Mark D. White

Writer, editor, teacher

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about

I’m a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the College of Staten Island/CUNY, where I teach courses in philosophy, economics, and law, and the author/editor/co-editor of several books.

Category: Markets

  • Free markets versus perfect competition (Wall Street Journal letter to the editor)

    Mark D. White Today The Wall Street Journal printed my letter in response to a recent piece by Tim Wu (linked below), in which I reiterate an argument from my paper providing a Kantian critique of antitrust (from the Journal of Private Enterprise): A Free Market Means That It's Free for All   Tim Wu,…

  • Elizabeth Warren, simplification in lending, and competition

    Mark D. White Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, special adviser to the secretary of the Treasury for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal this morning (subscription may be required), in which she argues that simpifying consumer credit products will please both consumers and lenders and will promote competition. After…

  • No, Professor Krugman, Economics Is a Morality Play

    Mark D. White I usually try to ignore Paul Krugman, but sometimes I can't. (Sorry.) Thanks to Steve Horwitz (here and here), I lit upon Krugman's September 28 New York Times blog post, "Economics Is Not a Morality Play," in which he writes: The market economy is a system for organizing activity — a pretty good…

  • Wall Street Journal letters on health care, privacy, and choice

    Mark D. White I thought the first two letters to the editor in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal were excellent, reinforcing a point made in my chapter from Accepting the Invisible Hand: Market-Based Approaches to Social-Economic Problems on markets, dignity, and health care (see this previous post): Dr. Sally Satel helpfully describes some of the factors inhibiting…

  • Elizabeth Warren, financial reform, and Nudge

    Mark D. White Since the nomination of Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is currently making headlines (though not as much as if she were a disgruntled flight attendent), I thought it was a good time to share a recent paper of mine, "We've Been Nudged: The Effects of the…

  • The Indignity of the Health Care Bill (A Reply to Wight)

    Mark D. White You beat me to it, Jonathan–I was going to wait until the president signed the bill, but since you said your piece, I will too. Universal health care coverage is a laudable goal–or, to be precise, universal access to coverage is laudable, since health care insurance should always be voluntary, with individuals…

  • Edmund Phelps on ethics and economics

    Mark D. White Just found 2006 Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps' recent First Things article entitled "Economic Justice and the Spirit of Innovation" – to give you a quick idea of where he goes, here are the last two paragraphs of the article: Most observers now acknowledge that capitalism, even in the midst of the 1930s depression,…