Industrial Policy: Strategic Tool or Market Distortion?
Industrial policy has returned to the centre of public debate. For much of the late twentieth century, many policymakers treated the idea with suspicion: governments were seen as poor “pickers of winners,” and markets were seen as better at discovering which firms and technologies deserved investment. Today, the mood is different. Supply-chain fragility, geopolitical rivalry, […]
Government Spending and the Limits of Fiscal Expansion
Few ideas in public policy feel as intuitively persuasive as fiscal expansion. When households struggle, businesses hesitate, or a crisis hits, the state appears to have an obvious lever: spend more. In political rhetoric, government spending is often treated as a direct instrument for producing growth, stability, and social protection. Yet the history of fiscal […]
The Case For and Against Price Controls
Price controls tend to reappear at the same moments in history: sudden inflation, war, supply shocks, housing shortages, or sharp spikes in the cost of essential goods. When prices rise fast, the political pressure to “do something” intensifies. Capping prices can look like the most direct intervention available—an immediate signal that the state is protecting […]
Inflation and Monetary Policy Through a Hayekian Lens
Inflation debates often begin and end with a single number. A monthly index moves up or down, commentators argue about the “real” rate, and policymakers promise to bring it back to target. From a Hayekian perspective, this fixation on aggregates misses the central issue. Inflation is not only a change in an average price level. […]