Archive for Donald J. Boudreaux
Donald Boudreaux is professor of economics at George Mason University, a former FEE president, and the author of Globalization. He is the winner of the 2009 Thomas Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of Civil Liberties (general category).
On the Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle, Part II
I’m not sure where recent events—the economy’s still-ongoing turmoil—leave my assessment of the Austrian theory. But I am much more inclined now to find in it the empirical oomph that for so many years I thought it lacked.
1Apr2009 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 6 comments | ContinuedOn the Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle, Part I
One of the most vivid memories of my undergraduate years is of sitting for hours in my carrel in the old Polk Library at Nicholls State University and reading F.A. Hayek’s Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle and his Prices and Production. These books on the economic cycles of booms and busts are among the [...]
20Jan2009 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Ideas of Liberty and FEE
The great University of Chicago economist Frank Knight wrote in 1921 that it makes vastly more difference practically whether we disseminate correct ideas among the people at large in the field of human relations than is the case with mechanical problems. For good or ill, we are committed to the policy of democratic control in [...]
1Nov2008 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedSad Democracy
During this presidential election year, it’s commonplace to sing paeans to the wonders of democracy. I, though, have never been able to join in this chorus. The principal reason is that I put no intrinsic value on democracy; what I value intrinsically is individual liberty. Democracy might have instrumental value if it is part of [...]
1Sep2008 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | ContinuedInterpreting the State of the World
Why are optimists about the state of the world disproportionately represented by classical liberals, libertarians, and free- market conservatives, while pessimists about the state of the world are disproportionately represented by statists? Why do left-leaning media such as the New York Times and CNN devote so much ink and airtime alleging that middle-class Americans have made [...]
1Jun2008 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedI Won’t Vote!
Whenever I reveal my steadfast insistence on not voting, most people look at me as if I just admitted to slaughtering my dogs for dinner. Maybe it’s not illegal, say those looks, but it sure as heck is unseemly and irresponsible. Fancying myself to be a morally upright person, I obviously don’t believe that not [...]
1Apr2008 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 13 comments | ContinuedAlcohol, Prohibition, and the Revenuers
The standard account of America’s experience with alcohol Prohibition centers on ideology. This account states that citizens were so infused with Progressive hubris that they set forth in 1919 on a futile quest to mandate morality by banning the manufacture and sale of liquor. But when they recognized that Prohibition was failing, Americans abandoned the [...]
1Jan2008 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedSo You Want Government-Supplied Health Care?
Every summer my wife Karol and I enjoy the honor of lecturing at student seminars sponsored by the Institute for Economic Studies in Europe (IES-Europe). I offer whatever wisdom I can about economics and political science, while Karol shares her insights about law. (Other lecturers—including Freeman columnist Steve Davies and former FEE trustee Tom Palmer—cover [...]
1Nov2007 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Nation Is Not a House
Let’s reflect on the rhetoric used by those who oppose greater freedom for people to move back and forth across political borders. Opponents of the freedom to move frequently analogize a nation to a house. “You lock your house, don’t you?” these anti-immigrationists ask—implying that what makes sense for a home makes equally good sense [...]
1Sep2007 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedHayek, Coase, and Buchanan on the Market Process
Donald Boudreaux is chairman of the economics department at George Mason University. Compared to most other economists, my George Mason University colleagues and I put more emphasis on books than articles. Tyler Cowen, one of my most accomplished colleagues, often describes GMU Economics as a “book department.” This affection for books doesn’t mean that we ignore [...]
1Jun2007 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 2 comments | ContinuedCool on the Idea of Cooling Global Warming
Donald Boudreaux is chairman of the economics department at George Mason University. Here’s some self-promotion: the December 21, 2006, issue of The New York Review of Books published this letter of mine—a letter saturated with the obvious influence of FEE’s founder, Leonard Read: I’ve read few passages in your pages that are as mistaken as Bill [...]
1Apr2007 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Fed’s Potent Power
The Federal Reserve holds the fate of the U.S. economy in its hands. Or that’s the conclusion many observers draw when they watch investors react wildly to the most minute details of the Fed’s policy statements. This conclusion is at once exaggerated and accurate. It’s exaggerated because, at bottom, the Fed controls only the supply [...]
1Jan2007 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Trade Deficit Is Debt? It Just Ain’t So!
Writing in the October 4 New York Times, Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz worries about “global imbalances.” Stiglitz’s concerns are revealed in his opening paragraph: “The International Monetary Fund meeting in Singapore last month came at a time of increasing worry about the sustainability of global financial imbalances: For how long can the global economy [...]
1Dec2006 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | ContinuedOn Bad Arguments
It’s regrettable but not surprising that many people are ignorant of economics, of history, and of all the other disciplines that are important to our understanding of society. Equally regrettable, but much more surprising, is the number of people who simply are unable to think clearly. People who think clearly understand how to distinguish logical [...]
1Nov2006 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedLibertarian Paternalism?
Can paternalism and libertarianism be squared with each other? Two prominent scholars think so. University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein and University of Chicago economist Richard Thaler make a case for what they call “libertarian paternalism.” Here’s their argument. A large body of experimental data, gathered mostly by behavioral psychologists and behavioral economists, shows [...]
1Sep2006 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedMencken’s Wisdom
Donald Boudreaux (dboudrea@gmu.edu) is chairman of the economics department at George Mason University. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of H. L. Mencken (1880–1956). I wish that this Bard of Baltimore had lived far longer—past the age of Methuselah—so that those of us born after World War II could have enjoyed his [...]
1Jun2006 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 2 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Learning Economics, by Arnold Kling
Learning Economics by Arnold Kling Xlibris Corp. • 2004 • 376 pages • $32.99 hardcover; $22.99 paperback Reviewed by Donald J. Boudreaux Because the marginal social value of eloquent explanations of basic economics exceeds the marginal social cost of supplying these explanations, efficiency requires that more such explanations be produced. Got that? The jargon-laden opening [...]
1May2006 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | Continued-
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Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
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