This is a tale of two economists, Larry Summers and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. They have much in common, in addition to their adherence to the dismal science. Each is quite prominent in his field. Summers was Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration, and is now President of Harvard. Hoppe is a professor of economics at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and a preeminent leader not only of the Austrian School of Economics, but also of the libertarian school of political philosophy.

Here is my most recent attempt to respond to some critics of my history primer, in the same venue in which 4 of the attacks were printed.

Lawrence Reed at Mackinac provides an excellent round up, in a speech for Grove City, about what government can and cannot do to help the poor. Among many highlights is his discussion about what the constitution’s framers thought about the issue, as well as his discussion of 19th century antipoverty efforts. Interesting excerpt:

Congratulations to Brad DeLong, the king of economist bloggers, for drawing attention to Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, if only to criticize him. One wonders if perhaps Hazlitt’s book is, next to Samuelson, the biggest selling econ book of all time. It came out in 1946, and has been a constant seller ever since.

There is a interesting article in the latest issue of The Economist. As most people here know, the national savings rate in America is now at its lowest level since the Great Depression. What is perhaps less known is the fact that savings have been falling in the other large rich countries too. While the savings rate of for example Japan is still higher than in America, savings have been declining even faster in Japan than in America.

Weeding out failures is an important feature of the market economy, says this review of a new book by Paul Omerod. And government can’t seem to replicate it.