Today, Joshua Rauh debates one of the creators of the proposed California Billionaires’ Tax on its merits and points out how it will leave California worse off in the long run. Ross Levine writes in the voice of Adam Smith to articulate exactly how the “invisible hand” directs economic cooperation among millions of participants in the marketplace. And Russ Roberts explores why Duke University hands out free tickets to one of its most sought-after sporting events.
California
Hoover Senior Fellow Joshua D. Rauh took his research criticizing the efficacy of the proposed California billionaires’ tax straight to one of its creators in a debate at Stanford on March 6, 2026, arguing it will leave the state poorer in the long run. In a public debate with University of California–Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez, a key architect of the proposed wealth tax, Rauh, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, pointed to his own research which shows the net present value of the tax is likely negative, meaning it will drive jobs and investment away from California for years if it is passed. Proponents of the wealth tax “would liquidate Silicon Valley for an extra $2 billion per year,” Rauh said. “This is classic, not showing or considering what the economic damage would be of liquidating Silicon Valley.” His study shows the proposal would leave the state worse off by an estimated $25 billion once future lost income tax revenue is considered. Read more here.
The Economy
Hoover Senior Fellow Ross Levine, again taking up the pen of Adam Smith, focuses on Smith’s most famous contribution: the notion of the “invisible hand” that directs economic cooperation in a society built on rules and justice. There’s nothing mystical about this “hand,” Levine writes: It’s merely the expression of voluntary exchange among people who benefit from trade. This concept has been mischaracterized as greed or selfishness, Levine writes, but this is untrue. Yet neither is the “hand” benevolence—what some people supply and other people consume follows from their own needs and abilities, he writes, and the process blossoms from ambition rightly guided. Ultimately, Levine notes, the “invisible hand” transforms an economy for the better. Read more here.
On the latest episode of EconTalk: Conversations for the Curious, host Russ Roberts speaks to Duke University economics professor Michael C. Munger about why Duke offers thousands of free tickets to its men’s basketball team’s game against its most hated rival, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Tarheels. They discuss the byzantine system of rules and rituals that govern who gets the free tickets and use the legendary Duke-UNC rivalry to explore the fundamental economics question: How do you deal with a world where there isn't enough of something to go around? Watch or listen to the episode here.
Iran
In a new column, Military History in Contemporary Conflict Working Group contributor Ralph Peters asks why the Pentagon appears to have foregone any articulation of military objectives before launching a gigantic air war against Iran. He picks up on the sentiment from the public, apparently baffled by the fact the articulated aims of the war keep changing. “For the most-powerful military in history,” Peters writes, “we bake failure into the pie by declining to pose, let alone answer, questions so basic that the average citizen would assume the answers had been examined in fine detail through war-games, intelligence assessments and common sense.” Peters says there are three questions that must be asked before any military campaign, and the more cogent the answers are, the better. Read more here.
Revitalizing American Institutions
Hoover Senior fellow Chester E. Finn Jr. discusses a new interactive tool, Civic Profile, that explores what Americans know and believe about their role as citizens of a democracy. What’s more, Finn says in an interview, the tool’s ability to capture the ways Americans express their civic values may inspire greater personal understanding of their responsibilities and build stronger communities.Civic Profile’s collected survey data holds value for scholars, researchers, and teachers as well, he says, and in the future will enable even closer readings of Americans’ views about how they live in a free society. Read more here.
Determining America’s Role in the World
Despots oppress women to visibly show their power, to dilute resistance, and to recruit antidemocratic allies, writes Malaina Kapoor in Liberty Amplified. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has used sex-based persecution to flaunt its authority and cement its internal legitimacy, she writes, singling out perhaps the worst example of this injustice. Anti-regime protests in Iran, meanwhile, have endured despite official persecution—and these protests, far from futile, have created a crack in the mullahs’ power. Kapoor writes that the Iranian example demonstrates how women’s rights are both a rallying point for democratic activism in that land and an example for the world. Read more here.
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