Economic Policy

In Praise of Amateurs Tom Bethell 01/30/2007

Nonprofessionals, including journalists who love a subject, play an essential role in the spread of ideas, economic and otherwise, writes TOM BETHELL. They are bolder than experts and explain the subject a lot better.

The Ten Best Business Novels The American 01/19/2007

We presented our list of the Ten Best Business Movies in the November/December issue of The American. Now, here’s our list of the Ten Best Business Novels. We focused on literary merit, requiring only that each book have some connection to the world of commerce.

Back to the Future in Venezuela Mark Falcoff 01/10/2007

Hugo Chavez's decision to nationalize the telecommunications and electrical industries points Venezuela down a backward path.

An Economic Policy Quagmire—And How It Can Be Avoided Pejman Yousefzadeh 01/08/2007

Increasing the minimum wage would be bad policy and bad politics. Why is the White House ready to acquiesce?

Forgive Us Our Debts Aparna Mathur 01/08/2007

New research finds that one of the best ways to encourage people to start businesses is to have lenient bankruptcy laws, writes APARNA MATHUR. We need to send the message that it’s O.K. to fail.

AT&T-BellSouth Merger: Regulation Through the Backdoor James Gattuso 01/05/2007

By imposing net neutrality conditions on a new merger, the FCC circumvented the policy process.

A Tale of Two Nanos Daniel Griswold 01/03/2007

Daniel Griswold finds a thriving global labor market in his Christmas stocking.

Italy in Crisis Jurgen Reinhoudt 12/18/2006

Can Prodi surpass Berlusconi when it comes to free-market reforms? Yes, and reforms wouldn’t come a moment too soon…

Why the German Left Is Better for Free Markets than the Right Jurgen Reinhoudt 12/06/2006

Germany leads the crowd when it comes to political inversions. The nominal German left has shown that it can be a remarkable force for free-market reforms, having led such reforms with verve between 1998 and 2005. The German right, by contrast, far from embarking on more free-market reforms since it entered a "Grand Coalition" government with the left in November 2005, has recently voted to turn back some of the far-reaching free-market reforms initiated by the left between 1998 and 2005 and shows no signs of re-considering course.

To End the Amtrak Monopoly, Let Someone Else Own the Tracks Joseph Vranich and Anthony Haswell 12/06/2006

Amtrak’s threats of service disruptions, lack of accountability, and monopolistic practices have brought the railroad to a defining moment. Last week, business, political, and transport leaders in New Jersey called for transferring ownership of Amtrak’s Boston-Washington line (the Northeast Corridor) to the U.S. Department of Transportation with a new public corporation controlling the rail line.