Libertarian (or classical liberal) law professor Richard Epstein's column this week takes on French economist Thomas Piketty:
In my academic career, I have devoted much time to examining the rise of the regulatory state and the havoc it wreaks on economic growth. The poor growth rates of the last decade are not the unavoidable consequence of natural events or huge impersonal forces. Many of them stem from our boneheaded choices on regulation and taxation. Simplifying the tax code and easing back on regulations could easily bump that growth rate above Piketty's dire predictions. But so long as policy makers take Piketty's lead, preoccupying themselves with inequality, our prospects for growth are grim.
