Ryan Puzycki

Has the Free Market Failed?
February 24, 2010
The American economy is in a state of malaise. Stock and real estate prices have plummeted from their peaks in recent years, people have collectively lost trillions of dollars, major companies have gone bankrupt, and unemployment numbers remain high. Undoubtedly, many students are lying awake at night wondering whether they will find work after graduation.
Doing No [Business With] Evil
February 1, 2010
China, a country of over one billion people with arguably the world’s fastest growing economy, presents an attractive investment opportunity for many Western companies. However, doing business under China’s totalitarian regime comes at a price.
Sacrifice before Solvency
September 15, 2009
Business schools fail their students by emphasizing altruism rather than the virtues of wealth-creation.With the global economy in tatters, trillions of dollars in wealth destroyed, once mighty corporations bankrupted, and levels of unemployment unseen in decades, much public opprobrium has been leveled at the financiers and c
Capitalism In Crisis?
May 7, 2009
Capitalism is in crisis, claims Richard Posner on the pages of the Wall Street Journal today. This crisis happened, he says, because “a capitalist economy, while immensely dynamic and productive, is not inherently stable.” Furthermore, he suggests that “the banking crash might not have occurred had banking not been progressively deregulated beginning in the 1970s.”
High Crimes and Michael Phelps
February 12, 2009
Last week, a Wall Street Journal op-ed screamed “Arrest Michael Phelps!” and a sheriff in South Carolina threatened to prosecute the famed Olympic swimmer. Commentators across news and radio stations added their voices to the hysteria. The reason behind the calls for Mr. Phelps’s head? A photo that surfaced in a UK tabloid showing Mr. Phelps smoking marijuana at a casual party.
Dictatorship in the Time of Cholera
January 28, 2009
Since August, Zimbabwe has suffered from a cholera outbreak that to date has killed 3,000 people and infected nearly 60,000 more. In the Western world, cholera outbreaks are rare thanks to the implementation of proper sanitation standards, including water purification and sewage treatment.
By Government Fiat Alone
January 25, 2009
Ailing automaker Chrysler LLC has entered into an agreement with Italian carmaker Fiat SpA. The deal would involve an exchange of technology and access to distribution networks, giving Fiat a 35% stake in Chrysler without it having to pay a single euro.
Putting It In Reverse
December 18, 2008
The once stalwart US auto industry has been brought to its knees. A plethora of problems, including poor management decisions and crippling labor laws, have virtually wiped out shareholder value and corporate profitability, endangering thousands of jobs and retiree pension benefits. The executives of the “Big Three”—Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler —are now asking for taxpayer money to prop them up.
Whole Foods, Partial Rights
December 15, 2008
In 2007, Whole Foods, the popular purveyor of natural foods, sought to expand its business by acquiring rival grocer Wild Oats. However, the Federal Trade Commission claimed that the merger would violate antitrust laws by creating a natural foods monopoly. Although federal judges approved the deal, the FTC won an appeal a year later, after the merger was well under way, and now the case is set to go to trial in February. The company has already spent $17 million cooperating with the FTC and faces millions more in legal fees should the trial proceed.
Defending Property Rights—It's No Day at the Beach
December 13, 2008
Thirty years ago, George and Sharlee McNamee purchased a beachfront house in California, hoping to create a home in which to spend their retirement. Over the years, the McNamee’s made various improvements to their beach property, installing picnic tables for entertaining and a shade to allow Mr. McNamee protection from a repeated bout with deadly melanoma. Throughout this time, the McNamee’s have generously allowed the public visiting the state-owned portions of the beach to use the facilities on their property. But the California Coastal Commission claims these are illegal developments.