Author Archives: Timothy B Lee

I was pleased that Jerry Brito invited me back as a repeat guest on his podcast, Surprisingly Free Conversations. We talked about network neutrality, spectrum policy, and software patents. I thought it came out really well, and I encourage you … Continue reading →

The Washington City Paper has a profile of David Alpert, who runs the excellent Greater Greater Washington blog (and has been known to read Bottom-Up on occasion). The City Paper says Alpert has used the GGW blog to become “arguably … Continue reading →

Alex Massie of Britain’s Spectator offers a European perspective on the future of liberalism: Libertarians dreaming of nirvana – or conservatives who think libertarians can’t possibly forge any meaningful, if even temporary, alliances with the left – are starting from … Continue reading →

The other key conservative reaction to the Lindsey/Wilkinson departure from Cato is this piece by the always-insightful Tim Carney: Lindsey’s project – building political alliances between libertarians and liberals – is (or was) a bold one, and not impossible in … Continue reading →

My friend Will Wilkinson has announced that he and his boss Brink Lindsey are leaving the Cato Institute. Because Brink and Will were the standard-bearers for liberaltarianism at Cato, their departure has prompted discussion of whether their departure constitutes a … Continue reading →

I first wrote about seasteading two years ago, shortly after the Seasteading Institute launched. The brainchild of Patri Friedman (grandson of Milton) and others, seasteading is a program for political reform based on a proliferation of self-governing ocean colonies. As … Continue reading →

A few months ago I did a post about the role top-down decision-making played in the financial crisis. I wasn’t super satisfied with my finished product, and it turns out I should have just waited a few weeks for this … Continue reading →

It’s a common trope in urban planning debates to cast the car-centric suburban lifestyle as the result of an unregulated free market in contrast to urban development patterns, which are often portrayed as the result of explicit government policy. I’ve … Continue reading →

Paul Graham, who made his fortune by selling a startup to Yahoo! during the dot-com bubble, has a new essay speculating on why the company is so lame. He tells a story about an early discussion with Yahoo execs about … Continue reading →

Tim Sandefur has an interesting post about the law of birthright citizenship. He argues that it’s not necessarily the case that birthright citizenship is as firmly established by the Constitution as both supporters and critics assume. I’m not a lawyer … Continue reading →