A Family of Heroes

In any major city, particularly a capital, the great majority of statues and memorials pay tribute to monarchs and presidents, priests, generals, and statesmen. This reflects the way history is commonly understood and taught: as the story of the achievements of those associated with political power, government, and war. Memorials to the historical figures associated [...]

Vermeer’s Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World

Timothy Brook has written a fascinating work on the pivotal seventeenth century, one that defies neat categorization. It isn’t a history per se, although it is about a crucial period of history. It isn’t really about economics, but it conveys a considerable amount of economic understanding. Nor is it a work on philosophy, even though [...]

Book Reviews – April 2008

• Globalization by Donald J. Boudreaux Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
• Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty Reviewed by Bettina Bien Greaves
• Armed America: The Remarkable Story of How and Why Guns Became as American as Apple Pie by Clayton E. Cramer Reviewed by George C. Leef
• The European Economy Since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond by Barry Eichengreen Reviewed by Waldemar Ingdahl

Imports, Exports, and Nonsense

The Commerce Department (whose idea was that?) said recently that 2006 was another record year for the U.S. “trade deficit.” The value of imports beat the value of exports by $764 billion. That makes five record years in a row. China’s trade surplus with us hit $233 billion.
Ordinarily, I would ignore this nonstory because, as [...]

Trade and Diversity

Trade is one of the oldest of human institutions, and trading relationships are among the most fundamental of all human relationships. Indeed, we may say that networks of peaceful exchange form the skeleton of all complex human societies. One of the most striking features of trade throughout human history is how it connects people who [...]

The 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?

Book Reviews – September 2004

The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life
by Paul Seabright
Princeton University Press • 2004 • 304 pages • $29.95
Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
One of the most profound insights of economics is that the activities of billions of people can be coordinated without central direction and without most of these interdependent people knowing anything [...]

Free Markets, the Rule of Law, and Classical Liberalism

The history of liberty and prosperity is inseparable from the practice of free enterprise and respect for the rule of law. Both are products of the spirit of classical liberalism. But a correct understanding of free enterprise, the rule of law, and liberalism (rightly understood) is greatly lacking in the world today.
Historically, liberalism is the [...]

The Anti-Capitalist Children of Capitalism

Alex Moseley has taught economics at the university level and is currently finishing two books for publication.
The irony of the anti-capitalist protests that have plagued gatherings of world leaders in Seattle and Prague, and that threaten to disrupt any future such meetings, is that despite the atavism of the activists’ ideology, their means depend on [...]