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The Failed Assumptions of Free Trade

By Mark Glick and Gabriel Lozada
April 2, 2025
Image: The abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant's gas blowing room. (Source: Abandoned America)
Free trade is under increasing attack by both the progressive left and the populist right. Although the left and the right offer different policy solutions—the progressive left stresses combining industrial policy, antitrust policy, and support for labor with targeted tariffs, while the populist right advocates a wider use of tariffs combined with stricter immigration policy—supporters... Read More

The Zero Agency Act

By Darren Bush
April 1, 2025
Image: Rep. Ben Cline has introduced a bill eliminating the Federal Trade Commission.
Representative Ben Cline, apparently an ardent supporter of antitrust laws, has introduced a bill eliminating the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the independent federal agency that enforces the antitrust laws. Elon Musk, possibly the head of DOGE although it isn’t quite clear, is on board with the bill. Some have argued that the elimination of the... Read More

The WNBA Labor Dispute Is Just Another Choice Made by the NBA

By David Berri
March 27, 2025
Image: Napheesa Collier celebrates a win with young WNBA fans.
Last October, the WNBA’s players opted out of their collective bargaining agreement. After very little news for months, stars like Napheesa Collier, Angel Reese, and DiJonai Carrington all indicated recently that the players will hold out if the WNBA doesn’t start paying the players better. The statements suggest a labor dispute might be coming to the... Read More

Should The Government Subsidize Artificial Intelligence?

By Dylan Gyauch-Lewis
March 5, 2025
Image: President Trump announced a partnership between SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX called “Stargate,” named after the sci-fi franchise.
For years, American tech titans have insisted that AI will be the determinative advancement of the 21st century, and that we need to give them billions of public funds for the United States to maintain its spot as the world’s foremost technological developer. And many pundits and politicians leapt to champion that position. They all... Read More

Look At What Courts Do, Not What They Say

By Peter Carstensen
February 22, 2025
Image: Former Attorney General John Mitchell (via Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs)
Richard Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell famously declared: “Watch what we do, not what we say.” When that was done to him, he wound up in prison. A similar lesson applies to understanding the courts. Academics can debate whether cartels can contribute positively to consumer welfare under some (unlikely) circumstances. Indeed, Penn law professor Herbert Hovenkamp... Read More

Is the New FTC Chairman Truly Pro-Enforcement?

By Darren Bush
February 19, 2025
Image: Chair Andrew Ferguson has been tweeting a lot since taking the helm of the FTC.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, freshly appointed by President Trump, made what seemed to be a stunning announcement. On X, he posted that the FTC and DOJ would continue to use the 2023 Merger Guidelines, as conceived by his predecessor, Lina Khan. This appeared to be a stunning victory for New Brandeisians, one that upset the... Read More

What Obligation Does a Successful Employer Owe Its Workers?

By Hal Singer
February 19, 2025
Image: Successful firms are firing workers to appease Wall Street. (Getty Images)
Imagine two business partners, Sue and Steve, form a company. The company finds success and is acquired by a larger competitor. After the sale has been consummated but before the payment has arrived, Sue seeks to dissolve the partnership, asserting that Steve does not deserve any of the proceeds from the sale. While the fair... Read More

The NCAA Proves Adam Smith Right

By David Berri
February 8, 2025
Image: Charlie Baker, president of the NCAA, recently negotiated the television rights for a bundle of college sports.
Back in 2011, ESPN and the NCAA agreed to a $34 million per year media deal that gave ESPN the right to broadcast championships in 29 different college sports. The list of sports included every single college sport played by women. As time went by, it became increasingly clear this media deal dramatically undervalued the... Read More

We Are Living in the UnitedHealth Group System. And That’s a Bad Thing.

By Venu Julapalli
January 29, 2025
Image: Sadly, all the charged rhetoric surrounding the UHG CEO shooting has distracted attention away from the real diagnosis here. What ails the American health care system is structural.
The shooting of its CEO has flung UnitedHealth Group (“UHG”) into the American zeitgeist, and there’s been no shortage of heated opinions on what to make of it. With the tragedy nearly two months behind us, perhaps we can now reflect, dispassionately, on the real diagnosis here: UHG has been monopolizing and “monopsonizing” American health... Read More

When Market Forces Can’t Be Counted on to Protect Skiers

By Hal Singer
January 10, 2025
Image: Long lines form at Park City amid a ski patrol strike on Dec. 29, 2024. (Mariah Maynes/KSL NewsRadio)
Skiers are an admittedly unsympathetic crowd. At least the jetsetters who fly around the country chasing the toniest resorts like Park City.  Local skiers, on the other, might not earn the same incomes as the jetsetters, but nevertheless must pay the same, lofty lift prices. Setting aside the welfare of locals, one can partly understand... Read More

The Failed Assumptions of Free Trade

By Mark Glick and Gabriel Lozada
April 2, 2025
Image: The abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant's gas blowing room. (Source: Abandoned America)
Free trade is under increasing attack by both the progressive left and the populist right. Although the left and the right offer different policy solutions—the progressive left stresses combining industrial policy, antitrust policy, and support for labor with targeted tariffs, while the populist right advocates a wider use of tariffs combined with stricter immigration policy—supporters... Read More

The Zero Agency Act

By Darren Bush
April 1, 2025

Representative Ben Cline, apparently an ardent supporter of antitrust laws, has introduced a bill eliminating the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the independent federal agency that enforces the antitrust laws. Elon Musk, possibly the head of DOGE although it isn’t quite clear, is on board with the bill. Some have argued that the elimination of the... Read More

Image: Rep. Ben Cline has introduced a bill eliminating the Federal Trade Commission.

The WNBA Labor Dispute Is Just Another Choice Made by the NBA

By David Berri
March 27, 2025

Last October, the WNBA’s players opted out of their collective bargaining agreement. After very little news for months, stars like Napheesa Collier, Angel Reese, and DiJonai Carrington all indicated recently that the players will hold out if the WNBA doesn’t start paying the players better. The statements suggest a labor dispute might be coming to the... Read More

Image: Napheesa Collier celebrates a win with young WNBA fans.

Should The Government Subsidize Artificial Intelligence?

By Dylan Gyauch-Lewis
March 5, 2025

For years, American tech titans have insisted that AI will be the determinative advancement of the 21st century, and that we need to give them billions of public funds for the United States to maintain its spot as the world’s foremost technological developer. And many pundits and politicians leapt to champion that position. They all... Read More

Image: President Trump announced a partnership between SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX called “Stargate,” named after the sci-fi franchise.

Look At What Courts Do, Not What They Say

By Peter Carstensen
February 22, 2025

Richard Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell famously declared: “Watch what we do, not what we say.” When that was done to him, he wound up in prison. A similar lesson applies to understanding the courts. Academics can debate whether cartels can contribute positively to consumer welfare under some (unlikely) circumstances. Indeed, Penn law professor Herbert Hovenkamp... Read More

Image: Former Attorney General John Mitchell (via Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs)

Is the New FTC Chairman Truly Pro-Enforcement?

By Darren Bush
February 19, 2025

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, freshly appointed by President Trump, made what seemed to be a stunning announcement. On X, he posted that the FTC and DOJ would continue to use the 2023 Merger Guidelines, as conceived by his predecessor, Lina Khan. This appeared to be a stunning victory for New Brandeisians, one that upset the... Read More

Image: Chair Andrew Ferguson has been tweeting a lot since taking the helm of the FTC.

What Obligation Does a Successful Employer Owe Its Workers?

By Hal Singer
February 19, 2025

Imagine two business partners, Sue and Steve, form a company. The company finds success and is acquired by a larger competitor. After the sale has been consummated but before the payment has arrived, Sue seeks to dissolve the partnership, asserting that Steve does not deserve any of the proceeds from the sale. While the fair... Read More

Image: Successful firms are firing workers to appease Wall Street. (Getty Images)

The NCAA Proves Adam Smith Right

By David Berri
February 8, 2025

Back in 2011, ESPN and the NCAA agreed to a $34 million per year media deal that gave ESPN the right to broadcast championships in 29 different college sports. The list of sports included every single college sport played by women. As time went by, it became increasingly clear this media deal dramatically undervalued the... Read More

Image: Charlie Baker, president of the NCAA, recently negotiated the television rights for a bundle of college sports.

We Are Living in the UnitedHealth Group System. And That’s a Bad Thing.

By Venu Julapalli
January 29, 2025

The shooting of its CEO has flung UnitedHealth Group (“UHG”) into the American zeitgeist, and there’s been no shortage of heated opinions on what to make of it. With the tragedy nearly two months behind us, perhaps we can now reflect, dispassionately, on the real diagnosis here: UHG has been monopolizing and “monopsonizing” American health... Read More

Image: Sadly, all the charged rhetoric surrounding the UHG CEO shooting has distracted attention away from the real diagnosis here. What ails the American health care system is structural.

When Market Forces Can’t Be Counted on to Protect Skiers

By Hal Singer
January 10, 2025

Skiers are an admittedly unsympathetic crowd. At least the jetsetters who fly around the country chasing the toniest resorts like Park City.  Local skiers, on the other, might not earn the same incomes as the jetsetters, but nevertheless must pay the same, lofty lift prices. Setting aside the welfare of locals, one can partly understand... Read More

Image: Long lines form at Park City amid a ski patrol strike on Dec. 29, 2024. (Mariah Maynes/KSL NewsRadio)

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