comparative advantage, David Ricardo, economic theory, international trade, marginal analysis, productivity
Book Review
Book Review of Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia by David Graeber.1 In the Preface of Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia by David Graeber, he states that he hopes to provide a fun read that illustrates that the pirate society of Madagascar (1690-1750) lives up to the story of a pirate utopia called Libertalia .. MORE
Article
In the late 1960s, the ideal of a society with free markets was definitively out of favor with the public. The Great War ended the “century of liberalism” (1815-1914), and the Great Depression pressed governments of all political stripes to intervene in the economy and to disengage from free trade. The Second World War then .. MORE
Book Review, Kling's Corner
So if our instincts undervalue truth, that’s not surprising—our instincts evolved in a different world, one better suited to the soldier. Increasingly, our world is becoming one that rewards the ability to see clearly, especially in the long run; a world in which your happiness isn’t nearly as dependent on your ability to accommodate yourself .. MORE
Monetary Policy
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Price Controls
Economic Education
Regulation
Finance
Free Markets
econtalk-podcast
A paradox of our time is our willingness to bare all to strangers while worrying about who exactly is watching us online and anywhere else. Listen as author Tiffany Jenkins discusses her book, Strangers and Intimates, with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts. In this wide-ranging conversation, they explore the role of Martin Luther, J.S. Mill, reality TV, .. MORE
econtalk-extra
Have you ever gotten an advertising jingle stuck in your head? Why are they so effective? How does advertising change or enhance the value of a product? And what can an understanding of economics contribute to the practice of advertising? In this episode, host Russ Roberts welcomes real-world Mad Man Rory Sutherland, of Ogilvy to .. MORE
Regulation
Vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz, of whom I am not a fan, had one very good line that he used a lot when running on the Democratic ticket last summer: “Mind your own damn business.” He didn’t really believe it. Someone who sets up a snitch line during the Covid lockdown doesn’t really believe that government .. MORE
Price Controls
When we talk about opposition to prices, we’re usually talking about price controls. This isn’t unreasonable. There are still calls for them in response to short-term higher prices after a disaster, or longer-term cost-of-living increases, as for rent or food. It’s important to explain the negative unintended consequences of such interventions. But sometimes, people who .. MORE
Explore the lasting legacies and
continued relevance of our classic titles.
The traditional interpretation pictures John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) as one of history’s paradigmatic transitional thinkers. Situated uncertainly in a no-man’s land between the rival intellectual traditions of nineteenth-century England, Mill in his writings displays no settled or coherent doctrine on social and political questions. In Mill’s work, the received view contends, competing sympathies and commitments .. MORE
The present essay is an attempt to explore with some thoroughness an extremely narrow area within the field of the history of economic thought. Although this area is narrow, it merits a scrutiny quite out of proportion to its extension, relating as it does to fundamental ideas around which the entire corpus of economic thought .. MORE
A Book Review of The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind, by Jan Lucassen.1 As the subtitle suggests, Jan Lucassen’s massive work of scholarship is ambitious in scope and scale. The entire sweep of human history and the whole of the planet are its canvas and the story it tells and the analysis .. MORE
Review of The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes, by Zachary D. Carter.1 Why should someone write another biography of Keynes? Major biographies of John Maynard Keynes (not merely books on Keynes and Keynesianism, of which the supply is far larger) include the 1951 Life of John Maynard Keynes .. MORE
VIDEO
Svetozar “Steve” Pejovich, one of the most dynamic and insightful theorists writing on property rights, reflects on his experience in economics. With characteristic sagacity and humor, he demonstrates the power that empirical cases can bring to bear on theoretical problems. Born in Belgrade, Pejovich is Professor Emeritus at Texas A&M University, where he taught for .. MORE
VIDEO
A professor at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago in the 1960s and a primary figure in Chicago School Economics and in the field of Law and Economics, Harold Demsetz has contributed original research on the theory of the firm, regulation in markets, industrial organization, antitrust policy, transaction costs, externalities, and .. 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.
The price of a share of stock, like that of any other financial asset, equals the present value of the sum of the expected dividends or other cash payments to the shareholders, where future payments are discounted by the interest rate and risks involved. Most of the cash payments to stockholders arise from dividends, which .. MORE
New York State legislators defend the War Emergency Tenant Protection Act—also known as rent control—as a way of protecting tenants from war-related housing shortages. The war referred to in the law is not the 2003 war in Iraq, however, or the Vietnam War; it is World War II. That is when rent control started in .. MORE
The Internet and Economics “The Internet changes everything”—or so we were told at the height of the Internet craze. According to a prominent Wall Street Journal article titled “Goodbye Supply and Demand,” one of the changes it was claimed to have brought about was a transformation of the basic economic forces at work in the .. MORE
-Israel Kirzner
-Adam Smith Full Quote >>
-Leonard E. Read Full Quote >>