Economics

West Africa and Colonialism, Part 1

by Wendy McElroy October 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Until recently, Western scholarship ignored West Africa. The blind spot reflects Europes historical view of Africa as a continent to be exploited, not examined. To Europe, Africa was a market for products and a source of raw goods. In short, it was an object of mercantilism the economic system ...

Examining Reagan’s Record on Free Trade

by Sheldon Richman June 21, 2004

The following article originally appeared in the May 10, 1982, issue of The Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones and Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Hardly anyone was surprised when the Reagan administration imposed quotas on sugar imports last week. This is at once remarkable and understandable. It’s remarkable because Mr. Reagan wants to be known as a free-trader. Indeed, ...

Book Review: Economic Freedom and Development

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 2003

Economic Freedom and Development: An Essay about Property Rights, Competition, and Prosperity by Wolfgang Kasper (New Delhi, India: Centre for Civil Society, 2002); 132 pages; $12.95. The Centre for Civil Society, headquartered in New Delhi, India, was founded in 1997, with the purpose of advancing the cause of classical liberalism, economic freedom, and the rule of law under limited government. Its ...

Book Review: Economics for Real People

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2002

Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School by Gene Callahan (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2002); 349 pages; $19.95. Back in 1932 an economist named Broadus Mitchell wrote an introductory principles textbook entitled A Preface to Economics. When he came to the discussion of supply and demand, he stated, “I hate graphs, anyhow. They are the only pictures economics books ...

Economic Liberty and the Constitution (Table of Contents)

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2002

  Part 1 (June 2002) Introduction Part 2 (July 2002) The Declaration of Independence; judicial review Part 3 (August 2002) The influence of Adam Smith Part 4 (September 2002) The Slaughter-House Cases Part 5 (October ...

Book Review: The Elusive Quest for Growth

by Richard M. Ebeling May 1, 2002

The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics by William Easterly (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2002); 342 pages; $29.95. POVERTY, UNFORTUNATELY, is the natural condition of man. And through most of his time on earth, as best as historians can determine, his standard of living has been meager and poor. But slowly over the centuries certain ...

Classical Liberalism in the 21st Century: Freedom of Trade, Part 1

by Richard M. Ebeling March 1, 2002

Part 1 | Part 2 BEFORE THE 19TH CENTURY, governments in the major European countries and their colonial empires around the world took it for granted that they had both the right and responsibility to control and direct the economic activities of their subjects. Indeed, the lands and peoples in these countries were considered to be the property of ...

Book Review: Money and the Market

by Richard M. Ebeling November 1, 2001

Money and the Market: Essays on Free Banking by Kevin Dowd (New York/London: Routledge, 2001); 226 pages; $100. KEVIN DOWD IS ONE OF THE LEADING free-market monetary theorists today. Along with Lawrence H. White and George Selgin, he has helped to revive and refine the case for abolishing central banking and replacing it with a market-based competitive free-banking system. In 1976, Austrian ...

What O’Reilly Doesnt Know

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2001

Bill OReilly, populist star of the Fox News Channels OReilly Factor may be the hottest television property around, but he doesnt know beans about how markets work. The other night he charged the oil companies with conspiring to keep gasoline prices high. He quoted a 1995 Chevron memo stating that refining ...

Book Review: The Making of Modern Economics

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2001

The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers by Mark Skousen (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2001); 485 pages; $25. IN THE EARLY DECADES OF THE 19TH CENTURY, Thomas Carlyle was the first one to call economics “the dismal science.” He considered the study of the market economy “dismal” because it emphasized individualism and freedom of association ...

Book Review: Basic Economics

by Richard M. Ebeling April 1, 2001

Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell (New York: Basic Books, 2000); 366 pages; $30. WHEN ADAM SMITH completed his criticisms of mercantilism, the 18th-century system of government planning and control, in The Wealth of Nations, he expressed a deep pessimism that the free-trade ideal that he had defended, instead of the regulated economy, would ever be ...

Book Review: From Subsistence to Exchange and Other Essays

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2000

From Subsistence to Exchange and Other Essays by Peter Bauer (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000); 153 pages; $24.95. FREE-MARKET ECONOMIST Peter T. Bauer is 85 years old this year. During the 55 years since the end of the Second World War, Bauer has been one of the most articulate and insightful critics of economic planning and government intervention in the ...