Economics

Fed Follies: Central Bank Continues to Force Economy in Wrong Direction

by Richard M. Ebeling August 26, 2014

For more than a decade, now, Federal Reserve policy has been guided by the fear of one economic bogyman: the presumed danger of “price deflation.” The fear is unfounded and the inflationary “solution” only leads to disaster. During Alan Greenspan’s and Ben Bernanke’s watches at the helm of America’s central bank and now under Janet Yellen, the claim has been ...

Böhm-Bawerk: Austrian Economist Who Said “No” to Big Government

by Richard M. Ebeling August 11, 2014

We live at a time when politicians and bureaucrats only know one public policy: more and bigger government. Yet, there was a time when even those who served in government defended limited and smaller government. One of the greatest of these died one hundred years ago on August 27, 1914, the Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk.Böhm-Bawerk is most famous ...

A Conservative Dissents from the Corporate Status Quo

by Anthony Gregory August 1, 2014

The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America by David A. Stockman, (Public Affairs 2013), 768 pages. Most leftist critiques of libertarianism focus on an alleged blind defense of corporate power. Indeed, left-libertarian Kevin Carson has helpfully criticized the very real problem of “vulgar libertarianism,” the working assumption that current economic realities are a product of free-market dynamics ...

TGIF: Jane Cobden: Carrying on Her Father’s Good Work

by Sheldon Richman July 25, 2014

Among libertarians and classical liberals, the name Richard Cobden (1804–1865) evokes admiration and applause. His activities -- and successes -- on behalf of freedom, free markets, and government retrenchment are legendary. Most famously, he cofounded — with John Bright — the Anti–Corn Law League, which successfully campaigned for repeal of the import tariffs on grain. ...

Free Market Capitalism vs. Crony Capitalism

by Richard M. Ebeling July 14, 2014

In the minds of many people around the world, including in the United States, the term “capitalism” carries the idea of unfairness, exploitation, undeserved privilege and power, and immoral profit making. What is often difficult to get people to understand is that this misplaced conception of “capitalism” has nothing to do with real free markets and economic liberty, and ...

TGIF: Immortal Keynes?

by Sheldon Richman May 23, 2014

Whatever you may think of Keynesian economics, you have to give it credit for one thing: its staying power. You can’t watch a news program without hearing pundits analyze economic conditions in orthodox Keynesian terms, even if they don’t realize that’s what they’re doing. One TV personality says that the rejection of Keynes indicates a disbelief in all science! What ...

The Inextricable Link between Economic Freedom and Individual Liberty

by Walter Block May 2, 2014

NOTE: THIS TALK WAS DONE BY SKYPE. UNFORTUNATELY, WE ENCOUNTERED AUDIO RECORDING DIFFICULTIES DURING THE TALK THAT COULD NOT BE RESOLVED. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE. On April 28, 2014 Walter Block presented the above speech, entitled "The Inextricable Link between Economic Freedom and Individual Liberty: Government Reduces Liberty through Economic Assault" as part of the ...

Socialism vs Capitalism (video)

by David Boaz April 2, 2014

On March 31, 2014 David Boaz presented the above speech as part of the ongoing Economic Liberty Lecture Series, a joint project of The Future of Freedom Foundation and the George Mason University Economics Society. David Boaz is the executive vice president of the Cato Institute and has played a key role in the development of ...

The Calling: Some Thoughts on Inequality

by Steven Horwitz March 27, 2014

Perhaps no other issue is so much in the forefront of political debate these days as inequality. Many commentators argue that one of the most damaging things happening in the United States is increasing inequality. Often this argument is tied to criticisms of markets, as if somehow free markets, or capitalism, are the cause of this supposed increase. It’s that ...

The Pope Dabbles in Economics

by Sheldon Richman March 1, 2014

Pope Francis wrote in his recent apostolic exhortation, “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality.” He’s right — but not in the way he intends. Before I elaborate, let’s look ...

The Logic of Crisis and Leviathan and Why It Still Holds (video)

by Robert Higgs February 19, 2014

On February 17, 2014 Robert Higgs presented the above speech as part of the ongoing Economic Liberty Lecture Series, a joint project of The Future of Freedom Foundation and the George Mason University Economics Society. Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy for The Independent Institute and Editor at Large of the Institute's quarterly journal ...

Give America a Raise?

by Sheldon Richman February 5, 2014

President Obama said something especially perplexing when he implored Congress during his State of the Union address to “Give America a raise.” Since when does Congress have the power to do that? We live in a nominally private-enterprise economy, so it should strike the ear as odd to hear Obama acknowledge that it’s not a private-enterprise economy at all, ...