Journalist and author Michael Easter talks about his book The Comfort Crisis with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Easter thinks modern life is too easy, too comfortable. To be healthy, he says, we need to move out of our comfort zones and every once in a while try to do something, especially something physically demandin...

By Elaine Sternberg

According to Nobel Laureate economist James Buchanan (1977, p.96): ... there is only one principle in economics that is worth stressing.... Apart from this principle there would be no basis for general public support for economics as a legitimate academic discipline, no place for economics as an appropriate part o...

By Scott Sumner

This tweet caught my eye: Notice that sales have recently increased much faster than employment.  A bit of that might be inflation, but surely that cannot explain such a massive divergence occurring over just a few months.  Another part of the increase might reflect a make-up rise in productivity after the rec...

By Pierre Lemieux

The summer issue of The Independent Review just published my article "The Impossibility of Populism." In an introductory article to the whole volume, which discusses populism and liberty, Michael C. Munger writes: We lead off with a piece by Pierre Lemieux, which we have selected as the winner of our third Independen...

By Lawrence H. White

Economists use the term “inflation” to denote an ongoing rise in the general level of prices quoted in units of money. The magnitude of inflation—the inflation rate—is usually reported as the annualized percentage growth of some broad index of money prices. With U.S. dollar prices rising, a one-dollar bill buys...

By Audrey Sullivan

What if you had the opportunity to discuss and review some of EconTalk host, Russ Roberts’ published books? Well now might be your chance!   Erik Rostad, host of the podcast Books of Titans, read all of Russ's books; his experience is the subject of this podcast. Through the duration of the podcast, Rostad...

By Robert P. Murphy

The single most important measure in discussions of national economies is Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Most commentators take it for granted that real GDP per capita is effectively the same thing as "standard of living" and that the growth rate in real GDP is a good measure of the effects of economic policies. ...

By David Henderson

The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service issued a report in March recommending that Congress "eliminate male-only registration and expand draft eligibility to all individuals of the appropriate age cohort," because "expanding draft eligibility to women will enable the military to access the mos...