Thoughts on Freedom

Some Sins of Textbook Economics

People who are ignorant of economics are susceptible to all sorts of misunderstandings. Fortunately knowledge of even just the basics of sound economics is a powerful inoculant against many dangerous falsehoods and half-truths. This fact, however, does not imply that exposure to more economics is necessarily good. The sad reality is that economists too often [...]

4Jan2012 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 12 comments | Continued

Dangerous Political Naifs

Being well past the age of 50 and having spent nearly all my adult life as an academic economist, I seize the privilege of doing what so many other economists of my age and rank do—namely, offer unsolicited speculations about what is right and what is wrong with modern economics. First, something that is right. [...]

26Oct2011 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 10 comments | Continued

Talk About a Revolution

What caused the Industrial Revolution? Few questions in economic history are discussed and debated as much as this one. Even if you happen to be among the small number of people who regret what historian (and Freeman columnist) Steve Davies calls “the wealth explosion” of the past couple of centuries, you must nevertheless find this [...]

24Aug2011 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 5 comments | Continued

Stop the Bad Guys

It’s not too much of a simplification to say that modern American conservatives believe the national government to be ignorant, bumbling, and corrupt when it meddles in the U.S. economy, but sagacious, sure-footed, and righteous when it meddles in foreign-government affairs. Nor are the boundaries of acceptable simplification breached by saying that modern American “liberals” [...]

25May2011 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 19 comments | Continued

Naive Keynesianism: A Failure of Imagination

Each of us has a set of peeves—things that disproportionately irritate us. By their nature, most peeves are small. For example, I bristle at the failure to use hyphens correctly. As my late, great teacher Fritz Machlup pointed out, a foreign exchange student is typically not a foreign-exchange student. The first is a student studying [...]

21Apr2011 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 8 comments | Continued

Tariffs and Freedom

A historical episode that opponents of consumer sovereignty—that is, opponents of free trade—frequently cite to support their case for high tariffs is late nineteenth-century America. Pat Buchanan, for example, in his book The Great Betrayal asserts about the 1800s that “Behind a tariff wall . . . the United States had gone from an agrarian [...]

22Dec2010 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 19 comments | Continued

The Power of Freedom

WARNING: After reading this column, many of you will want to send me emails condemning me for my apostasy or telling me why I am mistaken. I welcome your feedback as I beg your indulgence. So, here goes: I don’t believe that the welfare state, or the regulatory state, inevitably leads to widespread poverty or [...]

22Oct2010 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 29 comments | Continued

Secure in Freedom

Language is indispensable to civilization. But because we rely on language so heavily—because it is our chief means of communicating with each other as well as a tool for forming and storing our thoughts—if used carelessly it can misshape our thoughts. Careless language (or, even worse, verbal legerdemain) often turns words or phrases with positive [...]

25Aug2010 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 14 comments | Continued

An Economist Reflects on Law

I graduated from law school ten years ago. During that decade I’ve often reflected on the differences between my experiences in law school and those as an economics graduate student. The most obvious difference is that earning my Ph.D. was vastly more interesting and fun than earning my J.D. I am not criticizing my law [...]

30Jun2010 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 1 comment | Continued

The Private Provision of Public Goods

Nobel laureate economist Elinor Ostrom’s important work shows that people are very good at using voluntary action to solve problems that economics textbooks insist require the forceful hand of government. Producing “public goods” (such as irrigation systems for a community of farmers) often promises large enough gains to stir the creative juices of people—who, given [...]

20May2010 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 5 comments | Continued

On the Rule of Law

Everyone agrees that the rule of law is good, both morally and economically. Almost no one—regardless of political ideology—dares to question the great goodness and importance of the rule of law. I certainly don’t question it. But what exactly is the rule of law? In answering this question we uncover reasons why persons with vastly [...]

24Mar2010 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 20 comments | Continued

On Trade and Currency Manipulation

Americans are importing more from China. Protectionists abhor this fact. Explaining that American imports from China reflect nothing more sinister than the voluntary choices of American consumers does not satisfy simple-minded protectionists. It is sufficient that these imports take business away from some American producers. In the minds of simple-minded protectionists, international trade is harmful [...]

5Jan2010 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 10 comments | Continued

Science Fiction and Economic Fiction

Thomas Macaulay Boudreaux, age 12 and my only child, is a huge fan of Star Trek. Actually, even an italicized “huge” doesn’t quite capture the extent of Thomas’s fascination with, and knowledge of, the franchise. From Captain Pike through Mr. Spock to Ensign Sato, Thomas knows and loves anything and everything Star Trek. So in [...]

23Oct2009 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 4 comments | Continued

Looking in the Mirror

Quite frequently, I hear, “How do you justify working at a state university and holding libertarian views? That’s hypocritical!” The question is not as easy to answer as I would like–a fact that makes the accusation understandable (but, I hope, in the final analysis untrue). My employer, George Mason University, is indeed a government-created and [...]

23Sep2009 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 35 comments | Continued

The Return of Keynesianism

Keynesian economics is an account of economywide employment that rather too simply alleges that economic health and growth—and, hence, the number of jobs—declines with decreases in “aggregate demand” and improves with increases in “aggregate demand.” No need to bother with questions about how well individual markets are working; no need to worry that the money supply might be growing too fast and causing individual prices to be out of whack—no! The economy is really much simpler, said Keynes, than those silly classical economists, such as Adam Smith, made it out to be.

21May2009 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 5 comments | Continued

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 | Continued

On 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 | Continued
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