What are the factors that hold our economy back? For much of the twentieth century, the U.S. economy grew thanks to technological improvements, rising educational levels, and women entering the workforce. Those gains are not likely to be seen again; technological productivity gains appear to have slowed, while education faces decreasing marginal returns, and nearly all women who want to be in the workforce already there. If we aim to boost economic growth, we will have to look elsewhere. 

One place that suggests itself is the regulatory state. Brink Lindsey of the Niskanen Center and Steven M. Teles of the New America Foundation are the authors of The Captured Economy, a book that examines how regulation tilts the economy toward slower growth - and toward greater inequality. In this month’s lead essay they offer a sample of their vision, in which government has to be sure a significant role to play, and one that libertarians will not necessarily accept. But they do draw on key libertarian insights about how incentives affect government behavior, and how the frictions caused by regulation can indeed harm society at large. They cast their intervention as part of the larger “liberaltarian” project that has been underway in recent years, and that borrows freely from orthodox libertarianism even as it does not accept everything in the libertarian program as it is usually understood.

Joining us to comment this month we have Richard V. Reeves of the Brookings Institution, Professor Ilya Somin of George Mason University, and Professor Henry Farrell of George Washington University. We also welcome readers’ comments and letters to the editor, and we look forward to a vigorous yet civil discussion of what may be a contentious topic.