I do not know David Brat and had never heard of him before he won the primary. I have looked at his Vita. However, I am bothered by seeing him called a free market economist and a Randian. Apparently one of the major issues distinguishing him from Mr. Cantor is Mr. Brat’s opposition to immigrants and immigration reform. I cannot understand how someone can be a free market economist and opposed to immigration reform. Our immigration laws are a major limitation on free exchange, and anyone who really favors free markets must be in favor of major reforms, including allowing those who are here illegally to legalize their status.
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Paul H. Rubin
Website PostsPAUL H. RUBIN is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics at Emory University in Atlanta and formerly editor in chief of Managerial and Decision Economics. He blogs at Truth on the Market. He was President of the Southern Economic Association in 2013. He is a Fellow of the Public Choice Society and is associated with the Technology Policy Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, and the Independent Institute. Dr. Rubin has been a Senior Economist at President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers, Chief Economist at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Director of Advertising Economics at the Federal Trade Commission, and vice-president of Glassman-Oliver Economic Consultants, Inc., a litigation consulting firm in Washington. He has taught economics at the University of Georgia, City University of New York, VPI, and George Washington University Law School. Dr. Rubin has written or edited eleven books, and published over two hundred and fifty articles and chapters on economics, law, regulation, and evolution in journals including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Legal Studies, and the Journal of Law and Economics, and he frequently contributes to the Wall Street Journal and other leading newspapers. His work has been cited in the professional literature over 8000 times. Books include Managing Business Transactions, Free Press, 1990, Tort Reform by Contract, AEI, 1993, Privacy and the Commercial Use of Personal Information, Kluwer, 2001, (with Thomas Lenard), Darwinian Politics: The Evolutionary Origin of Freedom, Rutgers University Press, 2002, and Economics, Law and Individual Rights, Routledge, 2008 (edited, with Hugo Mialon). He has consulted widely on litigation related matters and has been an adviser to the Congressional Budget Office on tort reform. He has addressed numerous business, professional, policy, government and academic audiences. Dr. Rubin received his B.A. from the University of Cincinnati in 1963 and his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1970.
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I don’t know how anyone can believe that a comprehensive immigration reform that this president is willing to sign will increase economic freedom. I too favor immigration reform and decreasing the impediments to the free flow of people across international borders but I simply do not believe that a bill passed by our current Senate and signed by our current President will accomplish such a thing without imposing a hundred other hidden stinkbombs that undermine economic freedom. (Isn’t that the point of ‘comprehensive’ legislation or have you forgotten your public choice training?)
Opposing the current efforts at immigration reform is not the same as opposition to immigration reform. This is one bill that should not be passed merely so we “can find out what is in it.” I do not know much about Dr. Brat but I do not see how anyone can conclude that merely because he opposes the current super-secret, nobody knows what is exactly in it, immigration bill, he is not a free market economist. Sorry.