“Psst…do you know where to get a COVID vaccine?”  For the past few months, this question has been asked repeatedly, and urgently, by tens of millions of Americans, many of whom are resorting to the services of volunteers to navigate convoluted websites in the middle of the night.  Yet at the same time, millions of Americans who are eligible for vaccines have simply refused them, with countless doses routinely ending up in the trash.  To many government officials, this is but collateral damage, only minorly detracting from an otherwise successful centrally-planned distribution system.  But to an economist, these are the hallmarks of failed government policies.

The blackouts and price spikes in Texas this winter have raised doubts about the viability of wholesale electric markets like the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Over four million people lost power, there were numerous blackout-related deaths, and some customers saw electric bills totaling thousands of dollars. Moreover, a recent analysis by The Wall Street Journal determined that Texans have paid $28 billion more than customers in regulated markets since 2004.