Category:Economics

May 17, 2022 | Video

If you’ve ever visited Istanbul, you know it’s swarming with bald men. How, exactly, did Turkey become Bald Man Mecca? We answered that question: comparative advantage. And what is comparative advantage, you ask? And why has it led to Turkey’s revolutionary hair transplants? We put those questions to Adam Smith and David Ricardo, but they […]

March 22, 2022 | Video

The Guardian once called neoliberalism “the ideology at the root of all our problems.” New York Magazine called neoliberalism “the left’s favorite insult of liberals.” 

But does anyone really know what the word means — or know anything about its origins?

December 20, 2021 | Post

Here’s a brainbuster for you: The product on the left will help keep you alive for 6-8 weeks. It costs $4.49. The other is nothing more than pretty to look at. It costs $161. Why? This paradox — the water-diamond paradox — troubled some of the world’s greatest minds. Plato wondered about it; Copernicus and […]

November 18, 2021 | Post

As we witnessed during the 2020 election season, and as we are sure to witness during the upcoming holiday season, the United States Postal Service doesn’t exactly instill confidence.

October 21, 2021 | Video

Is immigration bad for the United States in 2021? Should the southern border be closed? Should we “build the wall,” as former President Donald Trump suggested?

Part 1 of Learn Liberty’s immigration series, “Why Should Conservatives Embrace Immigration?” tackles the stereotypical narratives around immigration from a Libertarian perspective — and from a statistical one.

As economic writer and researcher Daniel DiMartino describes, the economy doesn’t have a fixed number of jobs, and preventing highly skilled immigrants from entering the United States will only persuade companies to move those jobs elsewhere.

September 2, 2021 | Video

In 2021, Bitcoin hit the impressive mark of $1 trillion in market cap, and all cryptocurrencies nowadays sum over $2.3 trillion. This is an amazing accomplishment over a decade. But why do we need cryptocurrencies? What are altcoins?

In this video, part of the Blockchain Economics course of SFL Academy, we explain some of the most used cryptos and why so many more are being created every day.

August 26, 2021 | Video

The G7 recently reached a historic decision favoring a global corporate tax rate, aligning interests from the US government and the European Union. They want to change how corporations pay their taxes and eliminate the competition between countries with lower rates. What is behind this decision? What are the possible consequences of implementing a global tax? But most importantly, why is this such a terrible idea?

April 28, 2021 | Video

We talked with our friend Nolan Gray, a city planner, about how the COVID-19 pandemic led to many transformations in big cities, such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. Many people are moving away from big cities as they are not required to work there anymore. Big cities are facing enormous challenges today, due to the heavy regulations on how businesses can operate, as well as the financial burdens they inflict on residents.

Let us know in the comments below if you or any person you know moved away from a big city and how they feel about it.

#DeathOfBigCities #WorkFromHome #Metropolises

April 28, 2021 | Video

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a strong effort to curtail price gouging on items such as hand sanitizer and medical face masks.

What doesn’t get said enough, however, is that forcibly restricting prices from rising above a certain threshold will not in itself influence the market conditions that drive prices up.

Price gouging encourages competition by pressuring manufacturers and distributors to increase production, which over time, would actually drive down costs. Price controls during a time of crisis, however, do nothing to address the shortage problem.

April 28, 2021 | Video

Ahead of his panel on Corruption and Poverty in Latin America at LibertyCon Europe, Juan Carlos Hidalgo, former policy analyst at the Cato Institute talks about why Latin America has so many cases of corruption, the recent protests in Chile and other countries around the world.

January 11, 2021 | Video

How do we create property on Mars? We applied the thinkings of John Locke and Robert Nozick to Mars Colonization to find out.

January 29, 2018 | Video

Is it fair that CEOs get paid millions—even billions—while there are so many people still in poverty? Well, it depends! Watch the second entry in our question and answer series with Prof. Howie Baetjer.

January 11, 2018 | Video

Is human blood a “public resource”? Prof. Peter Jaworski argues that your bodily fluids belong to you, and governments should let you sell them.

January 8, 2018 | Video

How is Communism described in theory, and how does it play out in the real world? Join us for our question and answer series with Prof. Howie Baetjer.

November 16, 2017 | Video

We all want the safety and dependable quality that “regulation” is supposed to provide. Government can provide it to some extent, but markets can do it better, if we let them. Howard Baetjer of Towson University explains.

October 30, 2017 | Video

What’s the evidence that economic freedom is beneficial for society? Prof. Antony Davies shows charts of the free market’s effects on unemployment, inequality, poverty, and even child labor.

October 23, 2017 | Video

Remember the mid-2000s housing crash that wiped out homeowners? Well, there’s another bubble getting ready to pop, and this one’s in student debt. Prof. Antony Davies explains.

October 16, 2017 | Video

Myth 1 is that the government owes “only” $20 trillion. (In reality, it’s much more.) But luckily, Myth 10 is that there’s no way to fix this problem…

October 9, 2017 | Video

Governments don’t work the way most people think they do. Public choice theory explores how voters, politicians, and bureaucrats actually make decisions. Prof. Antony Davies explains.

October 2, 2017 | Video

If you really want to understand how the world works today, you need to rethink almost everything you’ve been told about inequality. Prof. Antony Davies explains.

September 25, 2017 | Post

The next time someone starts explaining to you how government regulation is needed because corporations have the special privilege of limited liability, please channel Count Rugen.

September 22, 2017 | Post

In partly free societies, more intergenerational mobility isn’t always a good thing.

September 21, 2017 | Post

The media rarely celebrate ordinary people doing jobs for which they get paid. But the man selling several generators can be more impactful than the man giving one away.

September 20, 2017 | Post

Given that Africa has the world’s youngest population, the lack of steady, formal-sector jobs is an enormous political and economic risk factor. Unemployed youth are more likely to be criminals, may be lured into militant groups, and contribute to political unrest.