A blow to liberty: Hong Kong is no longer No. 1 in economic freedom

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Sept. 21, Robert Lawson, director of the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom at the SMU Dallas Cox School of Business, for a commentary about Hong Kong’s slide from the top spot on the Economic Freedom Index. Published in the Orange County Register under the heading A blow to liberty: Hong Kong is no longer No. 1 in economic freedom: https://tinyurl.com/54rya375

​In the late 1980s at the invitation of Milton Friedman and Michael Walker of the Fraser Institute in Canada, I became involved in a project to measure economic freedom. The resulting Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) index, published annually since 1996, provides economic freedom ratings for up to 165 countries and jurisdictions as far back as 1970. In each and every published edition of the EFW index, Hong Kong had been rated as the most economically free economy – that is, until now. The newly released EFW index has downgraded Hong Kong to second place with Singapore now taking top honors.

Hong Kong’s five-decade reign as the most economically free jurisdiction in the EFW index was no surprise to those of us compiling the data. We remember watching Milton and Rose Friedman’s Free To Choose series on PBS in the 1980s that celebrated the territory’s economic freedoms, and the data we collected reflected what we saw on the show.

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New Hollywood blockbuster depicts a triumph for savvy retail investors but it’s just the beginning

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Sept. 20, Christina Sautter, professor of law at Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, along with co-author Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci (University of Missouri KC), for a piece advocating for retail investors and encouraging them to use their influence by voting their stock. Published in Fox Business under the heading New Hollywood blockbuster depicts a triumph for savvy retail investors but it’s just the beginning: https://tinyurl.com/yx2hb73p

When you watch the movie “Dumb Money,” you realize people now have the unprecedented power to take back the corporate sector. The movie, which opened nationwide Sept. 15, ends with a clear statement: the movement to take on Wall Street has just begun. But the power of the movement goes much further.

The film takes its name from Wall Street’s belittling term for retail investors, who do not have the resources to analyze stocks as do institutional investors. There is nothing dumb about investing money in company shares and then exercising the additional benefit of voting those shares via proxy. That amounts to a retail investor superpower.

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How the Texas ban on mifepristone could jeopardize telemedicine for everyone

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Sept. 5, Carliss Chatman, law professor at Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, for a piece pointing out how the Texas ban on the abortion pill could have a negative impact on life-saving telemedicine healthcare channels and prescription delivery. Published in The Hill under the heading How the Texas ban on mifepristone could jeopardize telemedicine for everyone: http://tinyurl.com/2ntve4j4

​Telemedicine’s expansion during the pandemic minimized exposure and addressed the problem of health care deserts.

Roughly 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas and too often must travel long distances to receive health care. The National Rural Health Association reports the “patient-to-primary care physician ratio in rural areas is only 39.8 physicians per 100,000 people, compared to 53.3 physicians per 100,000 in urban areas.” But during the pandemic, technology, including telephone and video, bridged the care gap, allowing patients to receive critical treatment and prescriptions.

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SMU professor filed a brief with Russia’s constitutional court

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Sept. 3, Jeffrey Kahn, a law professor at the Dedman School of Law, SMU Dallas, for a piece expressing solidarity with Russians punished for their dissenting views against their government. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading SMU professor filed a brief with Russia’s constitutional court: http://tinyurl.com/2p88umzd

Silence is a lie’s best friend. So when Russia’s leaders claimed that punishing dissenting voices is just what governments do, including the United States, I asked our country’s top constitutional law scholars to speak up.

The twist is that we did it in Russia’s highest court, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, in what may be the first brief amicus curiae, or “friend of the court” brief, submitted there by U.S. law professors.

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US debt downgrade could mean trouble ahead. We should heed the warnings

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August 8, Michael Davis, economics professor at the Cox School of Business, SMU Dallas, for a piece examining the impact of the debt downgrade and how that may indicate U.S. economic troubles ahead. Published in Fox News Business under the heading U.S. debt downgrade could mean trouble ahead. We should heed the warnings: https://tinyurl.com/3te6jmku

Recently Fitch’s, a service that rates the quality of bonds, downgraded U.S. Treasuries from AAA to AA+.

Bad news, right? I mean if your credit score went down wouldn’t you be at least a bit worried – especially if you were about to shop for a new car?  Of course.

And so shouldn’t you worry that your government – which every day borrows enough money to buy about 82,000 new cars – is seeing their credit score go down? Yeah, you should.

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A half-century later the Santos Rodriguez murder remains the open wound of Dallas

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July 24, Rick Halperin, Director of the SMU Dallas Human Rights Program, for a commentary about the murder of 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez 50 years ago and the impact on the Dallas community. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading A half-century later the Santos Rodriguez murder remains the open wound of Dallas: https://tinyurl.com/yrj36fcp

​There was a summer 50 years ago in Dallas rocked by the senseless murder of a 12-year-old at the hands of a Dallas police officer. The incident overshadowed the innocence, travel and care-free “school’s out” musings and left an open wound on the city that has yet to fully heal.

In the early morning hours of July 24, 1973, two Dallas police officers took the Rodriguez brothers — David, 13, and Santos, 12 — from their grandfather’s home and placed them in a police car, handcuffed.

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Academia’s Openness Could Strengthen its Partnerships With the Intelligence Community

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July 19, Fred Chang, Inaugural Bobby B. Lyle Centennial Distinguished Chair in Cyber Security at SMU Dallas along with co-author Peter Schiffer (Professor of Applied Physics and professor of physics at Yale University) for a piece outlining opportunities and incentives for the intelligence community to develop partnerships with academia. Published in Issues in Science and Technology under the heading Academia’s Openness Could Strengthen its Partnerships With the Intelligence Community: https://tinyurl.com/5xfprwhh

Starting with Vannevar Bush’s seminal 1945 report, Science, the Endless Frontier, the federal government has invested significantly in support of fundamental research at universities across all areas of science and engineering. For even longer, government agencies have partneredwith universities to perform research in support of agency missions and to meet national needs. For example, the National Institutes of Health support health-related research, the Department of Agriculture supports agricultural research programs, and the Department of Energy supports energy solutions. And of course, since World War II, the Department of Defense has invested in defense-oriented research at universities.

Strong government-university research partnerships can be especially impactful to one sector of the government that is somewhat invisible to outsiders: the US intelligence community (IC). The IC comprises 18 organizations and agencies within the executive branch of the federal government—all with the shared mission of supporting the government’s understanding of the world by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence. Fulfilling this mission requires access to the most advanced science and technology (S&T) available. Today, the S&T landscape is evolving quickly, and it offers new opportunities and incentives for the IC to develop partnerships with academia. Done properly, enhancing such partnerships will benefit both national security and the academic research enterprise. Somewhat counterintuitively, we also argue that the open nature of academia presents special opportunities for higher impact.

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Don’t let the ‘C’ in NASCAR stand for cronyism in Chicago

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June 23, Robert Lawson, Jerome M. Fullinwider chair in Economic Freedom, SMU Cox School of Business, along with Scott Niederjohn (Concordia University) for a commentary lamenting that NASCAR may be dabbling in cronyism by collaborating with Chicago authorities on a street race in July. Published in the Chicago Tribune under the heading Don’t let the ‘C’ in NASCAR stand for cronyism in Chicago: https://tinyurl.com/ymn69me2

We are free market economists who share a passion for car racing. One of the things we like the most about racing is that it still embodies the spirit of free enterprise — unlike the other major sports.

Almost all racetracks are privately owned by entrepreneurs trying to make a buck. The race car teams are private firms. Sponsors may be wealthy individuals with a passion for racing like the comedian David Letterman or companies like Menard’s that see the marketing value in their association with the sport.

However, if the other major sports can slop up billions of dollars from the taxpayer trough through publicly financed stadium deals, for how long can the two premier racing series in North America — NASCAR and IndyCar — resist the urge to join in the feeding frenzy? The answer, sadly for NASCAR at least, is that they can’t.

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I Know Why Disney Is Fighting DeSantis

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June 7, Sean Griffin, professor of film and media studies at the SMU Dallas Meadows School of the Arts, for a commentary providing insight into the rift between Disney and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, and the corporate tightrope act of engaging in the culture wars. Published in the New York Times under the heading I Know Why Disney Is Fighting DeSantis: https://tinyurl.com/4nv5vjv8

The culture wars have come for corporate America. In the days and weeks leading up to Pride Month, right-wing critics have levied boycotts and even threats of violence at Bud Light, Target and Kohl’s for merchandise and marketing campaigns affiliated with the L.G.B.T.Q. community. Even Chick-fil-A, the chicken-sandwich seller that has historically been aligned with conservative causes, drew sudden condemnation for an existing diversity, equity and inclusion policy.

Companies are rarely exemplars of courage, and some — particularly Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light’s brewer — switched course almost immediately. But the noise is obscuring a bigger transformation amid the growing politicization of big business. Big businesses are increasingly being forced to take sides, and the realities of doing business with modern-day consumers and employees are increasingly pushing some companies to side with the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

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