Pro-Market AND Pro-Business: Essays on Laissez-Faire
About this book
Bryan Caplan, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and New York Times Bestselling author, blogged for EconLog from 2005-2022. His latest book combines the very best of his EconLog writings on how free markets, government regulation, and government ownership actually work.The opening essay argues that even friends of the free market should show business – and business leaders – more respect and appreciation. The free market isn’t just a mechanical “process” of wealth production; every business has founders and leaders, and the free market delivers thanks to their intelligence, creativity, and determination. While entrepreneurs are rarely saintly, they are routinely heroic.Pro-Market AND Pro-Business goes on to argue that business is the most functional form of social organization. Contrary to classic complaints about monopoly, imperfect information, and even externalities, what businesses do normally makes sense not just selfishly, but socially. Regulation and government ownership, in contrast, is a never-ending ode to self-righteous incompetence.“No one eviscerates foolish economic policies better than Bryan Caplan. He is a rare breed of economist-his work is rational, original, and easy to understand. Read this book and you will win any battle of wits about economic policy.”--Jeff Yass, Co-Founder of SIG