It is broadly accepted that out of Enlightenment thinking came many of the “goods” of our society; goods economic, political, and social. Goods ranging from the material wealth and the technology we enjoy to classical liberalism and libertarianism. It is on the latter that I will focus.

Obituaries for the late Princeton economist Alan Krueger have combined praise for his personal character with implicit (or explicit) endorsement of his research approach.

Well, at least they’re now being honest about it. A headline this week in The Guardian reads: “Ending climate change requires the end of capitalism. Have we got the stomach for it?”

Keynote AERC lectures and selected panels can be watched live at mises.org/live

Our online schedule includes (Central Time Zone):

Friday

9:15-10:15 A.M. | The F.A. Hayek Memorial Lecture (Sponsored by Greg and Joy Morin)

Randall Holcombe (Florida State University) | Political Capitalism: How  Economic and Political Power Is Made and Maintained

In recent years, the controversial subject of global warming and a potential “climate disaster” has received a lot of media attention.

There are progressive politicians who are now arguing that unless profound changes in public policy are made to reduce worldwide carbon emissions, we face an impending world-wide climate related catastrophe.

Resentment is a toxic reagent that directly undermines harmony and social cooperation, and can lead to support for policies that will make such problems even worse. Unfortunately, most of the attention given to resentment seems to be harnessing it to enact somebody’s political agenda into law, and very little seeks to understand it with an eye to reducing it and the problems it causes.

Part of the answer may be found in the distinction between ex ante (before the fact) decisions and ex post (after the fact) views about those decisions.

Currently we can observe a general slowdown in the annual growth rate in price inflation across major countries around the world. For instance the yearly growth rate of the US consumer price index (CPI) fell to 1.5% in February from 1.6% in January and 2.2% in February last year. In Europe, the yearly growth rate of the EMU CPI stood at 1.5% in February versus 1.4% in January and 2.3% in October 2018.