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The Mercatus Center is committed to developing classical liberal talent. That means we support people who bring intellectual firepower to policy debate, public discourse, academic inquiry, and economic analysis. We want brilliant people doing brilliant work, and we want to help them break through.


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The 1991 Fellowship
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Hardly any institutions teach the ideas that we teach. We are the pre-eminent institution for advancing the study of mainline economics.


If you know someone who should be part of the next generation of serious thinkers, please pass this newsletter along. If that person is you, we encourage you to apply. We are always looking for people ready to step up their game.


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Ben Brophy
Vice President, Strategic Engagement

Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Topics & Issues



In The Pursuit of Liberalism, Revana Sharfuddin
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calls us to evaluate policies on their merits rather than on the basis of the political tribe advancing them.


We almost got Rebecca Lowe’s favorite phrase “Bad and Wrong!” in this
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piece on AI reasoning and consciousness . But I’ll settle for “wrong and risky.”


In “
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Laffer Curves are Flat ,” Jack Salmon highlights a new research warning that higher tax rates for top earners are a weak substitute for real spending restraint in tackling debt.


Josh Rowley reminds us of another 250th anniversary: Adam Smith’s publication of The Wealth of Nations.
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Here’s how he’ll be celebrating it .









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