Archive for Andrew P. Morriss

Andrew Morriss listens to Elvis’s music in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where he is the D. Paul Jones Jr. & Charlene A. Jones Chairholder in Law and professor of business at the University of Alabama..

Adventures in Zoning

I live on a quiet dead-end street in a small suburb of Cleveland. A local developer’s plans for a little vacant lot across the street from my house recently led me into the arcane world of municipal land-use planning. The story of this lot illustrates several important lessons about how governments actually function. The lot [...]

1Jul2001 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | Continued

Why Classical Liberals Should Love Harry Potter

As anyone with children can tell you, the Harry Potter books by British author J. K. Rowling have taken the world by storm. Now in its fourth installment, this series of stories about the education of a young British wizard at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is wildly popular with children and adults alike. [...]

1Dec2000 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | Continued

Quartering Species

Most Americans seldom think about the Third Amendment. Relegated by most scholars and courts to footnotes and history books, the Third Amendment states, “No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.” [...]

1Oct2000 | and and Andrew P. Morriss | 3 comments | Continued

Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

Lawrence Lessig has written an important but deeply flawed book on the future of the Internet. The book is important because of who Lessig is (Harvard law professor, celebrated member of the “digiterati,” and adviser to U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson) and because of the insights into the Internet that Lessig offers. The book [...]

1Aug2000 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | Continued

A (Revisionist) Walk in the Park

I was recently in Missoula, Montana, and had a chance to take a walk on a hike and bike trail along the Clark Fork River. Despite having worked on my taxes shortly before leaving for Missoula, I was in a good mood—the air was crisp, there was a light dusting of snow on the mountains [...]

1Aug2000 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | Continued

How to Sink a Car Ferry

I recently had the opportunity to travel on a rare form of transportation—one that receives no government subsidies. The S.S. Badger, a ferry operated by the Lake Michigan Carferry Service, makes twice daily trips between Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin, from mid-May to mid- October, carrying up to 180 automobiles and 620 passengers. For only [...]

1Jan2000 | Andrew P. Morriss | 7 comments | Continued

The Political Economy of the New Deal

In this work, Professors Jim Couch (University of North Alabama) and William Shughart (University of Mississippi) employ public-choice theory to provide an insightful look at the New Deal. The authors mix examination of historical evidence and econometric analysis of recently rediscovered data on the spending patterns of New Deal programs to argue that the Roosevelt [...]

1Dec1999 | Andrew P. Morriss | 1 comment | Continued

Spontaneous Order on the Playground

I recently observed an intriguing example of the evolution of a private property, market-based spontaneous order at my children’s elementary school. A group of fourth and fifth graders created a set of playground rules analogous to those I learned about in my work on spontaneous orders in the nineteenth-century gold rushes throughout the western United [...]

1Nov1999 | Andrew P. Morriss | 1 comment | Continued

Markets Need a Hidden Fist?

When I want to jump-start my Sunday by kicking up my blood pressure a few points, I head down the driveway for the Sunday New York Times. Some weeks it is the front page that does the trick, other weeks the op-ed page. Few Sundays have given me a more eye-popping, artery-clearing boost, however, than [...]

1Aug1999 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | Continued

Withholding the Taxpayer Hostage

How often have you heard people say with pleasure, “I got a tax refund this year!”? Americans have grown so immune to income-tax withholding that many people regard IRS refunds as gifts. Misperceptions about withholding are widespread. In fact, withholding is a regressive, costly, and furtive system for collecting taxes. Fifty-six years ago Congress approved [...]

1Apr1999 | and and Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | Continued

Pound Scum

With 7.5 million dogs and cats euthanized each year in U.S. animal shelters, it’s hard to be turned down when you try to save one from the gas chamber. But my family managed to be turned down, making us “pound scum.” Our trip through the world of dog adoptions and purchases teaches some valuable lessons [...]

1Dec1998 | Andrew P. Morriss | 2 comments | Continued

Does the Internet Prove the Need for Government Investment?

Fans of tax-funded investment often cite the Internet as an example of the good that government can do. Sure, they say, the Net now has uncountable millions of components, from Web sites to computer networks large and small. But if it hadn’t been for those first critical investments by the government, we wouldn’t have the [...]

1Nov1998 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | Continued

The Wild West Meets Cyberspace

In 1848 Americans received the startling news that the vast territory they had just acquired from Mexico included tremendous riches. California, previously a distant, sleepy Mexican province whose economy was based on trading cattle hides and tallow for manufactured goods, was actually brimming with gold. There it was, just lying on the ground. Tens of [...]

1Jul1998 | Andrew P. Morriss | 2 comments | Continued
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