All Posts Tagged With: "Adam Smith"
The Economics of Caring and Sharing
The author would like to thank the Earhart Foundation for supporting his previous research on happiness, which led to considerations on which the present paper is based. If we were to apply the unmodified, uncurbed rules of the micro-cosmos (i.e., of the small band or troop, or say our families) to the macro-cosmos (our wider [...]
22Jun2011 | Dwight R. Lee | 4 comments | ContinuedLiberty and the Power of Ideas
A belief that I stress again and again is that we are at war—not a physical, shooting war, but nonetheless a war that is fully capable of becoming just as destructive and just as costly. The battle for the preservation and advancement of liberty is a battle not against personalities but against opposing ideas. The [...]
25May2011 | Lawrence W. Reed | 9 comments | ContinuedAdam Smith Reveals His (Invisible) Hand
“Adam Smith had one overwhelmingly important triumph: he put into the center of economics the systematic analysis of the behavior of individuals pursuing their self-interest under conditions of competition.”—George Stigler (emphasis added) Critics of laissez faire—from Cambridge economic historian Emma Rothschild to British Labor Party leader Gordon Brown—have recently attempted to wrestle Adam Smith out [...]
21Apr2011 | Mark Skousen | 2 comments | ContinuedWhy Is the “Invisible Hand” in the Middle of Smith’s Works?
To think that Adam Smith, the renowned absent-minded professor, hid a little “invisible” secret in his tomes is indeed the ultimate irony.
9Mar2011 | Mark Skousen | 29 comments | ContinuedThe Hesitant Hand: Taming Self-Interest in the History of Economic Ideas
“The focus of this book,” according to its author, “is the interplay of self-interest, market, and the state in economic analysis from the mid-nineteenth century up through the latter stages of the twentieth.” Much of this well-written study, however, is devoted to describing the intellectual origins of the approach to political economy known today as [...]
24Feb2011 | Sandy Ikeda | 0 comments | ContinuedDoes Saving Reduce GDP?
Warren C. Gibson’s article, “GDP: Who Needs It?” in the May 2010 edition of the Freeman, asserts an inconsistency. He correctly denigrates the Keynesian notion of promoting consumption spending as a means of promoting GDP growth: “The predominance of consumption seems to have spawned the bizarre notion that if we can only get consumer spending [...]
24Nov2010 | and James C. W. Ahiakpor | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Most Elusive Proposition
Most explanations of the division of labor are actually explanations of increased productivity due to specialization. The most common example is Adam Smith’s pin factory in The Wealth of Nations, where each worker becomes better at his job because that’s all he has to concentrate on. But the increase in wealth from the division of [...]
22Oct2010 | Manuel F. Ayau | 1 comment | ContinuedMy Favorite Libertarian Books*
I am one of the many millions of beneficiaries of Andrew Carnegie’s public libraries. The one in the small town in which I grew up (Rahway, New Jersey) fed my early interest in books, providing a range of reading matter that was available in no other way, since there were few books at home. That [...]
28Jun2010 | Milton Friedman | 4 comments | ContinuedUnintended Consequences
In two earlier Freeman essays, I explored the idea that “ought implies can” and the role of profits in providing knowledge about how best to serve others. Both insights rely on the foundational idea that intentions and results are not the same thing. Thinking we ought to do something does not mean it will have [...]
24Feb2010 | Steven Horwitz | 31 comments | ContinuedThe Continuing Fallacy of Government “Creating Jobs”
Adam Smith said it best when he noted that "consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production." Unlike what Reich claims, an economy cannot be oriented solely toward production or solely toward consumption.
25Nov2009 | William L. Anderson | 2 comments | ContinuedGlobalization: Extending the Market and Human Well-Being
Much of the prosperity of today’s world arises from the division of labor. Globalization, by extending the market’s scope to the entire world, enables the division of labor to become as developed as the current world population allows. However, to be truly in the interests of consumers and a boon to economic prosperity, globalization needs to occur spontaneously through the workings of the unhampered free market. Government attempts to meddle with this process—even with the sincere intent to facilitate or accelerate it—will only undermine its efficacy at benefiting us all.
1Apr2009 | Gennady Stolyarov II | 2 comments | Continued
Mr. President, Meet Mr. Smith
Since it’s obviously possible for people to reach the pinnacle of politics without seeming to know much about either economics or Smith, perhaps we’re overdue for a little reminder about both.
1Dec2008 | Lawrence W. Reed | 4 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – December 2008
Is the Welfare State Justified? by Daniel Shapiro Cambridge University Press • 2007 • 309 pages • $80.00 hardcover; $27.99 paperback Reviewed by George C. Leef Americans have lived with the welfare state for so long—more than 70 years—that for most, it is simply a fact of life. Asking whether it is justified would seem [...]
1Dec2008 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedA Department of Homeland Happiness Security? Only if We Want to Be Unhappy!
Richard Ebeling (rebeling@fee.org) is the president of FEE. It is more than 230 years since Adam Smith observed that each individual is a better judge of how best to apply his productive efforts than any statesman who would direct the economic activities of the citizenry. Furthermore, Smith said, any such power “would nowhere be so [...]
1Mar2008 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | ContinuedProfit: Not Just a Motive
One of the more common complaints of critics of the market is that “the profit motive” works at cross-purposes with people and firms doing “the right thing.” For example, Michael Moore’s film Sicko was motivated by his desire to take the profit motive out of health care because, in his view, the ways people seek [...]
1Mar2008 | Steven Horwitz | 34 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – January 2008
- The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care
by David Gratzer Reviewed by Jane M. Orient
- Self-Determination: The Other Path for Native Americans
Edited by Terry L. Anderson, Bruce L. Benson, and Thomas F. Flanagan Reviewed by William L. Anderson, Jr.
- The Wal-Mart Revolution
by Richard Vedder and Wendell Cox Reviewed by George Leef - On the Wealth of Nations
by P.J. O’Rourke Reviewed by Raymond J. Keating
Pharmaceutical Profits and Health Are Inconsistent?
In a critical review of Richard Epstein’s book Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation, Arnold Relman (The New Republic, July 30) criticizes drug companies for their hypocrisy. Contrasting the companies’ message to stockholders with their message to the larger world, he quotes Pfizer President Jeffrey Kindler’s statement that his goal is “to create [...]
1Nov2007 | David R. Henderson | 0 comments | Continued-
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