By Arnold Kling
This article has two lists: a list of popular economics books that I recommend reading; and a list of popular economics books that I recommend avoiding.1 What is a popular economics book? My first thought is that it is written without the mathematics and diagrams that ...
By Roberto Salinas León
In their influential magnum opus, Why Nations Fail, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson develop the proposition that the wealth of nations is ultimately the outcome of political and economic institutions able to generate prosperity, progress and the distribution of opp...
By Alberto Mingardi
A Book Review of Common Law Liberalism: A New Theory of the Libertarian Society, by John Hasnas.1 "Look around." John Hasnas's main political advice may sound extravagant. But his remarkable book, Common Law Liberalism,1 is a caveat against "inattentional blindne...
By Erik W. Matson
David Ricardo. In a recent article in The Financial Times Nat Dyer argues that economists misunderstand tariffs.1 He points out that tariffs have political and moral dimensions not captured by standard economic reasoning. We therefore take economists' widespread advo...
By Michael F. Cannon
Kenneth J. Arrow at Stanford University. Credit: LA Cicero, 11/4/1996. As a health reform discussion lengthens, the probability that someone will cite Kenneth Arrow approaches 1. Close behind is the probability that this person will cite Arrow inaccurately. Arrow sh...
By Gregory Caskey
Note: The names of the Cuban entrepreneurs and their businesses described below have been changed to protect the identities of these individuals. "Don't try to understand this place. We don't understand it either." I heard versions of this refrain repeatedly fro...
By Walter Donway
The year was 1965. I was a college sophomore. My family was middle class—not wealthy, watching the budget—and yet, health care was not a problem. In fact, I never heard my parents discuss it. We had our family physician, and if we needed a specialist, we saw one. Ho...
By Arnold Kling
... the path forward will involve a reconciliation of a commitment to the free market, and its atomization and isolation of individual wants and needs, with the insatiable human desire for some form of collective experience and endeavor... the atomization of daily l...
By D. Eric Schansberg
[caption id="attachment_79185" align="alignnone" width="200"] New Harmony, Indiana[/caption] This year is the 200th anniversary of British industrialist Robert Owen's social experiments at New Harmony, Indiana—a utopian commune on 20,000 acres along the Wab...
By Tyler Cowen
Polities and Economics In the first article of this series, I outlined what an economic approach to reading Homer's epic, The Odyssey,1 might look like. I then turned to Homer's treatment of comparative political regimes in the second article. In this final essa...
By Arnold Kling
Experiments consistently reveal that our moral judgments are driven by perceptions of harm. We condemn acts based on how much they seem to victimize someone vulnerable. —Kurt Gray, Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Gr...
By Richard Gunderman
Leo Tolstoy. This article was inspired by a recent Virtual Reading Group on Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, led by Richard Gunderman. Learn more about our Virtual Reading Groups at the Online Library of Liberty. Productivity is a measure of efficiency, tending to...
By Tyler Cowen
The Polities of The Odyssey In the previous article, I outlined what an economic approach to reading Homer's epic, The Odyssey,1 might look like. I also noted that what most strikes me about The Odyssey is Homer's treatment of comparative political regimes. Looking...
By Walker Wright
Human beings are inherently pro-social creatures. Aristotle went so far as to refer to us as political animals, driven by our nature to create associations that culminate in the broader community of the polis. And our capacity for reciprocity, trust, and cooperation...
By Arnold Kling
... [those] who score high on the authoritarianism scale agree that (italicized words are direct quotes from the scale) our country needs a mighty leader; that the leader should destroy opponents; that people should trust the judgment of the proper authorities, avoi...
By Jordan Ragusa
After every presidential election, including the most recent, the new majority wants to repeal a list of previous regimes' policy enactments. Political observers always look to the next two years, wondering what to expect from the party in power. With the 2024 elect...