-French feature film also scooped up Best Supporting Actor (deaf actor Troy Kotsur) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Sian Heder).

The last time the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed for short) announced its inflation rate target, it was 2%. Discussing a good target rate seems almost like a joke, with inflation now running at more than 9%. What difference does a target make when the Fed misses its mark by that much?

Let’s think about it anyway.

Somewhat lost in the excitement surrounding Dobbs (no fundamental right to abortion), Bruen (right to carry a firearm outside the home), and Kennedy (coach’s midfield prayer was not an establishment of religion) was the decision in West Virginia v. EPA. The MSM went into apoplexy over the Court’s latest ruling on the power of the Administrative State. CNN’s headline squawked that “Supreme Court curbs EPA’s ability to fight climate change.” Such alarmism is uncalled for.