General economics and finance
- Articles in English by Pierre Lemieux
- Articles in French by Pierre Lemieux
- Articles in other languages by Pierre Lemieux
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Articles in English
- Global Value Chains for
Canadian Taxpayers (September 25, 2007). Hear about Québec wheat
and Industry Canada's conferences on value chains for Canadian taxpayers.
- Hollow Goddess of Productivity (Financial
Post, August 22, 2007). Pious sermons to businesses for not investing
enough and not being good girls are meaningless.
- Alcoholic Actions Speak Louder (Financial
Post, June 12, 2007). As for the public monopolies, like the SAQ or
the LCBO, they continue sucking their two breasts (my apologies for the
hyperbole, I must have seen too many Educ’alcool ads): control and
money.
- The OECD Drift (The
Sovereign Society Offshore A-Letter, February 21, 2006).
From an innocuous and rather useful free-market-oriented economic and
statistical shop, the OECD has become a promoter of global diktats.
- The
Problem with "Freedom Indexes" (The Sovereign Society Offshore A-Letter, January 25,
2006). In the U.S., so many business executives are going to jail that
perhaps repression
will
have
to be outsourced to China.
- Bike Protectionism (Financial
Post, September 7, 2005). Political efficiency requires another rule:
give the most politically powerful the right to produce the bikes and screw
the consumer.
- Commodity Myth (Financial
Post, August 30, 2005). There is no reason to fear Chinese demand
pushing up resource prices.
- Oil Price Mirage (Financial
Post, August 19, 2005). Apart from price spikes during times of crisis,
the price of crude tends generally downward.
- A Fund for Profit Activists (Financial
Post, May 26, 2005). Executives are as incompetent
in battles of ideas as they are efficient at producing goods and services.
- When It Comes to GDP,
2 - 1 = 2? (Financial Post, March
17, 2005). Presenting
imports as a subtraction from GDP conveys the wrong impression that they
are bad for the economy.
- Government Deficits Matter,
Others Don't (Financial Post, December 15, 2004). The concept
of current account deficit exists mainly to justify state intervention
and the arbitrary borders it imposes.
- The Public Choice Revolution (Regulation,
Fall 2004). Except in an abstract constitutional perspective (agreement
on very basic rules), the political “we” implies that some individuals
impose their preferences to others.
- The SEC Does'nt Want the
Truth to Get Out (Financial Post, September 22, 2004). The
Securities and Exchange Commission is the new Ministry of Truth.
- Canada's Broken Health
Care System (Ripon
Forum,
Fall 2004). The American system is far from ideal, but the reason is that
it is too socialized and regulated, not because it needs more government
intervention.
- The Nanny Monster (Financial
Post, September 10, 2004). Whether the state a benevolent institution
or a Leviathan that will try to screw the poor and sick, private health
care
should nob be forbidden.
- Robbery, Québec Style (Financial
Post, August 26, 2004). The clerk is legally
obliged to render a “judgment” that “shall be equivalent
to a judgment.” Why wait if you know that the accused are
guilty?
- Wrong Wavelength (Financial
Post, August 11, 2004). Yielding before CHOI’s freedom of expression
would hopefully bring the collapse of this Potemkin village of artificial,
state-imposed, anti-liberty “Canadian values.”
- Plumber Economics (Financial
Post, June 24, 2004). His own interests, as a trade union apparatchik,
are aligned with the mercantilist establishment’s interests, against
consumers, taxpayers and poorer workers.
- Monopoly on Trial (Financial
Post, June 9, 2004). In the Supreme Court, the monopoly’s defenders
claimed again that a parallel private system would threaten the viability
of the public system.
- Political Homogeneity & How
to Hide Expenditures (Financial Post, April 21, 2004). A different
explanation views “public opinion” as an ill-defined mix of
unstable minority views, and the state as a power hungry redistributive
machine with a momentum of its own.
- When Regulators Run Loose (Financial
Post, April 16,
2004). Officially restating earnings is a quite recent obligation,
imposed by the Ministry of Truth - pardon
me, by The Regulator.
- Cut Spending $20-Billion (Financial
Post, February 28, 2004). Let's talk about grants
to researchers, artists, individual do-gooders, state propagandists and
other favourites of the regime.
- Smash the State, Not Microsoft (Financial
Post, February 26, 2004). The Economist is calling for the
state to break Microsoft. I would rather have Microsoft break the state.
- Following the Herd (Regulation
Magazine, Winter 2003-04). Cascade theory explains why a lot of people
can be wrong. When incorrect cascades develop, bad public policy will follow.
- Watch Out for Politically Correct State-talk (Financial
Post, December 5, 2003). In George Orwell's 1984, the power
of Newspeak is that it does not permit to articulate thoughts against the
established order.
- International Social (In)Security
Net (Financial Post, October 3, 2003). Nice fantasy land,
until one realizes that the so-called "social dialogue" requires
the cops to stand by.
- Health Care's Hidden Costs (Financial
Post, August 28, 2003). In
the short-run, the only efficient solution to the problems of the Canadian
system
would be to legalize private health insurance.
- Junk Economics (Financial
Post,
August 6, 2003). They see the economy "losing steam" as if it were
a Via Rail/Bombardier locomotive.
- The Euro Vs. the Pound? (Laissez
Faire Electronic Times, June 30, 2003). The British state should neither
impose the euro, nor favor the pound. Let consumers choose.
- State Should Stop Trying to Set
Value of Dollar (The Gazette, May 28, 2003). Monetary policy
can build economic Potemkin villages; it cannot change the nature of the
economic world.
- Does Vice Pay? (Financial
Post, April 4, 2003). At least, when private investors jump on the
ethical bandwagon, they do it with their own money.
- Loan Guarantees Are Mandatory
Lotteries for Taxpayers (The Gazette, January 29, 2003). Bombardier
has gone from a free-market entrepreneurial venture to a golden lame
duck.
- Business Subsidy Scam (Financial
Post, February 26, 2003). To paraphrase Willy Sutton, Ford and DaimlerChrysler
rob the taxpayers because that's where the money is.
- The Anti-Capitalist Witch-Hunt
(Laissez Faire Electronic Times, December 23, 2002). The attacks against
"unethical" corporations point mainly not to flaws in capitalism, but to
state failures and to the continuing anti-capitalist witch-hunt.
- This is Freedom? (Financial
Post, November 2, 2002). The problem is whether a simple index can
really measure economic freedom.
- Don't Forbid Capitalist
Acts Between Consenting Adults (Financial Post, August 15,
2002). The main trend since the 1980s has been towards increasingly stringent
standards
on the disclosure and circulation of financial information, and on the behaviour
of market participants.
- The Ultimate Enron (Financial
Post, June 25, 2002). The citizens are the formal shareholders of
the state, but no one can sell his shares and bailout. The state is the
ultimate
Enron.
- Bush Overreacts to Enron (The
Gazette, March 16, 2002). The Enron craze has one function: to increase
state power over nominally private corporations.
- Is the State Shrinking? (Laissez-Faire
Electronic Times, February 25, 2002). During the last two decades,
the state increased its expenditures and, more conspicuously, its networks
of
monitoring, surveillance and control.
- Who's Served by the Public Interest?
(Financial Post, February 20, 2002). The securities regulators are
defending not the public interest but the private interests of some special
groups.
- There Are No Predators (Ottawa
Citizen, December 11, 2001). The fox of the state is already in the
henhouse of air travel, but this is no argument to give it still sharper
teeth.
- Government Power Grab Continues
(The Gazette, November 19, 2001) The overgoverned appear ungovernable,
and the easiest solution, from the state's viewpoint, is to restrict political
competition.
- Economic Imperialism (Laissez
Faire City Times, September 3, 2001). The economic analysis of law
is concerned with the efficiency of legal rules.
- Hands Off the Currencies
(Laissez Faire City Times, July 30, 2001). Contrary to popular belief,
the choice of a currency isn't something that needs to be imposed by government.
- Regulatory Bullies (Financial
Post, July 28, 2001). The assault on selective disclosure is just
another junk-science type of witch hunt.
- Dollarization by Default (Financial
Post, July 17, 2001). Contrary to popular belief, the choice of a
currency isn't something that needs to be imposed by government.
- What Deregulation? The Avalanche
Continues (Financial Post, July 5, 2001). A law-abiding citizen
who wanted to read the new federal laws and regulations would spend more
than
one month on this task, full-time, every year.
- WHO's Whiteshirts (Laissez-Faire
City Times, June 4, 2001). Suppose that there are some individuals
who cannot reach a near "complete mental and social well-being" while
they are ruled by the whiteshirts.
- Tyranny Laundering (Laissez-Faire
City Times, May 21, 2001). The concerted effort of the most powerful
states in the world to fight victimless crimes and crimes against the
state is nothing
but an effort to hide an increase in their taxing and surveillance powers.
- Lip Service to Democracy (Financial
Post, May 8, 2001). We will not get closer to the ideal of a no-passport
world by establishing state cartels which, under the pretense of free
trade,
aim at monitoring and managing people's lives.
- The Tax Leviathan (Laissez-Faire
City Times, April 30, 2001). An important part of the taxes we are
forced to pay actually produce "bads," not goods, at least for the invisible
minority of individuals who want to be left peacefully alone.
- Free Trade Doesn't Require Treaties
(Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2001). In FTAA debates as in other
trade issues, a source of much confusion is the failure to realize that
free
trade is a consequence of individual sovereignty.
- Perfume of Prometheus
(Laissez-Faire City Times, April 23, 2001). Suppose that the law allowed
special flights advertised for "Smokers and Lovers of Secondhand Smoke Only"
(call them "SALSSO flights" for short).
- Violent Non-Violence (Laissez-Faire
City Times, April 16, 2001). The non-violence antitrade activists
claim to use is meant to advocate violence.
- Ottawa Wins a Jet Battle, But Canadians
Lose (Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2000). To avenge what
it considers unfair subsidies to the Brazilian aeronautical industry,
the Canadian
government is preparing to get even by punishing Canadian consumers.
- In Defense of Lai Changxing (Exclusive
to this site, November 30, 2000). What horrible crimes this Chinese guy
must
have committed! Who would want to defend him? We do.
- Democracy and the Economics
of Politics (Liberty Free Press, November 21, 2000). Calling
an election serves more to keep minorities in their place than to "consult
the people,"
whatever that means.
- Let's Decriminalize Health Insurance
(National Post, November 18, 2000). Strangely,
or perhaps conveniently, the Canadian political debate on public health
insurance
has ignored the system’s fundamental feature.
- Where Have the Two Trillion Dollars
Gone? (Exclusive to this site, November 2, 2000). Since Keynes's 1936
General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, macroeconomics has
been used to justify the intervention mystique and the idea that the state
creates prosperity by digging holes in people's pockets.
- Tobacco Companies
Must Fight Back (National Post, July 18, 2000). Canadian
governments also tend to import the craziest American fashions – just
as, in Evelyn Waugh’s
novels, African despots plagiarize the worst European ways.
- The
Economics of Smoking (Liberty Fund's Library of Economics and Liberty,
June 28, 2000). Why most economists arrive at conclusions opposite to
those
of the Public Health doctrine.
- CCRA: The Sniffing-dog State
(Liberty Free Press, May 2000). A government dog, litterally and figuratively,
sniffing people's luggage is a good logo for the new American-style "Canada
Customs and Revenue Agency."
- Economics of the Smoking Debate
(Exclusive to this site, January 21, 2000).On the occasion of the Non-Something
Week, a little reflection is in order on the smoking debate.
- Social Costs of Tobacco: All
Smoke, No Fire (National Post, January 20, 1999). Virtually
all economic studies over the past 20 years show that there is no net
social cost of smoking.
- Of Play and Money (Discourse,
Summer 1997). How to make a fortune as a speculator: a review of Victor
Niederhoffer,
The Education of a Speculator (New York: Wiley, 1997). [A similar
review in French was published in Le Figaro-Économie (Paris),
February 20, 1997.]
- Partitioning the State: Some Basic
Observations (Published in Research Memo, No. 68, February
5, 1996). In 1983, I wrote in my Du libéralisme à l'anarcho-capitalisme
(Paris: PUF, 1983) that if Canada was divisible, so was Québec. In
the wake of the present debate in Québec, here are some theoretical
reflections on this topic.
- Auditing the Income Tax (Liberty,
September 1995). What are the economic and moral justifications of income
taxation, if not to increase state power?
- Canada's Taxing Pols Outwitted
by Underground Economy (Wall Street Journal, April 8, 1994).
What happens when government prohibits innocent vices.
- The Diminishing Returns to
Tobacco Legislation (Laissez Faire City Times, March 19, 2001).
The increasing size and aggressiveness of government warnings on tobacco
products point to
decreasing returns to regulation.
- In Support or Tax Evasion (Globe
and Mail, January 31, 1994). If Canadians in the underground economy
were to start paying their "fair" taxes, government revenues
and expenses would simply increase accordingly. So the underground economy
is a useful
restraint on Leviathan, and a benefit to all taxpayers.
- Socialized Medicine: The
Canadian Experience (Published in The Freeman, March 1989;
reproduced in Politicized Medicine, Foundation for Economic Education,
1993). The Canadian health system is one of the most tightly nationalized
in the
Western world. How does it fare?
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Articles in French
- Les quatre
vérités
de la médecine socialisée (Institut Turgot, février
2006 -- traduction française d'une conférence prononcée à l'Institut
Bruno Leoni, Rome, novembre 2004). Comme Bismark l’avait entrevu,
la médecine
socialisée amène la population à considérer l’État
comme un Big Brother bienveillant.
- Les
recettes et les dépenses du gouvernement fédéral (Le
Point de l'IEDM, 12 décembre 2005). Le parti au pouvoir à Ottawa
ne semble pas exercer une influence majeure sur l'évolution des
recettes et des dépenses.
- CHOI-FM:
Une bonne occasion de déstabiliser Léviathan (Le
Québécois libre, 15
août 2004). Écoutez nos commères d’inquisiteurs
disserter savamment autour de l’impact sur « les femmes
en général » de
propos concernant les nichons d’une animatrice de télé,
laquelle, la pauvre naïve, est allée se plaindre au protecteur
attitré des nichons, papa CRTC.
- La fonction économique
des prix (Courrier du Médecin Vaudois, 7 novembre 2003).
Dans le domaine des soins de santé comme ailleurs, des prix librement
déterminés sont indispensables à l’efficacité économique.
- L'analyse économique
du droit (Le Québécois libre, 9 septembre 2001).Ce
qui relie l'économie au droit est donc que les lois établissent des incitations
dont les conséquences peuvent être plus ou moins efficaces.
- Le siècle de la finance
(Le Figaro-Économie, 8 juin 2001). Comment s’assurer que les
pouvoirs publics corrigent leurs politiques erronées au lieu de créer de nouveaux
problèmes en intervenant sans cesse pour corriger les effets des interventions
antérieures?
- Un spéculateur anticapitaliste
(Le Figaro-Économie, 13 avril 2001). L’establishment capitaliste
est souvent étranger à la défense de la liberté économique, et la véritable
ligne de fracture sépare, d’une part, l’étatisme de droite comme de gauche
et, d’autre part, les idées libérales et libertariennes.
- Le siècle de l'État
(Le Figaro-Économie, 6 avril 2001). Comme le souhaitait Mussolini,
le XXe siècle aura bien été, hélas, "le siècle de l'État".
- La Banque Mondiale et la guerre du
tabac (Le Figaro-Économie, 9 mars 2001). On est en présence
d’une sorte d’apartheid légal qui empêche la concurrence du marché d’offrir
aux consommateur – mêmes minoritaires ou statistiquement plus pauvres, comme
les fumeurs – les services qu’ils sont prêts à payer.
- L'avenir du tabac (Futuribles,
no 261 [février 2001]). L’avenir du tabac sera étroitement lié aux
grandes tendances sociales et politiques dans le monde. Deux scénarios délimitent
le domaine des possibles.
- À quoi servent les économistes?
(Le Figaro-Économie, 19 janvier 2001). Plusieurs économistes
contemporains se sont interrogés sur le conflit éventuel entre la modélisation
et la pertinence socio-politique de la science économique.
- Du permis de conduire au permis
pour avoir des enfants (Le Figaro-Économie, 8 décembre
2000). Puisque l’on accepte de soumettre à autorisation administrative des activités
moins risquées, on doit admettre que les pouvoirs publics contrôlent la compétence
des parents avant de les laisser faire et élever des enfants.
- Théories
contre l'impôt (Publié sur ce site le 1er novembre 2000).
Ce qui nous amène à la question de fond qui est sous-jacente à celle de l’impôt:
l’État a-t-il un rôle légitime à jouer?
- Économie de l'exception
française (Le Figaro-Économie, 15 septembre 2000).
L'"exception française"
devrait consister à rejeter les forces homogénéisantes des pouvoirs étatiques,
qu'ils soient nationaux ou supranationaux. Une "exception" imposée
aux individus feraient surtout de la France un musée.
- Le coût social du tabac
(Le Figaro-Économie, 18 février 2000). L'important rapport
publié par la Banque mondiale en 1999, croit que les « policy-makers »
sont plus compétents que les simples individus pour déterminer
ce qui est bon pour eux-mêmes. Cette approche n'est pas de l'économie,
mais de l'autoritarisme politique.
- La Banque mondiale et le coût
social du tabac (Communication présentée au séminaire
Choix individuels et liberté, Université du Québec à
Hull, 14 janvier 2000; en format PDF). Une analyse un peu technique de l'argumentation
de la Banque mondiale et des théories économiques sous-jacentes.
- La fin de la monnaie (Le
Figaro-Économie, 18 juin 1999). Richard Rahn soutient que la monnaie
électronique sonnera la fin de l'intervention étatique dans
la finance.
- L'économie comme science
expérimentale (Le Figaro-Économie, 9 avril 1999).
Un livre récent de Bergstrom et Miller suggère que la science
économique se prête à des expériences de laboratoire
présentant une grande valeur pédagogique.
- Les armes et la légitime défense
(Le Figaro-Économie, 5 février 1999). La théorie
économique de la dissuasion comme l'observation des faits montrent
que la généralisation du port d'armes réduit la criminalité.
Une recension du livre récent de John Lott.
- L'ordre caché de l'économie
(Le Québécois libre, 14 mars 1998). L'économie
n'a pas grand chose à voir avec l'argent, puisque l'on peut mesurer les prix
relatifs des choses en termes de n'importe quoi.
- Théorie des probabilités
et scrutins étatiques (Le Figaro-Économie, 4 septembre
1997). On ne vote pas pour exercer une influence, puisque la probabilité
qu'un vote individuel change quelque chose est infinitésimale. Pourquoi
alors les gens votent-il dans les scrutins étatiques?
- Le jeu et l'argent (Le Figaro-Économie,
20 février 1997). Comment un spéculateur international analyse
les causes de son succès: une recension de Victor Niederhoffer, The
Education of a Speculator (New York, Wiley, 1997). [Un texte semblable en langue anglaise a été publié
dans la livraison de l'été 1997 de Discourse.]
- L'économie de la résistance
fiscale (Le Figaro-Économie, 30 janvier 1997). Est-il vrai
que l'évasion fiscale est économiquement inefficace et injuste
pour les autres contribuables?
- Finances publiques: des solutions
(La Presse, 15 janvier 1997). Comment on pourrait régler à
court terme le problème des finances publiques du Québec sans
porter préjudice aux drogué de l'État.
- L'économie de la guerre
civile (Le Figaro-Économie, 21 novembre 1996). Les leçons
de la guerre de Sécession américaine qui, comme l'écrit
Jeffrey Hummel, a eu pour effet d'"émanciper les esclaves, d'asservir
les hommes libres".
- Sommes-nous moralement tenus d'obéir
aux lois? (Le Figaro-Économie, 12 septembre 1996). Ce qui
est passé à peu près inaperçu jusqu'à tout
récemment, c'est la montée de théories qui remettent
radicalement en cause la légitimité de l'État. Un ouvrage
récent de Jan Narveson et John Sanders sonde la nouvelle vague qui
déferle sur la philosophie politique.
- Une économie sans efficacité
sociale a-t-elle un sens? (Conférence prononcée dans le
cadre d'un débat avec M. Ignacio Ramonet, Hull, 18 mars 1996). Une
vision différente de l'économie, de la société
de l'État.
- Divisibilité du territoire
et nature de l'État (Exclusif à ce site). Comment le débat
actuel sur la divisibilité d'un Québec séparé
démontre l'absurdité de la conception naïve de l'État.
- Chaos et Anarchie (in Alain
Albert [sous la direction de], Chaos and society, Amsterdam, IOS Press,
1995). À la lumière des théories de la complexité
et de la théorie des jeux, un examen des problèmes que soulève
la justification de l'État (format pdf, 270 k).
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