Top Gov Policy Expert Cliff Winston: "Less Is More" (A Timely Message for Our Dictated Economy)

Ciff Winston is back on Economics Matters. He's also just out with an impressive new book -- Market Corrections NotGovernment Interventions: A Path to Improve the US Economy. The book is a devastating critique of government policy failures -- policies that the private sector had to ultimately overcome or sidestep. Cliff joins us precisely one year after our podcast on Biden's infrastructure bill, which was passed with great fanfare, but started slow and then ran into Trump executive orders or disorders, depending on your perspective. This is an extraordinary, evidenced-based exposé of the market’s innovative power to creatively destroy market failures, including those engineered and entrenched by both ‘regulators’ and ‘reformists.’ This is surely the most important government policy book yet written.Here's the skinny on Cliff.   Clifford Winston, a nonresident senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Economic Studies program, has been with Brookings since 1984. Winston has also been co-editor of the annual microeconomics edition of Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Prior to his fellowship at Brookings, he was an associate professor in the Transportation Systems Division of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Department of Civil Engineering. The author of numerous books and articles, Winston has published “Market Corrections Not Government Interventions: A Path to Improve the U.S. Economy” (2025); “Reforming Occupational Licensing in the U.S.: Reducing Social Costs and Increasing Social Benefits in the Legal, Medical, and Financial Services Professions” editor (2024); “Revitalizing a Nation: Competition and Innovation in the U.S. Transportation Industry” with Jia Yan and Associates (2024); “Gaining Ground: Markets Helping Government” (2021); “Trouble at the Bar: An Economics Perspective on the Legal Profession and Proposals For Reform” with David Burk and Jia Yan (2021); “Autonomous Vehicles: The Road to Economic Growth?” with Quentin Karpilow (2020); “First Thing We Do, Let’s Deregulate All the Lawyers,” with Robert Crandall and Vikram Maheshri (2011); “Last Exit: Privatization and Deregulation of the U.S. Transportation System” (2010); “Government Failure versus Market Failure” (2006); “Deregulation of Network Industries: What’s Next?” with Sam Peltzman (2000); “Essays in Transportation Economics and Policy: A Handbook in Honor of John R. Meyer,” with Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez and William B. Tye (1999); “Alternate Route: Toward Efficient Urban Transportation,” with Chad Shirley (1998); “The Evolution of the Airline Industry,” with Steven A. Morrison (1995); “The Economic Effects of Surface Freight Deregulation,” with Thomas M. Corsi, Curtis M. Grimm, and Carol A. Evans (1990); “Road Work: A New Highway Pricing and Investment Policy,” with Kenneth A. Small and Carol Evans (1989); “Liability: Perspectives and Policy,” with Robert E. Litan (1988); “Blind Intersection? Policy and the Automobile Industry,” co-author (1987); and “The Economic Effects of Airline Deregulation,” with Steven Morrison (1986). His articles have appeared in such journals as the American Economic Review, Econometrica, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Literature, Bell Journal of Economics, and the Rand Journal of Economics. Dr. Winston received his A.B. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1974, his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics in 1975, and his Ph.D. in economics from U.C. Berkeley in 1979.