Book Reviews
The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
If you were to believe spokesmen for the Obama regime and its allied pseudo-economists, there is no tradeoff between the size of government and our standard of living. On the contrary, they would like people to believe that the bigger the government gets, the more it can “stimulate” the economy and solve all sorts of [...]
18Nov2009 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush
Steven G. Calabresi and Christopher S. Yoo count as founding fathers of the much-debated unitary executive theory (UET), which they named in 1992. In this large book they argue that every American president has subscribed to the theory, and that along with constitutional text and structure, this continuous presidential practice makes the law.
Briefly, UET asserts [...]
Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It’s Under Siege
Think of the various dollar-denominated bills in your pocket. They surely represent value, but with the dollar backed by nothing beyond trust in the United States and its Treasury, the greenback’s success as a worldwide store of value is something of a marvel.
Wall Street Journal reporter Craig Karmin’s Biography of the Dollar helps us to [...]
The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008
Reading The Return of Depression Economics, I have to admit I was surprised. Paul Krugman, 2008 Nobel Prize winner in economics and New York Times columnist, isn’t as feisty and partisan in the book as he is in his column. Moreover, he presents some useful information about the many economic collapses that have occurred in [...]
18Nov2009 | William L. Anderson | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Left, The Right, and the State
The Left, The Right, and The State, a collection of 103 essays by Llewellyn Rockwell, looks at the ways both the left and right use the State to pursue their goals. Rockwell, president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, argues forcefully that our liberty and property are endangered equally by left-wing and right-wing statism. As [...]
23Oct2009 | George C. Leef | 4 comments | ContinuedHow Much Money Does an Economy Need?
In How Much Money Does an Economy Need? Hunter Lewis addresses some of the most fundamental questions of monetary policy in a question-and-answer format. For a subject often clouded by technicalities, the language is refreshingly plain. Sometimes too plain, perhaps, to satisfy an academic economist. But academic economists aren’t the intended audience. The book can [...]
15Oct2009 | Lawrence H. White | 1 comment | ContinuedForgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet: The Life of Luther Martin
Antifederalists get no respect. Historian Cecilia Kenyon called them “men of little faith.” Other historians (even Charles Beard) pegged them as rural debtors. In this brief but engaged life of Luther Martin, though, Bill Kauffman enters a plea for “the people who lost”—an un-American enterprise he shares with William Appleman Williams.
Martin, likely the most interesting [...]
Montessori, Dewey and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market In Education
For years, school-choice proponents have assessed and reassessed the possibilities of expanding government support for vouchers. Jerry Kirkpatrick’s Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism: Educational Theory for a Free Market in Education is a refreshing alternative to those tired discussions of political coalitions, legislative machinations, and disparate school-choice programs. Indeed, Kirkpatrick’s book is one of the first [...]
15Oct2009 | Terry Stoops | 0 comments | ContinuedFrom Economic Man to Economic System: Essays on Human Behavior and the Institutions of Capitalism
Harold Demsetz is among the ten most frequently cited economists in the world. What makes him worth reading is that he has made his mark not through virtuosity with empty formalism but rather by careful reasoning about fundamental questions and evidence. His latest book, From Economic Man to Economic System, continues that tradition.
Demsetz considers a [...]
Greatest Emancipations: How the West Abolished Slavery
From time immemorial until the eighteenth century, slavery was an accepted fact of life in most of the world. It was hardly ever questioned, and there were no mass movements calling for its abolition. That finally changed as a result of the success of capitalism. Once people no longer had to labor unceasingly just to [...]
23Sep2009 | George Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedA Manifesto for Media Freedom
Americans are blessed with access to an unprecedented variety of media–not to mention ways in which information can be stored and the points of view and ownership interests represented.
As documented in the brisk book A Manifesto for Media Freedom, this cornucopia of media options has led not to celebration of the marvelous diversity that free [...]
Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse
Thomas Woods’s Meltdown is a marvel of writing and publishing. Having arrived on shelves in February, it offers a complete analysis of the causes of the current recession as well as a critical assessment of the mistakes policymakers have already made, and will likely continue to make, in response to the economic decline.
The marvel is [...]
New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America
Not everyone loved President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Even in 1936, when he enjoyed his most lopsided electoral victory, almost 17 million voters cast their ballots for Alf Landon. During Roosevelt’s long presidency, he attracted vigorous literary critics, such as H. L. Mencken, John T. Flynn, and Garet Garrett. But the winners write the history, and [...]
19Aug2009 | Robert Higgs | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Gridlock Economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives
Without private property rights, people have incentives to overuse an asset. Conflicting private property rights, on the other hand, create a “tragedy of the anti-commons” in which resources are underused, according to Michael Heller. In The Gridlock Economy, he treats the reader to a compelling array of examples of the tragedy of the anti-commons in [...]
19Aug2009 | Art Carden | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Complete Idiot’s Guide to Economics
For years the series of Complete Idiot’s Guide books has been a great commercial success, dealing mostly with “practical” topics as varied as dog training and wedding planning. Useful to be sure, but not exactly intellectually stimulating. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Global Economics, by economist Craig Hovey and former FEE staff member Gregory Rehmke, [...]
19Aug2009 | George Leef | 1 comment | ContinuedOne Nation Under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of What We Owe
In his latest work, One Nation Under Debt, Robert E. Wright, who has written extensively about debt and finance during the decades that marked America’s climb to economic preeminence, carefully documents the evolution of U.S. dependability and integrity in the international investment community. This reputation led to the acceptability of U.S. financial markets and government [...]
19Aug2009 | David L. Littmann | 1 comment | ContinuedWho Killed the Constitution? The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush
There have now been many conservative and libertarian books covering the demise of American liberty under the U.S. Constitution, so if you don’t think you need to read another one, I understand.
Still, if that’s what you think, you’re wrong.
The latest entry in the genre, Thomas Woods and Kevin Gutzman’s Who Killed the Constitution?, is something [...]
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Book Reviews
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The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
By Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter J. Tanous
