Richard B. McKenzie is the author of HEAVY! The Surprising Reasons America Is the Land of the Free—And the Home of the Fat and Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies, And Other Pricing Puzzles. He is also professor emeritus in the Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine.

Americans are fatter than ever, but Prof. Richard McKenzie says it’s our economic and political freedoms that have led us here.