By S. David Young

Most Americans know that practicing medicine without a license is against the law. They also know that lawyers and dentists must have the state's approval before they can ply their trades. Few Americans, however, would guess that in some states falconers, ferret breeders, and palm readers are also subject to government...

By Arnold Kling

Households, businesses, and government policy makers all face the challenge of managing risk. This is the topic tackled by journalist Greg Ip in his book Foolproof: Why Safety Can Be Dangerous and How Danger Makes Us Safe.1 Ip, an intelligent and independent thinker, identifies a tendency to deceive ourselves into beli...

By Scott Sumner

This is a follow-up post to my recent proposal for banning corporations from paying ransom. Let's think about another possible law, enacted to deal with the following scenario. Suppose that a US corporation has the best proposal to build a project in another country. Unfortunately, the government of that country won...

#EconlibReads offers reading groups on a regular basis. Each Group will focus on a particular topic, and a common set of readings will form the basis for our discussions. Our sister sites, AdamSmithWorks and the Online Library of Liberty offer similar groups. Participation is offered at no-cost, and there is no ne...

Should women get routine mammograms? Should men get regular PSA exams? Robert Aronowitz of the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Risky Medicine talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the increasing focus on risk reduction rather than health itself as a goal. Aronowitz discusses the social and political ...

By Pierre Lemieux

The public-choice school of economics, developed since the mid-20th century, assumes that an individual who moves from the private sector to the public sector, whether as a government bureaucrat or a politician, remains the same mostly self-interested individual. He does not metamorphose into an altruist angel. This vi...

By Amy Willis

The "economic way of thinking" is something we at Econlib emphasize...a LOT. EconTalk host Russ Roberts sat down again with "the Economic Naturalist, Cornell'S Robert Frank. Their subject...almost anything! They explored some puzzles, what Roberts calls "dinner table economics," such as why do brides buy their gowns...

By David Henderson

Tim Kane's interview of me, which I mentioned here, is out. It's titled "David Henderson: The Immigrant Who Worked for Reagan." It's about an hour long. We covered in this order: the draft, Nixon, Martin Anderson, immigration, George Borjas, Bryan Caplan's Concise Encyclopedia article on Communism, life in Canada fo...

By Jeremy Bentham

Jeremy Bentham's clever application of applied economics, Defence of Usury, Shewing the Impolity of the Present Legal Restraints on the Terms of Pecuniary Bargains in a Series of Letters to a Friend. To Which is Added a Letter to Adam Smith, Esq; LL.D. on the Discouragements opposed by the above Restraints to the Prog...

By Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren

Most of the energy consumed in America today is produced from the combustion of fossil fuels, primarily oil, coal, and natural gas. Energy can be generated, however, in any number of ways. Figure 1 indicates the sources of energy employed by the American economy as of February 2004. Figure 1 U.S. ...

By David Henderson

  Furman argued that the $300 a week in extra jobless benefits that was also provided by the plan was holding back a jobs recovery in some places. Furman said of the overall package, “It’s definitely too big for the moment. I don’t know any economist that was recommending something the size of what was do...