Limits to the homo economicus version of rationality are also limits to the explanatory power of some aspects of introductory-level economics. They do not, however, compromise the case for laissez-faire. If anything, they strengthen it.
The really radical idea behind the rule of law is that the lawmakers themselves are not above the law. It is “the law” that rules, not those who make and enforce the law.
UberX produces daily social value of about $18 million. That is comparable to having an excellent French impressionist painter produce a beautiful work each day and give it away for free.
Saturday, September 17th will be the five year anniversary of the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street protests. This week’s links cover the protests and what they did (or didn’t) accomplish. The Lasting Effects of Occupy Wall Street, Five Years Later Throwback: What Reason Saw at Occupy Wall Street Protests What Occupy Wall Street Got […]
This behavior means that even the greediest of businessman, to make money, has to identify with the needs and wants of others, put them in the shoes of others, and help solve problems.
Economics can be counterintuitive and abstract, but it is also essential for understanding how the world works—especially when we’re trying to make policies in the spirit of good intentions.
The Economic Way of Thinking can help improve decision-making, even in areas you wouldn’t think to look.
Businesses aren’t charities. They are money-making ventures that exist by and for profit. Everything else is a bonus.
Without young, healthy individuals buying insurance and thereby paying into the system, the government is finding itself saddled with the responsibility for supporting the healthcare of the older, sicker population.
After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti that killed around 250,000 people and displaced 1.5 million others, the billion dollar state-led humanitarian relief effort failed to accomplish even the most basic tasks like rebuilding houses. The situation remains dire with 80,000 people still living in “temporary” tent camps. In the new Learn Liberty video below, Professor […]
Adjusting for inflation, that a regular NES and 30 games would be about $2450 in 2015 dollars. And we can get all that today for $70. That’s a 97 percent price decrease without adjusting for quality
Unplanned order spontaneously emerges when government micromanaging is eliminated.
Several years ago Uncle Sam declared Jones, a man in his mid-40s, to be uniquely entitled to retire immediately at double his real annual income of $100,000 for life. Jones took Uncle Sam up on this offer. Each and every year until Jones enters oblivion Uncle Sam now transfers to him $200,000. Jones is made […]
Why do foreign policy adventures so often go awry? In this week’s Learn Liberty video, Professor Abby Hall Blanco reveals how economic principles–like incentives and constraints—can explain the frequent poor outcomes of foreign policy. Incentives are usually defined by economists as the evaluation of the costs and benefits of a particular decision. But incentives may […]
The real minimum wage is zero, despite the best efforts of the economically illiterate public sector do-gooder.
Keynesian prognostication aside, natural disasters are always bad for economic growth.
Free market economists argue that individuals make the best choices for themselves because they are the most aware of their specific preferences. But what happens when people come across decisions where they need specialized knowledge? How do you influence other people’s decisions in this case? In the Learn Liberty video below, Professor Antony Davies and graduate student […]
Doing the research necessary to make good choices can be very time consuming. That’s why, as we learned in the last video, people resort to using heuristics to make better decisions. In the Learn Liberty video below, Professor Antony Davies and graduate student Erika Davies explain how people sometimes rely too heavily on heuristics, which can lead […]
How does a shoe shopper decide what type of shoe to buy? How can that customer possibly make the best decision in the face of so many choices—within a reasonable amount of time? The consumer in today’s economy has an almost limitless variety of products to choose from. This abundance of variety creates a paradox of […]
The law of demand still applies even to overrated musicals.
Homo economicus got its start way back when two humans decided to trade. The rest was history.
Today would have been Milton Friedman’s 104th birthday. Perhaps no one in history was as successful as Friedman at introducing people to the ideas of liberty and a free society. His bi-weekly column in Newsweek distilled the concepts of freedom to current events for millions of readers, and his 1980 Free to Choose PBS series set the […]
This piece was originally published at the Cato Institute. Tune into Learn Liberty’s Facebook page on Monday at 3pm for a Facebook Live event with professor Steve Hanke on this topic. With the arrival of President Hugo Chávez in 1999, Venezuela embraced Chavismo, a form of Andean socialism. In 2013, Chávez met the Grim Reaper […]
Senator Elizabeth Warren recently delivered a speech in Washington entitled “America’s Monopoly Problem,” and it could completely change the way we live our lives. That’s because if she is chosen by Hillary Clinton to be the Vice President and if Clinton defeats Trump, this could be a signal of what is to come with respect to antitrust activity […]