Everyone knows that Thomas Edison was the inventor of the light bulb, but few people are aware that he came up with an idea for a new monetary system. He was dissatisfied with the gold standard (under the National Banking Acts) and also with fiat paper standards. His system is described in a recent review of the book:
Robert Skidelsky is best known for his three-volume biography of Lord Keynes, and his son Edward is a philosopher who has written an excellent book on Ernst Cassirer.1 How Much Is Enough? contains valuable discussions of happiness research in economics and of global warming, as well as a capsule histor
A recent Circle Bastiat blog post highlighted a discussion by Robert Higgs where he argued,
Another Halloween is upon us, bringing its late autumnal burst of costumes, candy, and merriment. Ghosts, witches, mummies, zombies, Frankenstein’s monster, film and television characters, and others will make appearances, as will the quintessential Halloween figure: Dracula.
[This article is excerpted from volume 2, chapter 11 of An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (1995).]
This year’s Nobel-ish prize in economics goes to Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley for research on “matching methods” and the resulting application to “market design.” Briefly, this work deals with allocating resources in the absence of money and prices. Shapley applied noncooperative game theory to study the properties of different matching rules, and Roth studied various allocation rules to encourage “efficient” matching of actors or traders without using prices.
More signs that the writings of Hayek, Mises, and modern Austrian economists are beginning to have some influence even in places where it might be least expected despite the efforts of Professors DeLong and Krugman to discredit thses ideas.
