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Reflections from Europe

Who Is Afraid of the National Debt?

With government and compulsory social insurance deficits running over 12 per cent of gross national product in Britain, over 8 per cent in France and over 7 per cent in Germany in 2009, with 2010 promising to repeat much the same, Europe’s economy seems to be wading along knee-deep in red ink. Most commentators profess .. MORE

Ten Key Ideas

Incentives Matter

“The government decided to pay the captains a bonus for each convict that walked off the boat in Australia alive.” Towards the end of the 18th century, England began sending convicts to Australia. The transportation was privately provided but publicly funded. A lot of convicts died along the way, from disease due to overcrowding, poor .. MORE

Book Review, Kling's Corner

Individualism versus Racism

Similarly, to advocate colorblindness is not to pretend you don’t notice race. To advocate colorblindness is to endorse an ethical principle: The colorblind principle: we should treat people without regard to race, both in our public policy and in our private lives. Coleman Hughes, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America1 (p. .. MORE

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Economics and Culture

In Defense of Seeking the Truth

By Kevin Corcoran

Price Controls

Great Moments in Denying Reality

By David Henderson

Economic and Political Philosophy

Factoid and Ideas: King’s Horses Amok in London

By Pierre Lemieux

Economics and Culture

It’s Not “Midwest Nice” to Break the Rules

By Tyler Watts

Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings

Is Politics Immoral? Meet Princess Mathilde

By Pierre Lemieux

Energy, Environment, Resources

Externalities Should be Handled with Care

By Scott Sumner

Artificial Intelligence

Would you automate your conscience if you could?

By Amy Willis

Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings

Ideas and Implications

By Kevin Corcoran

Violence and War

Neoconservatism, Nationalism and Liberalism

By Scott Sumner

EconTalk

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econtalk-podcast

Seeking Immortality (with Paul Bloom)

Would an AI simulation of your dead loved one be a blessing or an abomination? And if you knew that after your own death, your loved ones would create a simulation of you, how would that knowledge change the way you choose to live today? These are some of the questions psychologist Paul Bloom discusses with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts as we stand on the threshold .. MORE

econtalk-podcast

Catherine Semcer on Poaching, Preserves, and African Wildlife

Catherine Semcer of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the role of incentives in preserving wildlife in Africa. The conversation discusses how allowing limited hunting of big game such as elephants and using revenue from hunting licenses to reward local communities for habitat stewardship has improved both .. MORE

EconLog

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Economic and Political Philosophy

Factoid and Ideas: King’s Horses Amok in London

Serious arguments, economic and moral, exist to justify the state (the central and sovereign apparatus of government). Serious objections to these arguments also exist. It is interesting to note that most people, including most economists, ignore both kinds. I thought about this when I read the funny factoid reported by the Wall Street Journal about .. MORE

Violence and War

Neoconservatism, Nationalism and Liberalism

In recent years, the Republican Party has been drifting toward authoritarian nationalism. The globalists within the party are moving toward retirement, and younger people who are deeply skeptical of the previously dominant neoconservative wing of the party are replacing them. I am also skeptical of neoconservativism, but do not believe that authoritarian nationalism is the .. MORE

LIBERTY CLASSICS SERIES

Explore the lasting legacies and
continued relevance of our classic titles.

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L.S.E. Essays on Cost

By James M. Buchanan and George F. Thirlby

When I originally suggested the idea for this book, I had hoped to be able to include a considerably wider range of papers with which to underline James M. Buchanan‘s challenge on p. 35 of his Cost and Choice, where he regrets the demise, and calls for a resurrection, of the L.S.E. opportunity-cost tradition (see .. MORE

The Theory of Money and Credit

By Ludwig Mises

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) first published The Theory of Money and Credit in German, in 1912. The edition presented here is that published by Liberty Fund in 1980, which was translated from the German by H. E. Batson originally in 1934, with additions in 1953. Only a few corrections of obvious typos were made for .. MORE

Book Reviews and Suggested Readings

Immigration and the Open Society

By Alberto Mingardi

A Book Review of Immigration and Freedom, by Chandran Kukathas.1 Freedom is “in some way a very ordinary thing, consisting in not being hindered or obstructed in the pursuit of our everyday ends, or watched as we go about our business, or prevented from associating with others.” In his book Immigration and Freedom, Chandran Kukathas .. MORE

Volksgemeinschaft: Hitler as Revolutionary

By Stephen Davies

A Book Review of Hitler: The Politics of Seduction, by Rainer Zitelmann.1 One could truly say that there is no end to books about Adolph Hitler. Every year brings new works to add to the library already in print. This despite there being what most regard as a definitive biography in the shape of Ian .. MORE

Conversations

VIDEO

An Animal That Trades

A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith. This video series, produced by AdamSmithWorks, can be watch as a full 38-minute feature, or in five thematic, classroom-friendly chunks. To access all, click here.   Below are some discussion prompts related to this video:   Part 1: The Invisible Hand .. MORE

VIDEO

A Conversation with James M. Buchanan, Parts I and II

Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan (1919-2013) was recorded in 2001 in an extended video now available to the public. Universally respected as one of the founders of the economics of public choice, he is the author of numerous books and hundreds of articles in the areas of public finance, public choice, constitutional economics, and economic .. MORE

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Intellectual Portrait Series

Conversations with some of the most original thinkers of our time

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Guides

College Economics Topics

Supplementary materials for popular college textbooks used in courses in the Principles of Economics, Microeconomics, Price Theory, and Macroeconomics are suggested by topic.

Economist Biographies

From the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics

Corporations and Financial Markets , Economics of Legal Issues, Money and Banking, The Marketplace

Stock Market

The price of a share of stock, like that of any other financial asset, equals the present value of the sum of the expected dividends or other cash payments to the shareholders, where future payments are discounted by the interest rate and risks involved. Most of the cash payments to stockholders arise from dividends, which .. MORE

Economic Regulation, Government Policy, Labor, Taxes

Redistribution

The federal government has increasingly assumed responsibility for reducing poverty in America. Its primary approach is to expand programs that transfer wealth, supposedly from the better off to the poor. In 1962, federal transfers to individuals (not counting payments for goods and services provided or interest for money loaned) amounted to 5.2 percent of gross .. MORE

Labor

Discrimination

Many people believe that only government intervention prevents rampant discrimination in the private sector. Economic theory predicts the opposite: market mechanisms impose inescapable penalties on profits whenever for-profit enterprises discriminate against individuals on any basis other than productivity. Though bigoted managers may hold sway for a time, in the long run the profit penalty makes .. MORE

Quotes

The arguments against capitalism are legion. Some are valid. The defenders of capitalism weaken their case by denying them. Defending the indefensible in capitalism is not the way to vindicate its superiority over socialism.  

-Arthur Seldon

The concept of capitalism is as an economic concept immutable; if it means anything, it means the market economy. One deprives oneself of the semantic tools to deal adequately with the problems of contemporary history and economic policies if one acquiesces in a different terminology.    

-Ludwig von Mises Full Quote >>

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.

-Frederic Bastiat Full Quote >>