All Posts Tagged With: "invisible hand"
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 | 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 | ContinuedA Busybody Behind Every Tree
If you happen to be flying into Reagan National Airport in summertime and look out the window, you will see that the suburbs of Washington, D.C, are heavily wooded. In many sections the trees are so thick it’s difficult to believe there are houses, let alone a major city, below. How did this suburban forest [...]
7Jul2010 | James L. Payne | 3 comments | ContinuedVisible and Invisible Hands
Douglas Den Uyl is vice president of educational programs for Liberty Fund. Douglas Rasmussen is a professor of philosophy at St. John’s University . They co-wrote Norms of Liberty: A Perfectionist Basis for Non-Perfectionist Politics (Pennsylvania State University Press). It has often been said that markets are led “as if by an invisible hand” to [...]
1Apr2007 | Douglas B. Rasmussen | 2 comments | ContinuedGovernment Control of Medicine: Thanks, But No Thanks
Ralph Hood is writer in Huntsville, Alabama. Several years ago my doctor informed me that I have diabetes. I was, of course, horrified. What did I know about diabetes? He gave me info and directions, but I was overwhelmed. Then he handed me a box full of coupons and a list of what to buy [...]
1Apr2004 | Ralph Hood | 1 comment | ContinuedThoughts of Miracles on the Plane
William Zieburtz is a dad, economist, and frequent traveler residing in Atlanta, Georgia. I am right now flying through the air. It is just me, just regular old me, just my mother’s son, and yet I am flying 37,000 feet above the ground. It seems miraculous, and miracles give rise to questions. The first being—what [...]
1Dec2003 | William B. Zieburtz Jr. | 1 comment | ContinuedBook Reviews – November 2003
Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life by James R. Otteson Cambridge University Press • 2002 • 338 pages • $70.00 hardcover; $26.00 paperback Reviewed by Robert Batemarco One of the puzzles confronting students of the history of economic thought is the apparent inconsistency of the two masterworks of Adam Smith: The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and [...]
1Nov2003 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedProfits Versus Love
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 estimates started coming in. They were about double what the architect had told us it would cost. Double! Had the architect misled us as a way of encouraging us [...]
1Jun2003 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance, by Russell Roberts
A few semesters ago I created a freshman honors seminar in economics. While I was pleased with the course overall, like most first-time courses there was room for improvement. During the last class meeting, I asked students to discuss what worked well and what did not. One comment was most memorable. A young woman who [...]
10Feb2003 | E. Frank Stephenson | 0 comments | ContinuedEnron 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 [...]
1Jun2002 | Russell Roberts | 1 comment | ContinuedIt All Started with Adam
Adam Smith, that is. Having just completed writing a history of economics,[1] I have concluded that, despite the protestations of Murray Rothbard and other detractors, the eighteenth-century moral philosopher and celebrated author of The Wealth of Nations deserves to be named the founding father of modern economics.
1May2001 | Mark Skousen | 1 comment | ContinuedEconomists’ Misplaced Faith in an Invisible Hand
Contributing editor Daniel Klein is associate professor of economics at Santa Clara University. He is editor of What Do Economists Contribute?, recently published by New York University Press and the Cato Institute. In academia most economists practice technical crafts. Academic incentives strongly favor such crafts, and economists pursue academic rewards, perhaps with a faith in [...]
1Aug2000 | Daniel B. Klein | 0 comments | ContinuedCode and Other Laws of Cyberspace
Lawrence Lessig has written an important but deeply flawed book on the future of the Internet. The book is important because of who Lessig is (Harvard law professor, celebrated member of the “digiterati,” and adviser to U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson) and because of the insights into the Internet that Lessig offers. The book [...]
1Aug2000 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | ContinuedIn Defense of Grocery Coupons
Bill Field is a professor of economics at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. We’ve all had this aggravating experience: rushing through the grocery store to finish our shopping, hurriedly looking for the shortest line, congratulating ourselves as we get in a line with only one lady in front of us, and then wanting to [...]
1Mar2000 | Bill Field | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Law of Supply and Demand
This is the first in a series of articles laying out some foundational elements of modern Austrian economics. The second article is here, the third is here, and the final article is here. The theory of supply and demand is recognized almost universally as the first step toward understanding how market prices are determined and [...]
1Jan2000 | Israel M. Kirzner | 32 comments | ContinuedIndividualism in Modern Thought from Adam Smith to Hayek
Some social theorists believe that moral, political, and economic order must be imposed according to some central plan. In their view, only constant management can generate and sustain the complex, mutually supportive norms of advanced societies. Another tradition in social thought defends an “open society” one founded on respect for voluntarism and individual freedom. Thinkers [...]
1Dec1999 | Andrew I. Cohen | 1 comment | Continued-
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