The Big Ban Blunder
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Plastic bag bans have become a favorite tool of municipal governments. The argument made by proponents of them is seductively simple: plastic...
Against Prolonged Unemployment Benefit Supplements
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
House Democrats’ proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus bill includes a weekly pandemic unemployment benefit supplement of $400 per week through August 29. The generosity...
Snowstorm Anti-Price Gouging Law in Dallas
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Dallas County judge Clay Jenkins has issued a local disaster declaration that prohibits “price gouging” on a range of goods in the face of the...
Economics In One Lesson: Minimum Wage Federal-Finances Edition
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or...
The COVID-19 Reallocation Shock
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Much of the pandemic economic policy response around the world seemed designed to freeze the economy of March 2020. Existing employment...
The Unintended Consequences of the Kitchen Sink
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
As the $2.2 trillion CARES Act sailed through Congress, the general mood was that money had to get out the door...
What is “Nonessential” Business?
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has followed other governors in ordering all “nonessential” businesses to close workplace sites within his state. But is it...
No, A Wealth Tax Is Not Like A Cigarette Tax
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Neil Irwin of the New York Times says Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax should be thought of as akin to a cigarette tax,...
Hope from Europe on Economic Liberty
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Last week I attended and spoke at a conference hosted by the Financial Times and JTI on economic regulation in Prague.
During my panel...
Sanders Feels the Bern on Hourly Wage Demands
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
You really couldn’t script it.
Faced with campaign staff complaining their hourly wages are too low, 2020 presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT), he...
It’s the Demographics Stupid: The Employment Rate is Better Than Its Pre-Crisis Peak
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Today’s jobs numbers surprised on the upside. The unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent and 263,000 jobs were created in April, exceeding...
Are Child-Care Subsidies Actually “Good For The Economy”?
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Commentators are already implying Democrat Elizabeth Warren’s new universal child-care plan will be “good for the economy.”
Moody’s Analytics reckons subsidies will induce...
Oregon’s Rent Control Bill Would Ultimately Please Nobody
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
The Oregon Senate has passed a rent control bill that would limit annual rent increases to 7 percent above the annual change in...
The State of the New German Minimum Wage
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Germany introduced a new economy-wide minimum wage for the first time in 2015, at a relatively high rate of €8.50 ($9.67...
Punitive Marginal Tax Rates and A Partial Appeal to The Economics Literature
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit headlines last week for advocating marginal income tax rates “as high as 60% or 70%” on those earning...
The War On The Poor Has Many Fronts And Armies, Professor Krugman
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
Paul Krugman’s column yesterday lamented Republican policy towards the poor. He has particular gripes with Ben Carson’s changes to housing subsidies, increased...
Shake Shack Planning for Higher Minimum Wages
RYAN BOURNE, CATO INSTITUTE
CNBC reports that the burger chain Shake Shack is planning to trial a new restaurant in New York which will not have a...