By Alberto Mingardi

A Liberty Classic Book Review of Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War, by Ludwig von Mises. Liberty Fund.1 Classical liberalism "had a good war." In 1944, two seminal books in this tradition of thought were published. The first of these was F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, the other Omni...

By Robert A. Lawson

For well over a hundred years, the economic world has been engaged in a great intellectual debate. On one side of this debate have been those philosophers and economists who advocate an economic system based on private property and free markets—or what one might call economic freedom. The key ingredients of economic ...

By Scott Sumner

In the late 1940s, Milton Friedman was considered an important economist who had made significant technical contributions. At the beginning of the 1950s, however, he moved away from Keynesian economics and as a result was increasingly viewed as a bit of a nut. Two decades later, however, Friedman had become far and awa...

By Amy Willis

What are mind-body problems? Are they problems of science? Philosophy? Economics? Theology? The latest EconTalk guest, science writer John Horgan, calls them the problem of who we are, the very problems posed by human nature. This conversation explores these questions and more, getting to heart of what it really means...

By Bryan Caplan

My interview on Open Borders aired last night on the PBS NewsHour.  Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRRpMyqzW6w&ab_channel=PBSNewsHour

Journalist and author A. J. Jacobs talks about his book, Thanks a Thousand, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Jacobs thanked a thousand different people who contributed to his morning cup of coffee. In this conversation, Jacobs talks about the power of gratitude and different ways we can express gratitude in everyday li...

By Paul M. Romer

Compound Rates of Growth In the modern version of an old legend, an investment banker asks to be paid by placing one penny on the first square of a chessboard, two pennies on the second square, four on the third, etc. If the banker had asked that only the white squares be used, the initial penny would have doubled...

By Bryan Caplan

Robin Hanson and I disagree about alien visitation.  While he doubts that aliens are visiting Earth right now, I'm virtually sure that they aren't.  As a result, we've made a bet.  The terms: 1. Robin pre-pays me $10. 2. If I become convinced that aliens have visited the Earth during our lifetimes, I pay Robin...