governance

  The German government finds itself unable to endorse the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, a broad proposed EU regulation that would punish businesses for environmental and human rights violations in their supply chains. The Liberals within the governing coalition are withholding their support – a decision made on solid grounds. The directive mandates that […]

The subtitle of this essay has been borrowed from Terry L. Anderson’s conference on ‘Markets vs. Mandates. Promoting Environmental Quality and Economic Prosperity’, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Jan. 30, 2023. Permission granted. Take Away The scarcity of means to satisfy given ends is an omnipresent condition of life and all conscious human actions profoundly affect […]

Friedrich Merz, chairman of Germany’s largest party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), indicated that a collaboration with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at the municipal level could be a possibility. This resulted in an outcry. Especially during the 16-year chancellorship of Angela Merkel, the CDU maintained a strict firewall between themselves and the AfD, […]

Economics Set Free: In Defense of Hayek David Andrew McMillan First Prize in Vernon Smith Prize Contest 2021.   Abstract Policymakers treat economics mysteries as a series of economics puzzles or optimization problems: If only we had more data, they claim, our predictions would be more accurate and evidence-based interventions would deliver greater benefits. The […]

Back in January, we announced the winners of the 13th International Vernon Smith Prize, leaving us organizers with a very uncommon problem: How to run the Awards Ceremony with strict Covid-19 restrictions in place?  The winners were not able to follow the usual invitation. They could not attend a physical event in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Instead, […]