Austerity: When It Works and When It Doesn’t by Alberto Alesina, Carlo Favero, and Francesco Giavazzi Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019, xvi + 245 pp. Mark Thornton (mthornton@mises.org) is Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and Book Review Editor at the QJAE. Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 22, no. 1 (Spring 2019), for full
The High Cost of Good Intentions: A History of U.S. Federal Entitlement Programs John F. Cogan Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2017, 513 pp. Dr. Mark Thornton (mthornton@mises.org) is Senior Fellow at the Mises Institute and Book Review Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 21, no. 4
ABSTRACT: Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey G. Williamson, in their book Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700 (Princeton University Press, 2016), explore the reasons for the decline in the share of income captured by top earners in industrialized nations. Embedded in their take on the “Greatest Leveling” is a push for progressive
[ Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays • By Joel Waldfogel • Princeton University Press, 2009 • 186 pages] This little book could have been a great Christmas gift for many of your friends and relatives. It has some neat information about Christmas, and I share the author’s sense that the Christian holiday has been overly
Harvard has been a leader in the economics profession for better or worse. In recent years the economics department has been viewed as relatively free market oriented where human action is seen as rational, research is guided by economic theory, and where markets work most of the time. Symbolically, the introductory undergraduate course was taught
As many of you know, I have been researching and writing about the economics of Irish economist and banker Richard Cantillon for over 20 years. He was the first to write a book about economic theory, circa 1730, coined the modern term entrepreneur, and the first to provide a supply and demand analysis of prices, as well as the basics of Austrian
From the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 21, no. 2 (Summer 2018). In a core chapter in their book, Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700 (Princeton University Press, 2016), Peter H. Lindert and Jeffrey G. Williamson present “The Greatest Leveling of All Time,” circa 1910 to 1970. In this chapter, the two prominent
We are repeatedly told that the unprecedented monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve and other central banks is necessary to stimulate the economy, create jobs, and generate economic growth. The truth is that this scheme is designed to stealthily steal from the productive classes in order to enrich the unproductive financial class and the
[Excerpt from “ The Fall and Rise of Puritanical Policy in America ,” Journal of Libertarian Studies 12, no. 1 (1996): 143–60] America was colonized by Europeans seeking economic and religious liberty, with many of the colonies founded explicitly along theocratic lines. The most notorious of these groups, the Puritans, founded the Massachusetts
[ Adaptado de una clase dictada el 14 de noviembre de 2018 .] Los estudiosos y los científicos nos dicen que la humanidad tiene doscientos o trescientos mil años, dependiendo de cómo lo definan. Si dibuja una gráfica con una línea horizontal a lo largo de una pared de veinticinco pies para representar 250.000 años, entonces cada pie representaría
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The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.