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Book Review, Kling's Corner
Review of Classical Liberalism and the Industrial Working Class, by Alberto Alberto Mingardi.1 Thomas Hodgskin (12 December 1787-21 August 1869) was an English socialist writer on political economy, critic of capitalism, and defender of free trade and early trade unions. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the term socialist included any opponent of .. MORE
Featured Article
According to most accounts, the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey established an oil refining monopoly in the United States, in large part through the systematic use of predatory price discrimination. Standard struck down its competitors, in one market at a time, until it enjoyed a monopoly position everywhere…. The main trouble with this “history” .. MORE
Reflections from Europe
Innate qualities and disciplined economic management earned Germany a solid position, the envy of most of the eurozone, and accusations of selfishness for not sharing her good fortune more readily with others, notably with the Southern tier of Europe that is having a hard time under the overload of its excessive debt. Few people pretend .. MORE
Cross-country Comparisons
Monetary Policy
Cost-benefit Analysis
Biography, Intellectual History
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Economic and Political Philosophy
Government Growth
Statistical theory and methods
Labor Market
Industry Interviews: Individuals at Work
econtalk-podcast
Skip the Mona Lisa when you visit Paris. Don’t tour the Coliseum in Rome. Walk, don’t hurry. Chris Arnade speaks with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts about a different way to travel. Listen as Arnade shares what he learned from Istanbul’s small community mosques and how Avignon’s Congolese-neighborhood cathedrals provided moving moments of spirituality. He also explains why Japan and Vietnam’s emphasis on community lends itself to more happiness than America’s .. MORE
econtalk-podcast
Max Kenner, founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative–which offers college degrees to prisoners–talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the program, which replicates the coursework of students at Bard College. The Bard Prison Initiative was profiled in a four-part PBS documentary, College Behind Bars. Kenner talks about the origins of the program, .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
In my last post, I discussed reasons why rage bait is so depressingly successful. And I see a lot of discourse in favor of libertarianism that seems to lean into the rage bait angle. Sometimes it takes the form of “look at this outrageous and awful thing” done by the government or caused by government .. MORE
Government Growth
A year ago, I had this to say: The progressive left will never be able to achieve their dream of a Euro-style welfare state by taxing the rich. If you read the smarter progressives, they all know this. They understand that the US would have to add a large tax on consumption in order to .. MORE
Explore the lasting legacies and
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Though this book leans on political philosophy, economics, and history, it leans on each lightly enough to remain accessible to the educated general reader, for whom it is mainly intended. Its central theme—how state and society interact to disappoint and render each other miserable—may concern a rather wide public among both governors and governed. Most .. MORE
[I]nstitutions should be formative… they should act as links between the personal and the social. What we need, then, is a recommitment to such an understanding of institutions. Our challenge is less to calm the forces that are pelting our society than to reinforce the structures that hold us together. That calls for a spirit .. MORE
A Book Review of The Decadent Society (How We Became the Victims of our Own Success), by Ross Douthat.1 New York Times columnist Ross Douthat brings us a breathless and demoralizing story of the decline of Western civilization. The book raises a few meaty points about the Zeitgeist, but it overextends its reach, attempting to .. MORE
VIDEO
The twentieth century witnessed the unparalleled expansion of government power over the lives and livelihoods of individuals. Much of this was the result of two devastating world wars and totalitarian ideologies that directly challenged individual liberty and the free institutions of the open society. Other forms of expansion in the provision of social welfare and .. MORE
VIDEO
Nobel laureate James M. Buchanan (1919-2013) was recorded in 2001 in an extended video now available to the public. Universally respected as one of the founders of the economics of public choice, he is the author of numerous books and hundreds of articles in the areas of public finance, public choice, constitutional economics, and economic .. MORE
Econlib Videos
Conversations with some of the most original thinkers of our time
The Reading Lists by Topic pages contain some suggested readings organized by topic, including materials available on Econlib. Brief reviews or descriptions are included for many items.
Supplementary materials for popular college textbooks used in courses in the Principles of Economics, Microeconomics, Price Theory, and Macroeconomics are suggested by topic.
These free resources are appropriate for teachers of high school and AP economics, social studies, and history classes. They are also appropriate for interested students, home schoolers, and newcomers to the topic of economics.
A tariff is a fancy word for a tax. The term usually refers to import duties, which are fees levied on goods entering one country from another. Import tariffs have been a controversial feature of domestic politics, international diplomacy, and economic policy for centuries. This article covers some of the basic economics of tariffs as .. MORE
Program trading, the subject of considerable controversy in recent years, is the simultaneous trading of a portfolio of stocks, as opposed to buying or selling just one stock at a time. The New York Stock Exchange defines program trading as any trade involving fifteen or more stocks with an aggregate value in excess of $1 .. MORE
Let me introduce you to an acquaintance of mine: Homo economicus, or economic man. He is an interesting character. Economic man (it is never economic woman) is a rational, self-interested fellow always looking out for himself. He does not give to charity. Why waste money on someone other than yourself? He never leaves a tip .. MORE
-Arthur Seldon
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