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Book Review, Kling's Corner

Encourage Dissent

Much of the time, it is in the interest of the individual to follow the crowd but in the social interest for individuals to say and do what they think best. Well-functioning institutions take steps to discourage conformity and to promote dissent, partly to protect the rights of dissenters but mostly to protect interests of .. MORE

Article

China’s Belt and Road Initiative: If You Build It, Will They Come?

To begin with a bit of trivia, who said the following line? “When you give roses to others, their fragrance lingers on your hand.” If you guessed Cole Porter, you’d be wrong. Nor does this line hail from a wooden quote board for sale on Etsy. It was delivered by China’s President Xi Jinping at .. MORE

Book Review, Kling's Corner

The Revanchist Right

… despite spending billions of dollars supporting its infrastructure, and publishing untold thousands of white papers, the establishment Right has registered no clear gains and many clear losses. Much of the nation was conquered on its watch. … In terms of political and moral power, the Left currently rules every consequential sector of society, from .. MORE

Most Recent

Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing

My Weekly Reading for June 22, 2025

By David Henderson

Cross-country Comparisons

Small Government in Somalia

By Scott Sumner

Incentives

Thoughts from Crushing Capitalism

By David Henderson

Moral Reasoning

You Cannot Have it Both Ways

By Scott Sumner

Economic Growth

The Resilient American Dream

By David Henderson

Cross-country Comparisons

Getting “Screwed” on Trade?

By Jon Murphy

Liberty

June is Liberty Month

By David Henderson

Economic and Political Philosophy

Political Violence in Minnesota and Elsewhere

By Pierre Lemieux

Economic and Political Philosophy

Basic Public-Choice Analysis of Attacking Iran

By Pierre Lemieux

EconTalk

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econtalk-podcast

Leon Kass on the Wisdom of Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Does technology liberate us or enslave us? How do our social interactions affect our sense of self and our emotional health? Listen as author and master teacher Leon Kass and EconTalk’s Russ Roberts do a close reading of a few paragraphs of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and explore some of the deepest aspects of our relationships .. MORE

econtalk-podcast

Glenn Loury on Race, Inequality, and America

Economist and author Glenn Loury of Brown University talks about race in America with EconTalk host Russ Roberts.

EconLog

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Free Markets

Lessons from Chinese History

The Economist has an interesting review of a new book entitled Peak Human, by Johan Norberg.  This caught my eye: Song emperors were much keener on the rule of law than their predecessors, who tended to rule by whim. To enforce predictable rules, they hired lots of officials via meritocratic exams. The first Song emperor .. MORE

Economics and Culture

Gates, Giving, and Government

Bill Gates has for many years been focusing on philanthropic projects through the Gates Foundation. He recently announced an end date for this endeavor. As Bill Gates put it in his recent announcement: I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving .. MORE

LIBERTY CLASSICS SERIES

Explore the lasting legacies and
continued relevance of our classic titles.

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Book Titles

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A Treatise on Political Economy

By Jean-Baptiste Say

A NEW edition of this translation of the popular treatise of M. Say having been called for, the five previous American editions being entirely out of print, the editor has endeavoured to render the work more deserving of the favour it has received, by subjecting every part of it to a careful revision. As the .. MORE

Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

By Charles Mackay

Charles Mackay, Scottish poet, journalist, and editor was best known in his day for his verses, some of which were set to music. His book, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions, was first published in 1841 (London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty), with a promise of additional material “should these be .. MORE

Book Reviews and Suggested Readings

Speculations on Origins and Endings: An Essay on The Essential UCLA School of Economics

By Michael L. Davis

An Essay and Book Review of The Essential UCLA School of Economics, by David R. Henderson and Steven Globerman.1 When you think about dinosaurs—which you should; dinosaurs are awesome—you always end up with the same two questions: where did they come from and where did they go? Yes, all life evolves through a process that .. MORE

Rules for Non-Radicals

By M. Scott King

A Liberty Classic Book Review of The Reason of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy, by Geoffrey Brennan and James M. Buchanan.1 Geoffrey Brennan and James Buchanan’s The Reason of Rules is remarkable. It is an important book, and the questions that the authors wrestle with are massive. When so much academic work feels as though it .. MORE

Conversations

VIDEO

A Conversation with James M. Buchanan, Parts I and II

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

VIDEO

Capitalism, Government, and the Good Society

On April 10, 2013, Liberty Fund and Butler University sponsored a symposium, “Capitalism, Government, and the Good Society.” The evening began with solo presentations by the three participants–Michael Munger of Duke University, Robert Skidelsky of the University of Warwick, and Richard Epstein of New York University. (Travel complications forced the fourth invited participant, James Galbraith .. MORE

Econlib Videos

Intellectual Portrait Series

Conversations with some of the most original thinkers of our time

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Guides

College Economics Topics

Supplementary materials for popular college textbooks used in courses in the Principles of Economics, Microeconomics, Price Theory, and Macroeconomics are suggested by topic.

Economist Biographies

From the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics

Basic Concepts

Division of Labor

Division of labor combines specialization and the partition of a complex production task into several, or many, sub-tasks. Its importance in economics lies in the fact that a given number of workers can produce far more output using division of labor compared to the same number of workers each working alone. Interestingly, this is true .. MORE

Basic Concepts

Program Trading

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

Economic Regulation, Government Policy

Reaganomics

“Reaganomics” was the most serious attempt to change the course of U.S. economic policy of any administration since the New Deal. “Only by reducing the growth of government,” said Ronald Reagan, “can we increase the growth of the economy.” Reagan’s 1981 Program for Economic Recovery had four major policy objectives: (1) reduce the growth of .. MORE

Quotes

We have never designed our economic system. We were not intelligent enough for that. We have tumbled into it and it has carried us to unforeseen heights and given rise to ambitions which may yet lead us to destroy it.

-F. A. Hayek

The natural course of things cannot be entirely controlled by the impotent endeavours of man: the current is too rapid and too strong for him to stop it; and though the rules which direct it appear to have been established for the wisest and best purposes, they sometimes produce effects which shock all his natural ...

-Adam Smith Full Quote >>

We are, and will be, at least in part, that which we make ourselves to be. We construct our own beings… We are artifactual, as much like the pottery shards that the archaeologists dig up as like the animals whose fossils they also find.

-James Buchanan Full Quote >>