On October 7, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a speech at the Pnyx in Athens, one of the most historically significant locations associated with ancient Greek democracy. Standing near the Acropolis, he reflected on the foundations of Western civilization, the achievements of the ancient Greeks, and the historical responsibilities of nations that have inherited their intellectual and political traditions. He emphasized the importance of national sovereignty, cultural confidence, and the willingness of free societies to defend their institutions and historical inheritance.
Continue readingEconomic Freedom
Scarcity Cannot Be Eliminated by Decree: Housing, Rent Controls, and the Politics of Supply
Housing has become one of the most politically charged economic issues in Spain. Rising rents, the difficulty of finding available apartments, and the increasingly delayed transition of many young people into independent living generate understandable frustration. When access to an essential good becomes difficult, the temptation quickly arises to identify a visible culprit: landlords, property platforms, investment funds, speculators, or simply “the market.”
Continue readingZhao Ziyang, Zhu Rongji, and the Limits of the Chinese Market Reform under the Communist Party Rule
The death of former mainland Chinese premier Zhu Rongji on August 12 has renewed discussion of his economic legacy. Zhu, who served as premier from 1998 to 2003 after previously overseeing much of mainland China’s economic policy as vice premier, was one of the principal architects of the market-oriented reforms of the 1990s. He restructured state-owned enterprises, strengthened the central government’s fiscal capacity, promoted housing reform, and used mainland China’s accession to the World Trade Organization as a means of exposing domestic firms to greater competition.
Continue readingWhen Democracies Get It Wrong: Political Correction, Presidential Judgment, and an Uncertain World
The international environment of 2026 has forced governments to reconsider assumptions that seemed relatively comfortable only a few years ago. The continuing war in Ukraine, the U.S. operation in Venezuela, the war involving the United States, Israel, and the Iranian regime, severe disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, tensions across the Taiwan Strait, and renewed arguments over European defense have all changed how political leaders evaluate power, credibility, and risk. These events are interconnected not because they form part of a single conflict, but because every government watches what happens elsewhere and updates its expectations about what allies and adversaries are willing and able to do.
Continue readingExtremism, Interventionism, and Political Polarization
One of the least productive habits in contemporary politics is the assumption that criticizing one political party automatically means supporting its principal opponent. In Spain, criticism of the PSOE is frequently interpreted as evidence that one must therefore support the Partido Popular or Vox. The same binary reasoning increasingly appears elsewhere: if one criticizes the progressive left, one must be “far right”; if one criticizes Donald Trump, one must belong to the left.
Continue readingEconomic Freedom, LGBTI Rights, and the Price of Pride
One week from today, I will be in Amsterdam to take part in The Price of Pride: Economic Freedom & Digital Rights, an event organized by the European Liberal Forum in cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Europe and Rainbow Platform, on the fringes of EuroPride and WorldPride Amsterdam. The event will bring together researchers, activists, policymakers, and content creators to discuss a question that is often fragmented across different academic and political debates: how do economic freedom, digital rights, personal liberty, and human dignity interact in the lives of LGBTI people?
Continue readingMy American Dream: Why the United States Still Matters to Me 250 Years After Independence
Today, July 4, 2026, the United States of America celebrates 250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. For me, this anniversary is more than an important date in American history. It is also deeply personal.
Continue readingWhy Political Economists Need Real-World Experience: Beyond the Ivory Tower
One of the most persistent problems in modern political economy is the growing separation between academic knowledge and practical experience. Universities produce increasing numbers of specialists who are highly trained in theory, statistical techniques, and academic writing. Yet many have limited exposure to entrepreneurship, finance, business decision-making, public policy implementation, or the economic realities faced by ordinary citizens.
Continue readingHow Long Should It Take to Start a Business? Economic Freedom, Bureaucracy, and the Jobs Spain Never Sees
How long should a citizen have to wait before being allowed to create a firm? The question sounds administrative, but it is fundamentally economic and political. A new firm is not merely a registration in a government database. It can become a workplace, a source of income for a family, a competitor that forces established firms to improve, or the first opportunity for someone who has been unemployed to enter the labor market. When the state makes entry unnecessarily slow, expensive, or uncertain, the cost is therefore borne not only by the entrepreneur standing at the administrative counter. It is also borne by people whose jobs, wages, products, and opportunities may never come into existence.
Continue readingWho Really Pays the Corporate Tax? Investment, Jobs, and the Politics of Taxing Firms
A corporate tax is legally paid by a corporation, but a corporation is not a person standing apart from society with an independent capacity to bear economic pain. A firm is a network of workers, owners, consumers, suppliers, and investments. When government taxes corporate profits, the legal liability may appear on the company’s tax return, but the economic burden can be distributed through lower returns to owners, weaker investment, lower wages, fewer jobs, or higher prices. This is why corporate taxation is not a technical argument about whether one sympathizes with “business.” It is a question about capital formation and, ultimately, about the opportunities available to ordinary people.
Continue reading
