Neal McCluskey Since the widespread adoption of public schooling, private schools have had an existential problem: it is very difficult to compete with “free.” When COVID-19 brought the country to a halt in March 2020, private schooling looked to be in big trouble. Why would people voluntarily pay for education, on top of taxes, that would not even be in ...
Thomas A. Berry Who is the valid acting US attorney for the District of New Jersey right now? The answer is in dispute, with Alina Habba and Desiree Leigh Grace both claiming the title. The controversy is a case study in how the current system for appointing “acting” officers is confusing, ambiguous, and rife with loopholes. First, the basics. The ...
Chris Edwards America’s labor markets are generally free. Employers hire workers of their choice, and workers are free to seek employers that offer the best combination of compensation and working conditions. However, labor markets suffer from harmful government interventions, including labor union laws. In the early 20th century, the idea that employers had too much bargaining power relative to employees ...
Jennifer Huddleston There is a saying, “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” New technologies are often disruptive, but they may or may not actually change the existing legal frameworks that have governed principles like free expression. In many cases, they may be faster horses, not zebras. In a recent article in Liberty University Law Review, I explore when ...
Matt Mittelsteadt On July 23, the White House released its much-anticipated AI Action Plan. Spanning thirty topics across twenty-eight pages, this plan represents a truly far-reaching attempt to shape the AI future. The Action Plan’s specifics represent a diverse grab bag of policy action aimed at supporting and shaping AI on all fronts. To speed AI infrastructure buildout, data center ...
Chris Edwards Stealing government benefits through electronic payment systems is on the rise. Large-scale theft from programs was more difficult when bureaucracies relied on paper applications and in-person approvals. Today, criminals are flooding programs with payment requests over the internet, and government computers are paying out millions of dollars before scams are discovered. Governments have always been incompetent, and handout ...
Walter Olson “White House suggests stripping political adversary of citizenship” is quite the headline, but it’s now happened three times in just a few weeks. On July 12, Donald Trump said he was giving “serious consideration” to revoking the US citizenship of perennial critic Rosie O’Donnell, who was born on Long Island. The comedian is exploring acquiring Irish citizenship through ...
Norbert Michel George Selgin. George Selgin, senior fellow at the Cato Institute and director emeritus of its Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, is retiring in July 2025. Selgin is a renowned monetary theorist and historian whose work on free–market–centered banking and monetary systems spans volumes. In this post, Cato is republishing an interview he gave in 2008, but with ...
Adam N. Michel The Washington Post recently reported that outside groups and Republican lawmakers are urging President Trump to unilaterally cut taxes on capital gains by indexing them to inflation. There are important legal and procedural questions on whether Trump has the authority to take such a step, but behind the legal fight lies a real economic distortion that should ...
Colleen Hroncich James Bisenius knows the value of personalized education. He and his four sisters were homeschooled and then homeschooled their own children. Early on, they realized homeschooling was challenging, so they decided to hire some teachers and partner with other families to create “a hybrid pod school” in two converted barns on family property. “We basically have four or ...