Author Archive | Todd Zywicki

Cool article by Jonathan Rauch on the organizational structure of the Tea Party.

Josh Wright has the story of Microsoft’s apparent use of antitrust laws to protect itself from competition from Google. Josh’s explanation certainly seems more plausible than the theory offered by Joshua Gans that Microsoft has simply become more enlightened about the virtues of antitrust laws.

Some time back I posted the list by Mitch Daniels of his five best books on conservatism.  The same website (fivebooks.com) solicited the views of several others on the same topic. Fivebooks has now gone back to all of those who participated and assembled their composite list, as they voted on each others’ entries as […]

Interesting observations by Harvey Silverglate on the unintended consequences of the Craigslist crackdown.  The fact that there are unintended consequences, of course, does not necessarily mean that taking this activity off Craigslist is a bad idea, if the benefits exceed the costs.  But as Harvey indicates, there plainly will be unintended consequences and the whole […]

A spreading meme is that there is a new frugality among consumers, as evidenced by a decline in credit card balances outstanding over the past several quarters.  An interesting new analysis by CardHub, however, argues that this is a measurement error: that the decline in outstanding balances is actually a result of increased chargeoffs of […]

I’ve posted a new essay on “Common Law and Economic Efficiency” that surveys the long debate over the “efficiency of the common law” hypothesis.  Here’s the abstract: This essay reviews the origins and development of the debate over the “efficiency of the common law hypothesis.” The essay begins with the earliest explanation for the observed […]

As I have in previous years, I’m again posting Evan Maloney’s moving 7 minute video “Crystal Morning” that documents the horrible events of 9/11 using raw audio from publicly-released 911 calls of that day.  Although I’ve watched it numerous times through the years I’m still deeply moved every time I watch this. May God bless […]

According to Jane Mayer, this makes him a corporate tool: I was the main speaker of the night at a fancy dinner. The crowd included millionaire business owners and corporate executives. And the man who introduced me, and who had invited me to speak, was billionaire industrialist Charles Koch. My topic was what it always […]

From “Blue,” commenting on Jane Mayer’s New Yorker hit piece on the Koch brothers: From Mayer: “The Kochs continued to disperse their money, creating slippery organizations with generic-sounding names, and this made it difficult to ascertain the extent of their influence in Washington.“ So let’s check out some of the organizations she cites: “Charles Lewis, […]

Like David, I read the New Yorker piece.  It seemed like tendentious conspiracy-mongering to me (ironic in light of Mayer’s interest in Fred Koch’s link to the John Birch Society).  Short on important facts and long on characterization and innuendo.  Others have dissected in some detail, that’s not my object here. I’ve met Charles and […]

The Conglomerate is now knee-deep in their annual junior scholars workshop.  Today’s paper is Jim Hawkins’s nifty piece “Regulating the Fringe” on which I was delighted to have an opportunity to comment.  It is a really well-done paper and I find the central claim quite compelling.  Other discussants appear less persuaded.  You can pick up […]

Over the summer I had an opportunity to read several great books.  Most of them are well-known and there’s not much I can do to add to their lore (I especially enjoyed Graham Greene The Power and the Glory and Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust).  But one that I only stumbled across recently, and […]

The latest edition of Minding the Campus has an entry by Mark Bauerlein, “Why So Many Administrators?”  The entry discusses a new report from the Goldwater Institute by Jay Greene on the astonishing rise in administrative employment and expenses in higher education.  From 1993-2007, expenditures and employment of university bureaucrats rose twice as fast as […]

A list by J.W. Verret.  Looks about right to me.  Any major errors or omissions?

The Goldwater Institute in Arizona has filed a legal challenge to ObamaCare.  Details and complaint here.  I am privileged to serve as a Senior Fellow for Goldwater, but I have nothing to do with the case. The clients they are representing are: • Nick Coons of Tempe, Ariz., owns his own computer sales and repair business […]