Archive for Richard M. Ebeling
Richard Ebeling teaches economics at Northwood University and is a former president of FEE.
Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics
Milton Friedman, who passed away on November 16 at age 94, once commented that there is no such thing as different schools of economics; there is only good economics and bad economics. While he may have sincerely believed this, Friedman was nonetheless the twentieth century’s most outstanding contributor to what has become known as the [...]
1Dec2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 8 comments | ContinuedKeynesian Economics and Constitutional Government
Last month 650 economists called for an increase in the federal minimum wage, saying it was the responsibility of the government to “improve the well-being of low-wage workers” by mandating the terms under which people may be employed. Among these economists were five recipients of the Nobel Prize in economics. One of them was Lawrence [...]
1Nov2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedPrinciples Must Come Before Politics
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. We live in a time of quick fixes and patent medicines. The “physicians” offering to spoon-feed the elixirs for what ails us are the politicians running for office. Rarely do people step back and ask themselves whether there is really any ailment at all, or whether the politicians’ [...]
1Oct2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Misplaced Acceptance of Political Leaders
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. This is an election year, and as in all past election years we are inundated with promises and proposals from candidates, each hoping to attract our votes. For the most part what they are promising is “leadership.” They tell us all the things they will do for us [...]
1Sep2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedNot Losing Sight of the Best in the Pursuit of Liberty
The eighteenth-century French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire warned that “the best is the enemy of the good.” He meant that in trying to pursue unattainable perfection, we may miss the opportunity to create something better than what we have. There is much wisdom in these words. But there is danger in its opposite: If we allow [...]
1Aug2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedLudwig von Mises: The Political Economist of Liberty, Part II
Mises’s defense of classical liberalism against the various forms of collectivism was not limited “merely” to the economic benefits of private property.
1Jun2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedFreedom and the Pitfalls of Predicting the Future
The prospects for freedom in America and in many other parts of the world appear dim. Government continues to grow bigger and more intrusive, imposing tax burdens that siphon vast amounts of private wealth. Extrapolating these trends out for the foreseeable future, it would seem that the chances for winning liberty are highly unlikely. There is only one problem with this pessimistic forecast: the future is unpredictable and apparent trends do change.
1Jun2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Russian Conservatism and Its Critics, by Richard Pipes
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Russian Conservatism and Its Critics
by Richard Pipes Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling -
Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing
by David S. Evans and Richard Schmalensee
Reviewed by J. H. Huebert -
The New New Left: How American Politics Works Today
by Steven Malanga Reviewed by George C. Leef
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Learning Economics
by Arnold King Reviewed by Donald J. Boudreaux
Ludwig von Mises: The Political Economist of Liberty, Part 1
Richard Ebeling is the president of FEE. Over a professional career that spanned almost three-quarters of the twentieth century, the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises was without any exaggeration one of the leading and most important defenders of economic liberty. The ideas of individual freedom, the market economy, and limited government that he defended in [...]
1May2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedJohn Maynard Keynes: The Damage Still Done by a Defunct Economist
Seventy years ago, on February 4, 1936, the English economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) published what soon became his most famous work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. Few books, in so short a time, have gained such wide influence and generated so destructive an impact on public policy. What Keynes succeeded in [...]
1May2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 40 comments | ContinuedThe Political Sociology of Freedom: Adam Ferguson and F. A. Hayek
When I was a young economics major back in the 1970s, one of the standard arguments that many of my professors would hurl at me was: “Your ideal of free-market capitalism may have been all right 200 years ago, when society was a lot simpler, but in a society as complex as ours is today, [...]
22Apr2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Great Austrian Inflation
Wars always bring great destruction in their
wake. Human lives are lost or left crippled;
wealth is consumed to cover the costs of
combat; battles and bombs leave accumulated capital in
ruins; real and imagined injustices turn men against the
existing order of things; and demagogues emerge to play
on the frustrations and fears in peoples minds.
FEE at 60: Self-Improvement and First Principles
March 7 marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) by the late Leonard
E. Read, with the assistance of a handful of businessmen, economists, and journalists who were all dedicated to the ideas of individual liberty and the free market. From its beginning FEE has been more than what nowadays is called a policy-oriented think tank. Its work is based on the understanding that right thinking on policy issues is impossible unless people have a clear appreciation of the principles of freedom, private property, free enterprise, the rule of law, and constitutionally limited government.
Still Neither Left Nor Right
We live in a time when virtually all political parties and candidates stand for the same fundamental ideological idea: state interventionism and compulsory redistribution.This also applies to the mainstream media. Even many who say they adhere to a pro-market view of things in fact turn out to be only more moderate advocates of government regulations and welfare-state programs.
1Jan2006 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Roots of Poverty in Latin America
Few things stand out in such stark contrast as the economic and social differences between the United States and the countries of Latin America. Since gaining its independence from Great Britain in the late eighteenth century, the United States has offered virtually unlimited opportunity for a growing population, along with a rising standard of living [...]
14Dec2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | ContinuedWhy Not Monetary Freedom?
In all of the commentaries that have appeared since President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Ben S. Bernanke as Alan Greenspan
1Dec2005 | Richard M. Ebeling | 0 comments | ContinuedAnother National Disaster in the Making: Government Reconstruction of New Orleans
Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans at the end of August. What followed was a further disaster in the form of government incompetence and confusion at the local, state, and
federal levels. Rarely have we seen a better instance of what Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises once rightly called “planned chaos.”
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The Latest
JPMorgan Chase and Casino Banking
JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the nation’s leading banks, revealed in May that a London trader racked... Read More
Individualism, Trade-Unions, and “Self-Governing Combinations”
Who do you imagine said this? “[Trade-unions] seem natural to the passing phase of social evolution,... Read More
Bubbles, Malinvestment, and Higher Education
Many commentators are asking whether the next big bubble to burst will be the debt associated with the... Read More
JPMorgan’s Blunder Is No Market Failure
I am not going to try to defend JPMorgan Chase for its recent, widely reported financial blunders. ... Read More
For Equality; Against Privilege
This TGIF originally ran July 7, 2006. The freedom philosophy can be boiled down to two phrases: for... Read More
