Ryan Bourne

Washington, D.C.

Chair, Public Understanding of Economics at Cato Institute

Columnist, Telegraph Business at The Telegraph

Columnist, Times Business at The Times

R Evan Scharf Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics @CatoInstitute. Times Business columnist. Derby County fan.

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Articles

Rachel Reeves Has a Cunning Plan to Make Shopping More Expensive

1 day ago | cato.org | Ryan Bourne

If you made a ranking of Labour’s priorities, what would you put near the top? Reviving our anaemic economic growth rate, perhaps? Slashing NHS waiting lists? Tackling Britain’s catastrophic housing shortfall? You’d probably get many pages down before writing: “Making online shopping pricier for ordinary families.” Yet, remarkably, Rachel Reeves has precisely this goal in mind.
Does DOGE Show That There's Little Government Waste?

5 days ago | cato.org | Ryan Bourne

Matt Yglesias makes a point that we will hear a lot from Democrats in the coming months. Progressives will claim that because DOGE “failed” to live up to its ambitions to slash government spending by trillions, there must be little government waste. Indeed, economist Alan Blinder even says that Elon Musk should examine Social Security as a model of efficiency, given its administration costs only 0.5 percent of benefits paid out. Hmm.
Please Stop Feeding the Insatiable Film Subsidy Monster

1 week ago | cato.org | Ryan Bourne

British TV and film producers have developed one skill beyond storytelling: extracting cash from taxpayers. Our politicians seem hypnotised by the glamour of high-end shows and movies. The latest culture, media and sport select committee report regurgitates industry complaints, calling for even more subsidies.
Donald Trump Should Fight Globalism, Not Globalisation

1 week ago | cato.org | Ryan Bourne |Daniel Klein

Globalism is a menace. Globalisation is not. So what’s the difference? GlobalisationIn the first chapter of ‘The Wealth of Nations’, Adam Smith marvelled that the ordinary woolen coat is made of materials ‘which often come from the remotest corners of the world’. Globalisation happens when people from different corners of the world interact through trade, investment, cultural exchange and technology.
Foreign Governments Have Themselves to Blame for Trump's Movie Tariffs

1 week ago | cato.org | Ryan Bourne

Donald Trump has thrown another trade grenade. His latest idea – a 100 percent tariff on all foreign-made films – is crude, impractical and potentially disastrous for his frenemies in the Hollywood industry that he has suddenly decided to champion. Announcing the tariffs via Truth Social, Trump tried to paint movies produced overseas as a danger: not just to America’s film production industry, but national security too. “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” he thundered.
Is the new right embracing degrowth economics?

1 week ago | thetimes.com | Ryan Bourne

There was a time, not so long ago, when the concept of “degrowth” belonged strictly to the eco-left. A luxury ideology for environmental activists and sandal-wearing dreamers, the basic idea was that pursuing economic growth was a destructive obsession. Rising GDP didn’t improve ordinary people’s lives, but fuelled economic inequality and ecological ruin. Degrowthers thus wanted policymakers to deprioritise growing GDP, with the public accepting a simpler, less abundant life.
Foreign governments have themselves to blame for Trump's movie tariffs

1 week ago | thespectator.com | Ryan Bourne

Donald Trump has thrown another trade grenade. His latest idea – a 100 percent tariff on all foreign-made films – is crude, impractical and potentially disastrous for his frenemies in the Hollywood industry that he has suddenly decided to champion. Announcing the tariffs via Truth Social, Trump tried to paint movies produced overseas as a danger: not just to America’s film production industry, but national security too. “WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!” he thundered.
Donald Trump Should Fight Globalism, Not Globalisation

2 weeks ago | independent.org | Ryan Bourne

Globalism is a menace. Globalisation is not. So what’s the difference? In the first chapter of ‘The Wealth of Nations’, Adam Smith marvelled that the ordinary woolen coat is made of materials ‘which often come from the remotest corners of the world’. Globalisation happens when people from different corners of the world interact through trade, investment, cultural exchange and technology.
Tariff Policy Is Blatant Self-Harm - Trump Can’t Blame Business

3 weeks ago | cato.org | Ryan Bourne

This site works best using the latest version of modern browsers. Update your browser (Chrome 131) for more security, speed, and the best experiences on this site. Skip to main content The American right is borrowing a trick from the Democrats and concocting its own greedflation myth to cover for its disastrous policy mistake. April 9, 2025 • Commentary This article appeared in The Times on April 9, 2025.
Make the NEA Conservative?

3 weeks ago | cato.org | Ryan Bourne

This impulse is a prime example of how public funding for art inevitably ends up politicizing it. April 18, 2025 • Commentary This article appeared on The War on Prices on April 18, 2025. Last week in the New York Times, Emory professor Mark Bauerlein made a surprising pitch to President Trump: don’t kill the National Endowments for Humanities and the Arts—hijack them.