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Don't miss the latest economics podcast, Russ Roberts on the Price of Everything with guest host Arnold Kling, and Federal Debt, by Robert Eisner in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

Topping Up Welfare
Anthony de Jasay

Throughout Western Europe, redistribution remains an electoral must. Right practices it no less than Left. However, the doctrinal climate in which it flourishes is undergoing a change. Capitalism is still condemned as selfish, inegalitarian and chaotic, but it is no longer treated as the evil that must be uprooted, destroyed and replaced by the purposeful, responsible and just socialist order. It is only the half-crazed, wild-eyed intellectual flotsam that still clings to the old dreams of doing away with exploitation.... [Read more]

Guano
Ibsen Martinez

Probably the most striking Latin American phenomenon associated with both global oil and food price hikes is going on in Peru, where surging prices for synthetic fertilizers have turned guano into a commodity almost as promising as it was for Peruvians in the mid-19th century.... [Read more]

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Oil Speculators: Bad or Good
by Robert P. Murphy

Do you think the record-high oil prices of the last few months are due to speculators? What kind of evidence would you look for? Our author this month, Robert Murphy, looks carefully and finds that the evidence goes against the speculator theory. Moreover, he notes, if high prices were due to speculation, that would not mean that speculation is bad. Speculation is a valuable service and when speculators make money, it means they are performing the service well. Moreover, some people, including managers of mutual funds and of some airlines, buy futures contracts in oil simply to protect themselves against market swings.

FDA Walls Do Not Encircle
by Charles L. Hooper

Most people think that the Food and Drug Administration is needed to build walls that prevent bad drugs from getting through to hapless patients. So did the author of this month’s article, after having spent years in the pharmaceutical industry. But then the author, Charles L. Hooper noticed that the walls don’t encircle. Many drugs, vitamins, and foods are completely legal even though they have not been tested the way prescription drugs are. Yet the sky is not falling. Is the FDA necessary? Read on.

In Defense of "Sweatshops"
by Benjamin Powell

Many people oppose third world “sweatshop” jobs because they compare those jobs to their own and find sweatshop jobs lacking. But that’s not the relevant comparison: no one is offering green cards to third world workers. The fact that those workers are in those jobs, points out economist Benjamin Powell, means that sweatshop workers do better in those jobs than in other alternatives. Powell’s empirical evidence confirms this: sweatshop workers earn more than the average income in their countries. A major reason U.S. union spokesman are hostile to sweatshops is that they wish to hobble foreign competition.

Orange Blossom Special: Externalities and the Coase Theorem
by Michael Munger

Some economists have alleged that bee-keepers and orchard owners will cause the market to fail by not taking into account the effect of each side’s activity on the other. But Michal Munger points out that if economists can see a potential problem, then bee-keepers and orchard owners are smart enough to see it too. And, he points out, they do. Thus a problem that a famous economist made up is just that: made up.

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The Library of Economics and Liberty features educational resources for the study of economics. Materials include

• Over 100 classic and modern online books and essays on economics, by authors including Adam Smith, James M. Buchanan, Frédéric Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich A. Hayek, Frank Knight, David Ricardo, Frederic Bastiat, Jeremy Bentham, Alfred Marshall, and more.
• The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, David R. Henderson, ed., an encyclopedia containing articles by over 100 economists, plus biographies of over 80 famous economists.
• Monthly economics articles by professors and thinkers, including frequent contributions by Mike Munger, Fred McChesney, and articles by David Levy and Sandra Peart on the origins of the term "the dismal science" and the history of economic thought.
• An economics blog, EconLog, with co-bloggers Bryan Caplan and Arnold Kling, on topics ranging from free trade to immigration to the influence of economic thought on films, comics, and novels.
• A weekly economics podcast, EconTalk, with host Russell Roberts, including book reviews and educational discussions on economics, political economy, political science, and markets, featuring interviews with Nobel Laureates, authors, and business leaders.
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