By Michael L. Davis

If you're currently parenting a 5-year old or remember what that was like, you can skip over the next few paragraphs. You've lived this story before. For the rest of you, here's the scene. It's 6:30 on a school night. Daniela has finished her dinner. (And, no, the names have not been changed to protect the innocen...

By John Haring

Telecommunications matters economically for two reasons. First, it plays a role perhaps second only to brain power in the operation and rapidly expanding productivity of the modern “information-based” economy; indeed, it supplies a primary technical means for productively harnessing the information and knowledge sp...

By David Henderson

Berlin rent controllers: tear down those rent controls! Karlsruhe, Germany (dpa) - A controversial rent cap to control soaring rents in the German capital Berlin has been scrapped by the country's Constitutional Court. The legislation had been welcomed by tenants, but panned by developers and landlords since it cam...

Introduction The Council for Economic Education (CEE) has compiled a list of the 51 key economics concepts common to all U.S. State requirements for high school classes in economics. The resources arranged here supplement these recommended CEE topics. These free resources are appropriate for teachers of high school...

By Scott Sumner

More specifically, what causes non-Covid recessions? Here's Nick Rowe's answer: At some level, Nick and I basically agree.  But I am going to answer the question slightly differently.  It's not necessarily wrong to say recessions are caused by money hoarding, or by interest rates being set too high, or by a dr...

By Amy Willis

Are you a crafter? If you weren't before, maybe the pandemic has started you on a "maker" kick. I have lots of friends who've taken up knitting, woodworking, gardening, and a variety of other hobbies. Maybe you're not crafty at all, but interested in exploring the human condition throughout history. Or maybe you're jus...

Author Michael Blastland talks about his book The Hidden Half with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Blastland argues that the deeper you delve into science, medicine, astrophysics--pick a topic--the more you realize there is a lot we don't understand. Things we can't explain. Blastland believes we would all do well to admit...

By Literature of Liberty Editor

In Vienna, prior to, during, and just after World War I, Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) was attaining his full intellectual maturity. For a liberal like Mises these were truly lamentable years. The years from the early 1890s to 1920 constituted perhaps the most retrogressive watershed in the history of Western civilizati...

By David Henderson

I'll be discussion leader at a colloquium the weekend after next whose topic is Canadian banking. The readings are so much fun because I'm learning so much history, mainly about banking but partly about politics, in the country I grew up in. Here's a great passage from Charles W. Calomiris and Stephen H. Haber, Frag...

By George G. Kaufman

A run on a bank occurs when a large number of depositors, fearing that their bank will be unable to repay their deposits in full and on time, simultaneously try to withdraw their funds immediately. This may create a problem because banks keep only a small fraction of deposits on hand in cash; they lend out the majority...

1866-1945

  Gustav Cassel, a Swedish economist, developed the theory of exchange rates known as purchasing power parity in a series of post-World War I memoranda for the League of Nations. The basic concept can be made clear with an example. If US$4 buys one bushel of wheat in the United States, and if 120 Japa...