When physician Walter Freeman died in 1972, he still believed that lobotomies were the best treatment for mental illness. A pioneer in the method, he was a deeply confident and charismatic man who eagerly spread the technique in America, long after the rise of alternative treatments that were less destructive. Listen...

By Stanley Lebergott

CEOs of multinational corporations, exotic dancers, and children with lemonade stands have at least one thing in common. They all expect a return for their effort. Most workers get that return in a subtle and ever-changing combination of money wages and working conditions. This article describes how they changed for th...

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In 2008, U.S. economist Paul Krugman won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Krugman, one of the best-known economists in the world, is familiar to the public mainly through his regular column in the New York Times and for his New York Times blog titled “The Conscience of a Liberal.” Besides being an original the...

By David R. Henderson

A Book Review of Economists at War: How a Handful of Economists Helped Win and Lose World Wars, by Alan Bollard.1 Most economists go through their lives wondering if any of their work has had an effect on the world beyond academe. The seven economists that Alan Bollard writes about in Economists at War probabl...

By John Milton

They, who to States and Governors of the Commonwealth direct their speech, High Court of Parliament, or, wanting such access in a private condition, write that which they foresee may advance the public good; I suppose them, as at the beginning of no mean endeavour, not a little altered and moved inwardly in their minds...

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What does it mean to say something is risky? How would we know? Would a failure confirm the view that a particular activity was risky?Consider two people gambling at roulette. Joe puts $100 on each number from 1 to 35. Jane puts $3500 on number 36. Both have bet $3500, and both bets have negative expected values (assum...

By Amy Willis

A professor at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago in the 1960s and a primary figure in Chicago School Economics and in the field of Law and Economics, Harold Demsetz has contributed original research on the theory of the firm, regulation in markets, industrial organization, antitrust policy, t...

By Alice Temnick

  We warn you to prepare for this deep dive conversation about life, midlife, and our inevitable death. EconTalk host Russ Roberts holds the view that “the poignance of death adds a richness to day-to-day life,” a thought he's shared in previous episodes. In this episode, Russ welcomes philosopher Kiera...

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Scott Sumner recently posted on the importance of holding views that are inconvenient to your larger beliefs. I agree – it’s important for good intellectual hygiene to be aware of these things. In his excellent book Governing Least: A New England Libertarianism, Dan Moller makes a similar point, using constitutiona...