Archive for Russell Roberts
We Need Multimedia Economics Teaching
Earlier this year I was invited to give a talk at an art gallery in Georgetown, the posh area of Washington, D.C., down the street from the White House, abutting the Potomac River. I confess this doesn’t happen to me very often. Okay, I exaggerate—it never happens to me. This was my first invitation ever [...]
1Oct2006 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedThe End Run to Freedom
What does the future hold for economic life in the United States? Will we move toward greater freedom or less? What role will ideas and rhetoric play, if any, in making sure that the direction is one that lovers of freedom prefer?
1Jun2006 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Pursuit of Happiness ~ It’s Always Something
Our economy is in the middle of an extraordinary run of success. Unemployment is low.Personal wealth is near an all-time high. Real wage growth sometimes appears less robust, but when benefits are included, real compensation is healthy. And even with the cries from some that economic mobility
isnt what it once was, legal and illegal immigrants continue
to flock to the United States. Evidently being poor here beats being poor elsewhere by a long shot.
Supply, Demand, Inventory
Supply-and-demand analysis is the bread and butter
of classroom economics. All over America as the
leaves change color and college commences, professors
of economics are shifting supply and demand
curves and showing how the price of a good changes in
response.
Why Not More Liberty?
Russell Roberts holds the Smith Chair at the Mercatus Center and is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His latest book is The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance.
There are two extreme views of American government and the political process. One is that policy [...]
Traitor or Trader?
Daniel Sumner is in trouble. Sumner, an agricultural economist at UC Davis, has been accused of betraying his country. What has Sumner done? Given the charge, you might assume that he has aided terrorists or leaked nuclear secrets. Or perhaps shared some sophisticated technology with America’s enemies.
1Sep2004 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedHave a Canadian Orange
Suppose gasoline became so expensive that getting oranges to Wisconsin raised their price to $3 each. If that price were expected to persist for a long time, there would probably arise a Wisconsin citrus industry with all the trimmings. Orange orchards would be planted near the Illinois border where the weather is warmest.
1May2004 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy Are Economists So Misunderstood?
Russel Roberts is a professor of economics at George Mason University and the J. Fish and Lillian F. Smith Distinguished Scholar at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance.
Here is a puzzle.
I’m at a social gathering that includes some doctors. One doctor is discussing a prescription drug for [...]
Medical Care and Market Forces
Russell Roberts teaches economics at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. His latest book is The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance (MIT Press).
I’ve heard it argued that market forces don’t apply to health care because there isn’t anything close to a free market in health care. There are all these government programs, and there’s insurance, [...]
Profits Versus Love
Russell Roberts is the John M. Olin Senior Fellow at the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis and a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
A few years back we thought about building a deck or a porch on the back of our house. But we decided against it when [...]
The Pursuit of Happiness ~ Widening Route 6
I really shouldn’t tell you this, but Cape Cod is a very beautiful place. I shouldn’t mention its beaches with their towering sand dunes. I shouldn’t mention the golden eagle I saw soaring over the marsh near the cottage where we stayed on vacation. I shouldn’t mention the charm of the Cape Cod baseball league, where college players try to show major league scouts they can hit with a wooden bat and where the fans get in for free and the dogs and toddlers are unleashed.
1Dec2002 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedWhat Do Farmers Want from Me?
You’d think in a democracy that the greater the number of people on your side of an issue, the more likely it will be that you’ll get your way. But it ain’t necessarily so. As Mancur Olson, Gary Becker, and others have pointed out, in politics, small is often beautiful.
Take farmers. When farmers were [...]
The Pursuit of Happiness ~ Enron Lessons
The Enron soap opera continues to unfold. and as it unfolds, lessons are being learned. Some people are learning lessons about the energy business. Some are learning lessons about the securities business. Some are learning lessons about the accounting business.
But some are not content to learn such narrow lessons. They want to look at [...]
The Pursuit of Happiness ~ "We Can’t Get Rich Doing Each Other’s Laundry"
Since World War II, manufacturing employment as a fraction of total employment has declined steadily. In the middle of the war, it was over 40 percent of the work force. By 1966 it dipped below 30 percent for the first time. By 1985, it dropped below 20 percent for the first time.
In 2000 there were [...]
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Montessori, Dewey and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market In Education
By Jerry Kirkpatrick
