Entries by Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

Hackers Reveil How Volkswagen Secretly Cheated Emissions Tests by Gary McGath

Cars are part of the “Internet of Things.” They run not just on gas, which you’re free to analyze, but on computer code, which you aren’t. If this sounds worrisome, it is. Internal computers can greatly improve a car’s performance and safety, but they can have problems that show no symptoms under normal circumstances. A […]

How the Government Makes Data Hacks a Thousand Times Worse by David M. Brown

In May of 2015, the federal government suffered a massive data breach, a hack that exposed the names and Social Security Numbers of over 21 million people. In a press release, the Office of Personal Management reported that as a result of its “aggressive effort to upgrade the agency’s cybersecurity posture,” the agency discovered the massive theft […]

The Pill Whose Price Went Up 5000%? It Costs 5 Cents in India by Alex Tabarrok

The drug Daraprim was increased in price from $13.60 to $750, creating social outrage. I’ve been busy, but a few points are worth mentioning. The drug is a generic and not under patent so this isn’t a case of IP protectionism. The story as I read it is that Martin Shkreli, the controversial CEO of Turing pharmaceuticals, noticed that there […]

Pope Francis’s Graph of the Day by Ian Vásquez

As the Argentine Pope, ever critical of capitalism, visits the United States, my colleagues at HumanProgress.org have posted this graph. It shows that in 1896, income per person in the United States and Argentina, two of the richest countries in the world, was about identical. Argentina subsequently eschewed the free market, replacing it with trade protectionism and […]

Are Markets Immoral? On Popes, Pencils, and Chicken Sandwiches by Donald J. Boudreaux

Are markets moral? This oft-asked question will be asked even oftener when Pope Francis visits the U.S. It’s one thing to conclude that markets are immoral after learning how markets work and what life would be like in their absence. Such a conclusion is intellectually defensible because it would reflect an informed – if, in […]

The Speech Pope Francis Should Have Given by Lawrence W. Reed

Pope Francis, Address to the United States Congress — September 24, 2015: Members of the U.S. Congress and the American people: I come before you in glowing admiration for the historic accomplishments of your spirit of enterprise. In the pursuit of personal gain — the desire to improve your lives while serving others in the […]

Homeschooling Is a Threat to Public Education: But Not for the Reasons You Might Think by B.K. Marcus

According to my local government, I’m just now beginning my fifth year as a homeschooling dad. That’s how long state law has required us to file the paperwork. In that time, I’ve heard homeschoolers called elitists (because not everyone can afford to educate their own children), snobs (because it is assumed that we look down on […]

Big Government Is Still Young by Alberto Mingardi

I am reading Charles Murray’s By the People. Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission. By the way, it is quite an engaging read. Right at the beginning of the book, Murray struggles to give some measure of the extent of increase in government involvement with everyone’s life. Here’s a passage: Until the 1930s, the federal government remained […]

The Pope’s Laughable – and Dangerous – View of Nature by Donald J. Boudreaux

Here’s a letter to the Washington Post: On the opening page of your website today you ask readers to register their agreement or disagreement with this statement of Pope Francis: “This is our sin: Exploiting the Earth and not allowing her to give us what she has within her.” This claim is laughable. History testifies […]

The Pope Is Morally and Factually Wrong about Capitalism by Daniel J. Mitchell

The biggest mistake of well-meaning leftists is that they place too much value on good intentions and don’t seem to care nearly as much about good results. Pope Francis is an example of this unfortunate tendency. His concern for the poor presumably is genuine, but he puts ideology above evidence when he argues against capitalism and in favor […]

Students for Sale by Thomas Bogle

Imagine you’re with me in a room full of educators, mostly public school teachers and administrators. We are there to learn how to incorporate principles of entrepreneurship and innovation into a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)-based learning environment. Ben, the professional development facilitator, is showing us how to use a business model canvas, a […]

Detroit’s Blight Creates Market for Squatters by Tyler Cowen

The Detroit News reports: Wanted: One good squatter. It’s no joke. In a remote pocket of northwest Detroit along the Rouge River, neighbors are so desperate to stop a cycle of abandonment and blight they’re recruiting a squatter to occupy a home whose longtime owners left last weekend. That’s because neighbors fear the onetime farmhouse […]