Articles

Ryan Bourne explains at first price controls seem to do the job, as the market-distorting consequences that eventually lead to shortages are ignored.

The Lord works in mysterious ways, an eternal truth illustrated by the latest electric power blackout afflicting Puerto Rico on New Year’s Eve. Merely the latest manifestation of the reality that the island’s electric grid is in desperate need of modernization, it is a reminder also that the sad saga of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and its massive debts now has gone on for over 10 years, in a continuing cycle of mismanagement and escalating costs that have prevented PREPA from accessing the capital market for the needed modernization.

Constanza Mazzina says that perhaps the question that helps to differentiate them is what role they expect the state to play and if in any case there is no state, how social coexistence is organized.

When government institutions are inefficient and extractive, governments intervene disproportionately in the economy, over-tax and over-regulate the market (to name a few harms); this leads to market failures and restricts people's economic freedom and ability to prosper.

Puerto Rico must free itself from slow permits, excessive licenses, and high taxes to transform its productive potential into real growth, says Francisco Rodríguez Castro.

To understand government institutions and the degree of constituent confidence in government, it is necessary to know the track record of their performance. When government institutions function properly, they facilitate prosperity and a high quality of life by building human capital, public health, safety, security, and a healthy fiscal environment; this gives them the confidence of citizens.

Speaking with a friend about the migrant crisis in the United States, she made an interesting observation. Many of the most prosperous Western nations in the world today are facing the same problem. They are flooded with migrants who are overwhelming the system, infuriating the citizenry, adding fiscal burdens, disrupting public order, and leading to possible political instability.