Texas is passing a bill aimed at stopping liberal censorship of conservatives by social media companies. But the better solution is to rely on the free enterprise system – let other platforms give big tech a run for its money.

If the new US president wants to get one over on his predecessor, he can do so by reversing his policy on tariffs. One of Trump’s guiding principles was his rejection of globalisation, and there is nothing more global than free trade.

While the US health authority’s plans to prioritise those on the pandemic front lines and the elderly make sense in the short run, the free market must have its say in the longer term.

During the depression of 1921, the Harding government did not intervene in the market, resulting in a quicker recovery. The Trump administration must cleave to market principles, cease stimulus measures, rein in the Fed and resist protectionist impulses.

While intellectual property protection initially spurs innovation, it ends up hampering it in the long run. From an ethical point of view, penalising the theft of ideas wrongly presumes that ideas are in short supply and that we can properly define their value.