By Stefanie Haeffele and Anne Hobson

Bureaucracy has a reputation of being a 'necessary evil' in modern western society. We are quick to blame bureaucracy for long waits at the DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles], lengthy approval processes for building permits, and for the piles of paperwork at work. Bureaucracy is the source of mandatory workplace traini...

By Arnold Kling

Editor's Note: As you know, we're big fans of book lists, like the ones we always read at Five Books. Last month, we posted Amy Willis's recommendations for the five best books for Introductory Econ. You can look forward to more such lists...   Most recently we were struck by this Five Books list, in whi...

By Lester C. Thurow

In a capitalistic society, profits—and losses—hold center stage. Those who own firms (the capitalists) choose managers who organize production efforts so as to maximize their income (profits). Their search for profits is guided by the famous “invisible hand” of capitalism. When profits are above the normal leve...

Author and Advertising Executive Rory Sutherland of Ogilvy talks about his book Alchemy with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Sutherland makes the case for the magic (yes, magic!) of advertising and branding in helping markets work well. This is a wide-ranging conversation on consumer choice, public policy, travel, real est...

#EconlibReads offers online reading groups (both live and asynchronous) on a monthly basis. Each Reading Group will focus on a particular topic, and a common set of readings will form the basis for our discussions. Each group is facilitated by a professional moderator, and the discussion questions are available via ...

By Russell S. Sobel

As of September 2019, less than 25 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, according to a Gallup poll.1 Before one jumps to the conclusion that this low approval rating is due to the current political situation and controversies, let me also share that this is roughly identical to the average rating ...

By Arnold Kling

It was, according to accounts filtering out of the White House, an extraordinary scene. Hank Paulson, the U.S. treasury secretary and a man with a personal fortune estimated at $700m (£380m), had got down on one knee before the most powerful woman in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, and begged her to save his plan to rescue Wa...

Software Engineer Andy Matuschak talks about his essay "Why Books Don't Work" with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Matuschak argues that most books rely on transmissionism, the idea that an author can share an idea in print and the reader will absorb it. And yet after reading a non-fiction book, most readers will struggle ...

By David R. Henderson

Randal O'Toole's recent book, Romance of the Rails,1 is a slam-dunk. Actually, that is an understatement. The book is full of slam-dunks. In chapter after chapter, O'Toole, a long-time fan of railroads, puts his fandom aside and shows what a disaster government subsidies to, and regulations of, rail transportation have...

By Scott Sumner

Economists often use models where firms are assumed to maximize profits. Non-economists sometimes criticize these models, arguing that their assumptions about human nature are too simple. This debate over the behavior of humans won't be resolved anytime soon. Meanwhile, there is increasing evidence that fungi entrep...