Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
“A government significantly restricting the freedom to trade of its own citizens and residents and running a propaganda machine to push related lies on the populace must represent an advanced case of the Trade Derangement Syndrome. Perhaps we can view that as the prefiguration of an utopian mix of Orwellian vicious rulers and an addicted and smiling populace à la Huxley. The observation that previous governments have brought their own stones to the building of Leviathan’s palace is correct as well as useful for a project in constitutional political economy: chaining the occupant or occupants of the palace. But it also risks becoming a partisan diversion that understates the present danger.” (04/11/25)