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Polities and Economics In the first article of this series, I outlined what an economic approach to reading Homer’s epic, The Odyssey,1 might look like. I then turned to Homer’s treatment of comparative political regimes in the second article. In this final essay, I return briefly to The Odyssey’s polities, and then consider the lessons the heroic tale .. MORE
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The Polities of The Odyssey In the previous article, I outlined what an economic approach to reading Homer’s epic, The Odyssey,1 might look like. I also noted that what most strikes me about The Odyssey is Homer’s treatment of comparative political regimes. Looking at the wide variety of regimes Odysseus encounters is the focus of .. MORE
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Modeling Homer’s World An economic approach to Homer’s Odyssey1 is most definitely not about “what Homer really meant.” Instead, the economic approach views Homer through a lens that Homer himself probably never entertained, namely a series of relatively simple models about preferences and constraints. The economic approach is thus a distortion, but perhaps a useful .. MORE
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Photographer, author, and visionary Kevin Kelly talks about his book Excellent Advice for Living with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts. His advice includes how to have a deep conversation, why it’s better to control time than money–and whether, in the end, we should give advice in the first place. Other topics of discussion include the right object of our .. MORE
econtalk-extra
Tariffs are (still) in the air, and don’t show any sign of retreating from our newsfeeds. Will they help or hurt? In this recent episode, Scott Sumner makes the case against tariffs and various other forms of government intervention that go by the name of industrial policy. EconTalk host Russ Roberts notes the difficulty in .. MORE
Austrian Economics
A body of literature called the New History of Capitalism argues (incorrectly, I believe) that Western prosperity is built on legacies of exploitation like colonialism and slavery. Economists are very skeptical because the New Historians of Capitalism rest much of their case on fundamental misunderstandings of basic economic concepts like national income accounting. Economists have .. MORE
Economic History
One of my all-time favorite movies is the 1982 cyberpunk-noir classic Blade Runner. Not only did the film single-handedly create the cyberpunk genre, but it inspired significant change in the sci-fi genre as a whole, led to classics such as Akira, and inspired great directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Christopher Nolan, and Denis Villeneuve. .. MORE
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One of the signs of advancing age in the American college professor is a tendency for him to write less and publish more. This seeming paradox is easily explained by the phenomenon of Collected Works, that is, by what on television would be described as reruns. As in television, no great public outcry is needed .. MORE
IT GIVES me great satisfaction to see this book, handsomely printed by a distinguished publishing house, appear in its third revised edition. Two terminological remarks may be in order. First, I employ the term “liberal” in the sense attached to it everywhere in the nineteenth century and still today in the countries of continental Europe. .. MORE
A Book Review of Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is, and What It Should Be, by Diane Coyle.1 Economics has arguably been under greater scrutiny than ever before. Its ontological premises, methodological postulates, conceptual insights, and analytical techniques are under intense appraisal within the academy, with social scientists from non-economic disciplines and even heterodox economists .. MORE
A book review of The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move to a Lot Like the Ones They Left, by Garett Jones.1 In January of 2018, President Donald Trump disparaged taking in immigrants from “[expletive] countries.” Equally dramatically, albeit more politely, in the conclusion to his recent book, The Culture Transplant,1 Garett .. MORE
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Nobel laureate Ronald H. Coase (1910-2013) was recorded in 2001 in an extended video now available to the public. Coase’s articles, “The Problem of Social Cost” and “The Nature of the Firm” are among the most important and most often cited works in the whole of economic literature. Coase recounts how he tried to encourage .. MORE
VIDEO
Recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Milton Friedman (1912-2006) has long been recognized as one of our most important economic thinkers and a leader of the Chicago school of economics. He is the author of many books and articles in economics, including A Theory of the Consumption Function and A Monetary History .. MORE
Econlib Videos
Conversations with some of the most original thinkers of our time
The Reading Lists by Topic pages contain some suggested readings organized by topic, including materials available on Econlib. Brief reviews or descriptions are included for many items.
Supplementary materials for popular college textbooks used in courses in the Principles of Economics, Microeconomics, Price Theory, and Macroeconomics are suggested by topic.
These free resources are appropriate for teachers of high school and AP economics, social studies, and history classes. They are also appropriate for interested students, home schoolers, and newcomers to the topic of economics.
What Is the Money Supply? The U.S. money supply comprises currency—dollar bills and coins issued by the Federal Reserve System and the U.S. Treasury—and various kinds of deposits held by the public at commercial banks and other depository institutions such as thrifts and credit unions. On June 30, 2004, the money supply, measured as the .. MORE
One of the most popular definitions of recessions is that they are periods when real gross national product (GNP) has declined for at least two consecutive quarters. In 1990, real GNP declined between the third and fourth quarters and again between the fourth quarter of 1990 and the first quarter of 1991. Hence, there is .. MORE
[For an update, see Occupational Licensing, by Edward J. Timmons] 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 .. MORE
-Elinor Ostrom
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