Family and Self-Help, Literature, Reading, and Writing
Kling's Corner
A decade after the financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath, economists are still grappling with its nature and significance. An important recent contribution is A Crisis of Beliefs, by Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer (henceforth GS).1 They tell the story this way (page 7): Homebuyers were unrealistically optimistic about future home price growth. Investors .. MORE
Thinking Straight
Capacity of the second strike can impose the peace It may look incongruous to speak of Mutually Assured Destruction—MAD—the sign of nuclear catastrophe, as something reassuring. However, the logic of reassurance is impeccable, or rather it is in a static world. In this world, two adversaries confront each other and each can respond to an .. MORE
An Economist Looks at Europe
“Politics is the art of the impossible” —Think Tank Lore “The first question for anybody who believes in the importance of ideas is why our beliefs and proposals seem to have so little influence on governments, politicians, civil servants, lobbyists and trade representatives.” Let me start on a personal note and ask myself the question, .. MORE
Incentives
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Economic and Political Philosophy
Family and Self-Help
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econtalk-extra
What is a poem? What is it meant to do? Who is it meant for? Poet Dana Gioia and host Russ Roberts explore these questions and more as they talk about the meaning of poetry. The conversation touches on many personal topics: death, loss, family, and our common humanity. At the beginning of each episode, .. MORE
econtalk-extra
In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts talks with historian Diane Ravitch about her new book, Slaying Goliath. Ravitch, a former proponent of charter schools, now bemoans what she sees as their broken promise to American students. Charters promised to be R&D centers for best educational practices, which they would then share with the traditional .. MORE
Economic and Political Philosophy
A major disagreement between James Buchanan and Anthony de Jasay is whether it is possible to devise a constitution that effectively constrains the state, limits its power and danger. Many other classical liberals and libertarians have struggled with the same question (including Friedrich Hayek), but the opposition between Buchanan and de Jasay is paradigmatic as .. MORE
Regulation
Fiscal Fallout: Washington state government spending surges 116% since 2015 by T J Martinelli, The Center Square, July 14, 2025. Excerpt: Washington state faces deficit spending by 2028 as lawmakers just hit taxpayers with the state’s largest combined tax increase – all driven by massive state spending increases over the past decade, an investigation of state .. MORE
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Biographical Remarks on Arthur Bruce Smith (1851-1937) by David M. HartBruce Smith was an Australian Barrister (a lawyer who is qualified to argue before a judge) and a Member of the Parliament of New South Wales when it was still a self-governing colony before it became one of the states in the federal Commonwealth of .. MORE
THE views herein set forth were in the main briefly stated in a pamphlet entitled “Our Land and Land Policy,” published in San Francisco in 1871. I then intended, as soon as I could, to present them more fully, but the opportunity did not for a long time occur. In the meanwhile I became even .. 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
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.
Introduction No area of tax policy has changed more over the past four decades than corporate income taxation. Since 1980, corporate tax rates have fallen as countries have vied for business investment in an increasingly global economy. More recently, however, lower corporate tax rates have triggered concerns about a “race to the bottom” and, in .. MORE
National industrial policy is a rubric for a broad range of proposed economic reforms that emerged as a unified political program in the early eighties. Had they been passed, these reforms would have given government officials additional authority, as well as the necessary fiscal and regulatory powers, to directly alter the country’s industrial structure. Proponents .. MORE
Economic competition takes place in markets—meeting grounds of intending suppliers and buyers.1 Typically, a few sellers compete to attract favorable offers from prospective buyers. Similarly, intending buyers compete to obtain good offers from suppliers. When a contract is concluded, the buyer and seller exchange property rights in a good, service, or asset. Everyone interacts voluntarily, .. MORE
-Israel Kirzner
-Adam Smith Full Quote >>
-Adam Smith Full Quote >>