Articles

On June 30, 2020, Thomas Sowell turns 90. He is one of the most important economic and social thinkers of the last 50 years. I say that, recognizing that his career overlapped such luminaries as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Sowell also has been one of the most prolific social‐science writers of his era, as evidenced by the fact that his birthday also marks the publication of his latest book: Charter Schools and Their Enemies.

Big government is a far heavier burden to those who start out without privileges and advantages. No one has seen entrepreneurship help minorities improve their economic circumstances more than I have—and that’s not only because I’m 93. I saw the power of entrepreneurship firsthand after co-founding the Home Depot.

It is unbelievable that after the governmental bankruptcy, the public and productive management model of the island is still tied to a large and intrusive government in our daily activities. Chilean lawyer and political scientist Axel Kaiser, considered among the most influential voices on economic issues, said at a conference on the island that to

The past seventy years have seen a substantial increase in the number of jobs and trades that require an occupational license to practice, creating onerous burdens on economic freedom. The lack of uniformity in the system of occupational regulation in the United States presents barriers to interstate mobility and infringes on people's freedoms. Organizations such as the Institute for Justice, Arkansa Center for Research in Economics, and the National Conference for State Legislatures have published reports and indexes that expose various problems arising from occupational regulation and propose ways to address the issue.

Marc Joffe recommends the consolidation of some municipalities, given the sharp decline in population that Puerto Rico has experienced, as a way to improve public services and reduce administrative costs.

The excess of federal aid that has come to the Island -associated with the recent natural calamities- has clouded the understanding of the true state of the Puerto Rican economy. The federal money has created a kind of hypnosis that has paralyzed us when it comes to the economic and fiscal reforms needed to achieve a healthy and dynamic economy.