,
An Economist Looks at Europe
Donald Trump is no gentleman; his vulgar remarks on women, his slanderous aspersions on Mexican immigrants, his intolerant condemnation of the critical media, and his aggressive pronouncements on foreign affairs during the Presidential campaign and his early tenure in office all leave an unpleasant aftertaste. There may have been some softening via the Vice President .. MORE
Featured Article
For decades, Boeing, Bombardier, Airbus, and Embraer—aircraft manufacturers based in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Brazil, respectively—have been involved in protectionist battles that are adjudicated by the World Trade Organization. (The WTO is an international organization with 164 member states, including the United States.) Boeing and Airbus are the main protagonists, but Bombardier and .. MORE
Article
Russ Roberts claims that if someone asks whether he’s a doctor, he tells them “yes, but not the kind that helps people.” That’s not true; Russ has helped me a lot. I’ve been a regular listener of Econtalk for many years. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read after listening to one of .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Game Theory
International Trade
Macroeconomics
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
Macroeconomics
Artificial Intelligence
Income Distribution
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
econtalk-podcast
After nearly 12 years as general manager for the L.A. Rams, Les Snead has learned the power of humility when it comes to making big decisions–who to draft, who to hire as head coach, and how to create a shared vision for his team. Listen as he and EconTalk’s Russ Roberts discuss what it’s like .. MORE
econtalk-podcast
If the Wright Brothers could have used AI to guide their decision making, it’s almost certain they would never have gotten off the ground. That’s because, points out Teppo Felin of Utah State University and Oxford, all the evidence said human flight was impossible. So how and why did the Wrights persevere? Felin explains that the human ability to .. MORE
Macroeconomics
Do you recall that student back in middle school, frantically waving his hand trying to get the teacher to call on him? That’s how I feel when I read the following sort of news story: As the US economy hums along month after month, minting hundreds of thousands of new jobs and confounding experts who .. MORE
International Trade
In an earlier post, I listed some questions for interventionists to consider before advocating their interventions. This is part of my ongoing crusade to get interventionists to think about things as they actually are as opposed to a blank slate. These two modes of thinking I call “status quo reasoning” (seeing the world as it .. MORE
Explore the lasting legacies and
continued relevance of our classic titles.
WE, the COMMISSIONERS appointed by YOUR MAJESTY to make a diligent and full inquiry into the practical operation of the Laws for the Relief of the Poor in England and Wales, and into the manner in which those laws are administered, and to report our opinion whether any and what alterations, amendments, or improvements may .. MORE
A NEW edition of this translation of the popular treatise of M. Say having been called for, the five previous American editions being entirely out of print, the editor has endeavoured to render the work more deserving of the favour it has received, by subjecting every part of it to a careful revision. As the .. MORE
A Book Review of Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages, by Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod.1 Introduction What do you think would happen if suddenly beards and bachelorhood were taxed? Ridiculous, you say? Not so! In the later 17th century, Tsar Peter the Great instituted a beard tax to change .. 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
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
VIDEO
The twentieth century witnessed the unparalleled expansion of government power over the lives and livelihoods of individuals. Much of this was the result of two devastating world wars and totalitarian ideologies that directly challenged individual liberty and the free institutions of the open society. Other forms of expansion in the provision of social welfare 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.
In most countries government spending has grown quite rapidly in recent decades. Chart 1 shows U.S. federal spending as a percentage of gross national product from 1790 to 1990. Chart 2 shows Sweden’s central government expenditures as a percent of GNP. Although not many countries have such long data series, these countries apparently are typical. .. MORE
Keynesian economics is a theory of total spending in the economy (called aggregate demand) and its effects on output and inflation. Although the term has been used (and abused) to describe many things over the years, six principal tenets seem central to Keynesianism. The first three describe how the economy works. 1. A Keynesian believes .. MORE
An entrepreneur is someone who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. An entrepreneur is an agent of change. Entrepreneurship is the process of discovering new ways of combining resources. When the market value generated by this new combination of resources is greater than the market value these resources can generate .. MORE
-John A. Hobson
-John Stuart Mill Full Quote >>
-David Hume Full Quote >>