Archive for Gene Smiley
Book Review: The Industrial Revolution and Free Trade, edited by Burton W. Folsom, Jr.
By the mid-1800s, socialists had initiated an attempt to show that the industrial revolution and concomitant rise of free trade had worsened the lives of British workers. Great Britain’s adoption of free trade internationally with the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 only made detractors more determined to show that a society built on [...]
1Apr1997 | Gene Smiley | 0 comments | ContinuedCutting Marginal Tax Rates: Evidence from the 1920s
Dr. Smiley teaches at Marquette University. Recent political debates have raised the issue of adopting a flat marginal rate federal income tax. Though the marginal rate would be flat, the addition of a generous personal exemption would make the average personal income tax rate rise as it approached the fixed marginal rate of, say, 17 [...]
1Oct1996 | Gene Smiley | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Social Role of Private Property Rights
Private property rights are the rights of a person to use his property in whatever way he chooses providing that he doesn’t use force or fraud on any other person. One of the first economists to emphasize the importance of property rights was the Austrian economist Carl Menger. Writing in 1871, Menger noted that for [...]
1May1990 | Gene Smiley | 0 comments | ContinuedSpecialization and Exchange
Dr. Smiley is Associate Professor of Economics at Marquette University. I have spent the last 17 years teaching economics to college students. During this time my wife and I have owned two homes, neither of which we built ourselves. To furnish our homes we have purchased chairs, tables, sofas, coffee makers, stoves, refrigerators, television sets, [...]
1Oct1989 | Gene Smiley | 1 comment | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
