Ebenezer Scrooge was a moral man--even before the three ghosts visited him. So says economist Dwight Lee. Professor Lee notes that Scrooge made his money honestly. Professor Lee calls this "mundane morality." Scrooge's big breakthrough came when he developed "magnanimous morality." Although economists tend to celebrate the mundane morality that the free market engenders, notes Lee, they will miss a large audience if they fail to connect the two moralities. Professor Lee provides the connection.
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Arnold Kling takes a close look at Mark Weiner's new book, The Rule of the Clan, and wonders whether a libertarian case for a strong central state can be made. Weiner claims that if governments were reduced along traditional libertarian lines, a clan-based society would inevitably result, and would be profoundly anti-individualistic. Kling suggests others who have thought differently, but still finds important lessons to be learned from Weiner.
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In this month's column, de Jasay compares man's attempts at exerting social control and establishing hierarchical social structures to those of other animals. While humans' diversity appears far greater than that in other species, de Jasay notes humans' curious desire for equality of material well-being, and muses on the possible evolutionary effects of this tendency.
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In this month's column, Pedro Schwartz praises the work of Keynes, with some caveats. He revisits Keynes' largely forgotten Tract on Monetary Reform (1923) in which Keynes spoke out against a return to the pre-War gold standard. Schwartz goes on to consider the feasibility of a gold standard today, agreeing with Keynes in this regard. But his ultimate conclusion still gives gold an important role in the monetary order.
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