Free Market
29 perspectives
Price signals, incentives, and voluntary exchange as the organising principles. Sceptical of intervention; attentive to unintended consequences.
Amazon Rainforest Fate Decides in Brazilian Election
The Price of a Standing Tree
Sunday’s runoff moves the expected price of one thing in Brazil: the cost of clearing a hectare of Amazon …
UK Government Shuns Tariffs on Chinese Vehicle Imports
The Back Door That Is Really a Window
The decision is described, by its critics in Brussels, as a back door: Britain declining to tax …
Atacama lithium extraction exacts heavy social and environmental toll
The Price of Water That Nobody Charges
The intervention moves the price of lithium in one direction, upward, because the world’s …
Supreme Court Revives Controversial Citizenship Data System
The Customs House at the Polling Station
The system is described as a safeguard: a federal data system that checks voter rolls against …
Trump Dismisses AI Safety Concerns as Hoax
The dismissal is described as plain speaking, a refusal to be frightened by men who profit from fright. The mechanism it actually creates is …
Twelve Nations Sanction Israeli West Bank Settlement Trade
The question is not who will punish whom, but who is producing what, in the West Bank, on Tuesday, and who is not. The settlements produce …
Judge Spares Google Ads Business From Breakup
The remedy Judge Brinkema has fashioned does not remove the seller who dominates the marketplace; it merely posts new rules at the entrance …
Greenland launches commission into Danish forced sterilisation
The commission is described by Greenland’s government as an exercise in truth-telling - an accounting of a wrong so that it may …
Senators Push Ban on Wildfire Betting Markets
The intervention moves the price of a wildfire contract on Kalshi or Polymarket in one direction - toward extinction, if the senators have …
EU Imposes Billion Dollar Fine on Google Search
The proposal is described by the European Commission as a corrective to anti-competitive conduct, a necessary rebuke to a monopolist who has …
Aboriginal newborn DNA screening aims to prevent past data misuse
The proposal is described as a benevolent innovation in preventive health, designed to safeguard the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres …
New State Safety Rules Ban Tesla Robotaxis
The question is not who will ride in the autonomous carriage, but who will build the machine that carries them. Production creates the …
African Caribbean Nations Demand Slave Trade Apology and Compensation
The proposal is described as a moral reckoning, a restoration of historical balance through formal apologies, debt relief, and financial …
Lawsuit alleges ChatGPT aided in planning mass shooting
The intervention moves the price of legal liability in one direction. But supply will respond by retreating into opacity and demand by …
China's electric vehicle (EV) factories are dominating the ecosystems shaping the global auto industry.
The question is not who will consume the electric vehicle, but who will produce it. Production creates the market.
We are told that China’s …
Global oil prices are approaching a tipping point that could trigger inflation, shortages, and recession.
The question is not who will consume the oil, but who will produce the alternative. Production creates the market.
We are told that global …
The US Court of International Trade ruled that Trump's latest 10% temporary global tariffs are unjustified under a 1970s trade law, but issued only a narrow block applying to two parties.
The proposal is described as a necessary shield for national industry, a temporary measure to correct global imbalances. The mechanism it …
US President Donald Trump announced he is tearing up part of the EU tariff deal and raising import duties on cars and lorries to 25%.
The question is not who will drive the new cars, but who will be permitted to manufacture them and at what cost. Production creates the …
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged despite calls from President Trump to cut them.
The intervention moves the price of credit in one direction, yet the planners are not accounting for how the supply of capital will respond …
China's exports to the EU vastly outpaced imports in Q1, driven significantly by electric vehicle shipments, producing a record trade surplus with the bloc.
The intervention moves the price of electric vehicles in the European market in one direction, yet the planners in Brussels are failing to …
A report alleges Israeli soldiers and settlers are using sexual assault and gendered violence to force Palestinians out of the West Bank.
The intervention moves the price of security and social stability in one direction, but the reports of systematic violence suggest a …
Russia launched a large-scale drone and missile attack on civilian areas of Ukraine, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 100.
The intervention moves the price of security in one direction, through a violent and uncoordinated shock to the physical infrastructure of …
The IMF warns that a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz could trigger a major global energy crisis.
The warning is described as a cautionary alert regarding global energy security. The mechanism it identifies, however, is the profound …
The EU agreed to double tariffs on foreign steel imports to 50% to protect its domestic industry from cheap Chinese imports.
The intervention moves the price of steel within the European Union in one direction, yet the planners appear to have overlooked how the …
Péter Magyar defeats Viktor Orbán in Hungary's elections, ending Orbán's 16 years in power.
The question is not who will govern the Hungarian parliament, but who will continue to produce the goods and services that sustain its …
Donald Trump threatened "hell" unless Tehran reopens the Hormuz Strait.
The question is not who will consume the oil, but who will produce the alternative - because production is the source of demand, not the …
The US trade chief criticized the WTO for failing to reach consensus on a key e-commerce moratorium.
The question is not who will consume digital services, but who will produce them - and under what conditions the production can expand. …
Global semiconductor supply chain stress - ASML export controls and TSMC capacity expansion
The intervention moves the price of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment in restricted markets upward. But supply will respond by …