Economics

Economics for the Citizen, Part 5

by Walter E. Williams July 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Someone might have made you a gift of this publication. Does that mean reading this article is free? The answer is a ...

Economics for the Citizen, Part 4

by Walter E. Williams June 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 In the last lecture, we discussed three of four kinds of behavior that can be called economic behavior: production, consumption, and exchange. ...

Productivity and the Wealth of Nations

by George Leef June 1, 2005

The Power of Productivity by William W. Lewis (University of Chicago Press 2004); 323 pages; $28.00. “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves,” Benjamin Franklin said. We might, in a similar vein, explain the key message of William Lewis’s book The Power of Productivity by saying, “Watch the ...

Economics for the Citizen, Part 3

by Walter E. Williams May 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 There are four classes of behavior that can be called economic behavior. They are: production, consumption, exchange, and specialization. The discussion of ...

Economics for the Citizen, Part 2

by Walter E. Williams April 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Which is the best method of resolving conflict over what’s produced, how and when it’s produced, and who’s going to get it? ...

What’s Wrong with Public Schools?

by Sheldon Richman March 25, 2005

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of Separating School & State: How to Liberate Americas Families (1994) by Sheldon Richman. Its time to admit that pubic education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybodys role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. Its ...

Some Civics Lessons for My Son

by Don Boudreaux March 1, 2005

My son, Thomas Macaulay Boudreaux, is seven years old. He’s the most precious creature in the world to me. My wife, Karol, and I will never indoctrinate him, but we do and we will teach him as best we can. Here’s a list of some of the lessons that he’ll get from me as he grows into manhood. Even in ...

Economics for the Citizen, Part 1

by Walter E. Williams March 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Last fall semester, I didn’t teach for the first time in 37 years. No, I haven’t retired. It was my semester-off reward ...

Bureaucracy: A Mises Classic, Part 2

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 Last month I discussed Ludwig von Mises’s presentation of profit management in his great little book Bureaucracy. He explains in detail how consumers “use” the price and profit-and-loss systems to direct entrepreneurs toward producing the things they want most urgently. (Of course, they don’t self-consciously use these systems; they simply buy and abstain ...

Bureaucracy: A Mises Classic, Part 1

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 Ludwig von Mises, the great expositor of the Austrian school of economics, left an awesome, even intimidating, body of work. Human Action and Socialism are among the most important books written in economic and social theory, yet most people with little spare time will probably not try to tackle them. Mises’s shorter works ...

The Myth of the Level Playing Field

by Samuel Bostaph January 1, 2005

One of the catch phrases of the day is “a level playing field.” Some businessmen are using it to refer to the competitive situation in which they would prefer to be, but allege they are not for some reason. And, not surprisingly, the reason they usually give for not having “a level playing field” is that a competitor has ...

Seeing and Not Seeing

by Scott McPherson November 15, 2004

A key element in understanding reality is an accurate representation of reality. And this headline in the November 10 Washington Post — “N. Va. Boom Sparks Economic Recovery” — demonstrates how poorly is the average newspaper editor equipped to accurately describe economic affairs, which may help ...