Hey, Reason Roundtable listeners, we've got a special bonus for your Friday afternoon

this week.

Hi, I'm Eric Bam.

You might know me from my occasional guest appearances here on the Roundtable podcast

over the years, but I've also got a brand new podcast series at Reason that's going to

be right up your alley if you're a fan of free minds and free markets.

And let's be honest, if you're listening to this, we know that you are.

My series is called Why We Can't Have Nice Things, and each week we're focusing on

a different rule, regulation, or law that prevents the free market from working the way

it should.

These are stories about how protectionist policies get made, why they are so difficult

to undo, and how they burden all of us with additional costs.

In just a moment, we're going to play for you the third episode of this six part series.

This episode is focused on the Jones Act that's a 100 year old shipping law that honestly

causes all sorts of chaos.

It makes traffic worse on American highways.

It makes it more expensive to ship anything around the country.

It was originally supposed to protect the US shipbuilding industry, and it's actually

kind of done the opposite of that.

It's a law described by one of the guests on this week's episode as a very classic case

of everything wrong with Washington.

But I think it's something that we don't talk enough about.

...