Patrick Carroll is the Managing Editor at the Foundation for Economic Education.
He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
For all the attention given to economics by mainstream media and political pundits, our economic literacy as a society still leaves much to be desired. We opine on economic issues constantly, we deliver passionate soliloquies defending our partisan viewpoints, but rare is the occasion when we sit down and actually try to learn economics. The...
When most people think of character, there is a list of attributes or “traits” that comes readily to mind. Some of the more common ones might be honesty, responsibility, patience, perseverance, loyalty, and courage. These are lofty attributes indeed, and it’s a shame that they seem to get little more than lip service from many...
A common objection to unfettered capitalism is that, left to their own devices, greedy industrialists would cut corners with product safety, resulting in tremendous harm to consumers. Dangerous products would flood the market, leading to a dystopia of preventable death and destruction. Extreme hypotheticals are brought up the moment someone suggests a hands-off approach. Drugs...
Wendy’s came under considerable fire this week after news broke that the fast-food chain was planning to test a new “dynamic pricing” model. Part of a $20 million initiative experimenting with digital menu boards, the move was roundly condemned as an attempt to implement “Uber-style” surge pricing. “There are people who view dynamic pricing as...
In a household of four guys, fridge space is what you might call prime real estate. I know this because I happen to live in one such household. For months, we tried sharing the one fridge in the house. It was not pleasant. We had to have regular negotiations about how to allocate the limited...
Almost nobody doubts that the federal government wastes a lot of money. Every day we hear stories of fraud, mismanagement, and misplaced priorities that cost taxpayers millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars. But just how much money is wasted? In his annual Festivus report—named after the fictional Seinfeld holiday—Senator Rand Paul tallies up some of...
The Aesop Fable known as The Ant and the Grasshopper offers a profound commentary on life and work. Its moral is at once striking and compelling, regardless of the reader’s background. One version of the fable goes as follows: One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm...
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas seems to have brought out the worst in many people on both sides, not only in the sense of bloodthirst, of which there is sadly plenty, but also in the sense of letting emotion get in the way of clear moral reasoning. To a lesser extent, the Russia-Ukraine...