An excerpt from Chapter 1 of *Unbeatable*
The Mainstream World Is Not Free-Market
The Mainstream World Is Not Free-Market
10 May 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic history, economics of education, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, human capital, labour economics, occupational choice
Smith Reviews Stiglitz
24 Apr 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, experimental economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation
Vernon Smith reviews Joe Stiglitz’s book The Road to Freedom: Stiglitz did work in the abstract intellectual theoretical tradition of neoclassical economics showing how the standard results were changed by asymmetric or imperfect information. He is oblivious, however, to the experimental lab and field empirical research showing that agent knowledge of all such information is […]
Smith Reviews Stiglitz
U.S. Trade Deficit Do Not Mean that We Americans Are Living Beyond Our Means
31 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, industrial organisation, international economics, labour supply Tags: free trade, tariffs
TweetHere’s a note to a new correspondent. Mr. P__: Thanks for your feedback on Phil Gramm’s and my piece, in yesterday Wall Street Journal, on trade deficits. You believe that I “and Sen. Gramm omit that every US trade deficit means Americans are consuming more than they are producing, a habit that is unsustainable.” With…
U.S. Trade Deficit Do Not Mean that We Americans Are Living Beyond Our Means
Boettke on the Socialist Calculation Debate
14 Mar 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economics of information, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, property rights Tags: economics of planning
An excellent EconTalk episode with Pete Boettke on the socialist calculation debate. I like Boettke on the three Ps. The three Ps–property, prices, and profits and loss. Property incentivizes us. Prices guide us. Profits lure us to new changes and losses discipline us. Today, “incentives matter” is often considered the first lesson of economics. But […]
Boettke on the Socialist Calculation Debate
The Spectacular Economic Ignorance of Peter Navarro
20 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, survivor principle, unemployment Tags: 2024 presidential election, free trade, tarrifs
TweetHere’s a letter to the New York Times. Editor: Encountering, in David Leonhardt’s report, a summary of Peter Navarro’s attempted justifications of Trump’s tariffs makes the head spin (“A Disagreement on Tariffs,” February 18). Navarro’s arguments are so illogical, self-contradictory, and economically ignorant that they’d be merely laughable were he not an advisor to the…
The Spectacular Economic Ignorance of Peter Navarro
Trade 101 for Trumpies
08 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, entrepreneurship, industrial organisation, international economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
To augment my four-part video series about trade (dealing with the WTO, creative destruction, deficits, and economics), here’s part of my recent lecture about Trump’s trade policy to the Universidad de Libertad in Mexico City For those who (mistakenly) want to skip the video, my speech focused on these five themes. Trade deficits don’t matter. […]
Trade 101 for Trumpies
Mocking European Statism
04 Feb 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, environmental economics, financial economics, industrial organisation, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: employment law, European Union
I have a special page for humor involving Europe, but I have not added to it since sharing some Brexit humor in 2016. Let’s being the process of catching up with some amusing cartoons and memes mocking our government-loving cousins on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I’ve made the serious point that bureaucrats […]
Mocking European Statism
When politicians campaign on competition, be very worried
31 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Armen Alchian, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, experimental economics, history of economic thought, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: competition law
Targeting big existing businesses may be tempting to politicians, but ensuring market openness will do more good Eric Crampton writes – It’s fair to say that economists like competition. It’s also fair to say that when politicians start talking about competition, economists ought to get a little bit nervous.
When politicians campaign on competition, be very worried
Hayek on Decentralized Information in Markets
29 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economics of information, F.A. Hayek
Friedrich von Hayek won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 1974. For the 50th anniversary of the prize, the IEA published a short collection of essays called Hayek’s Nobel: 50 Years On, edited by Kristian Niemietz. It Includes Hayek’s speech upon acceptance of the Nobel Prize, “The Pretence…
Hayek on Decentralized Information in Markets
Margaret Thatcher, Michael Curley, and the 19th Theorem of Government
16 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, financial economics, fiscal policy, human capital, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - USA, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, regulation, rentseeking
In this 12-second video, Margaret Thatcher is talking about the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, but her warning has universal application. And when I say her warning has universal application, I’m not joking. Politicians generally can’t resist the temptation to buy votes. And I fear that this can and will happen at all levels […]
Margaret Thatcher, Michael Curley, and the 19th Theorem of Government
Economists Should Never Abandon Their Principles
14 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, economics of regulation
TweetIn the Spring of 2023 I had the honor of delivering, at the Richmond Fed, the annual Sandridge Lecture to the Virginia Association of Economists. The text of that lecture – the title of which is “The Role of the Economic Scholar in Highly Politicized Society” – is available here. And pasted below are two…
Economists Should Never Abandon Their Principles
Mr. Haltiwanger and the Austrians
11 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, Israel Kirzner
In November, I chided Austrian economists for neglecting the John Haltiwanger’s empirical work on creative destruction:Around 2000, I discovered that John Haltiwanger, a very mainstream economist, had a pile of empirical evidence vindicating the importance of Schumpeterian creative destruction. That pile is now a mountain. At the time, I tried to get Austrians to start…
Mr. Haltiwanger and the Austrians
Left-Wing Economists Were Wildly Wrong about Javier Milei and his Libertarian Agenda for Argentina
10 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, budget deficits, business cycles, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economics of regulation, financial economics, fiscal policy, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, law and economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, monetarism, monetary economics, political change, politics - USA, property rights, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, unemployment Tags: Argentina
It’s easy to mock economists. Consider the supposedly prestigious left-leaning academics who asserted in 2021 that Biden’s agenda was not inflationary. At the risk of understatement, they wound up with egg on their faces.* Today, we’re going to look at another example of leftist economists making fools of themselves. It involves Argentina, where President Javier […]
Left-Wing Economists Were Wildly Wrong about Javier Milei and his Libertarian Agenda for Argentina
Marx explained
01 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, Austrian economics, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, occupational choice, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice
Why the @NZGreens are beside the point
31 Aug 2024 Leave a comment
in applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, constitutional political economy, development economics, economic growth, economic history, entrepreneurship, growth miracles, history of economic thought, human capital, income redistribution, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, liberalism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, poverty and inequality, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, technological progress Tags: child poverty, family poverty, The Great Enrichment
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