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Article
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 has deep evolutionary origins. These big brains of ours developed, in part, to .. MORE
Book Review, Kling's Corner
… [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, avoid listening to noisy rabble-rousers in our society who are trying to create doubts .. MORE
Article
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 elections delivering unified Republican control of the national government, a lot of attention .. MORE
Liberty
International Trade
Trade Barriers
Book Review
econtalk-podcast
[ANNUAL LISTENER SURVEY: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KYV5XPG. Vote for your 2024 favorites! Survey ends Feb. 9th.] Surely perfection is better than imperfection. But applying technology to improve decision-making can backfire. Listen as ed-tech innovator Daisy Christodoulou and EconTalk’s Russ Roberts talk about the costs of seeking perfection when technology is used to improve refereeing in sports. They also talk .. MORE
econtalk-podcast
Author Martin Gurri, Visiting Fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, talks about his book The Revolt of the Public with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Gurri argues that a digital tsunami–the increase in information that the web provides–has destabilized authority and many institutions. He talks about the amorphous nature of recent populist protest movements around .. MORE
Trade Barriers
Here’s Gideon Rachman in the FT: “Our strategy on tariffs will be to shoot first and ask questions later.” That was what one of Donald Trump’s key economic policymakers told me late last year. That kind of macho swagger is currently fashionable in Washington. Macho swagger? Where have we seen that before? Back in 2004, .. MORE
Taxation
In a post last week, I stated that the deadweight loss from a tax is proportional to the square of the tax rate. So doubling the tax rate, for example, quadruples the deadweight loss. I stated on Facebook that I used basic algebra to prove this to my students. An economist friend asked me to .. MORE
Explore the lasting legacies and
continued relevance of our classic titles.
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
It may not be necessary to inform readers again that I have aimed in this book to present only the facts bearing on the experiments of the United States with metallic money. No special attention, therefore, has been devoted to the theory of bimetallism or to the larger principles of money involved in current discussions. .. MORE
A Book Review of Time For Socialism, by Thomas Piketty.1 Time For Socialism author Thomas Piketty boasts a doctorate in economics, publishes papers regularly in top economics journals, teaches economics at the Paris School of Economics, and was once on the economics faculty at M.I.T. Yet not only are the 333 pages of his 2021 .. MORE
Book Review of The Poor and the Plutocrats: From the Poorest of the Poor to the Richest of the Rich (Oxford University Press 2021) by Francis Teal.1 Is inequality a problem? Many people seem to think so, if we judge the public discussions in Europe and the United States over the last decade or so. .. MORE
VIDEO
Anthony de Jasay, a regular columnist for Econlib, was one of the most original and independent thinkers on the relationship between the individual and the state. Through his published works, he challenged the reigning paradigms justifying modern democratic growth. His deeply challenging theoretical works include The State, an analysis that views the state as acting .. 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
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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.
CEOs of multinational corporations, exotic dancers, and children with lemonade stands have at least one thing in common. They all expect a return for their effort. Most workers get that return in a subtle and ever-changing combination of money wages and working conditions. This article describes how they changed for the typical U.S. worker during .. MORE
Interest is the price people pay to have resources now rather than later. Resources, of course, can be anything from college tuition to a big-screen TV. Interest is conventionally expressed as a percentage rate for a period of one year. If borrowers (those who want resources now) can obtain the resources from lenders (those who .. MORE
Gross output (GO) is a relatively new macroeconomic statistic that measures total economic activity. Gross domestic product (GDP)—the other major measure of economic activity—accounts only for final goods and services. However, GO’s scope includes both final output as well as intermediate inputs at all earlier stages of production. Therefore, GO is a much more comprehensive measure .. MORE
-Frederic Bastiat
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