Power & Market

Cantillon and Me

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 Business Cycle theory, along with many of the fundamental aspects of economic theory and beyond. In 2010, Chantal Saucier and I published a translation of his Essai into modern English.

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Portrait of a Gentleman

I had a DNA done by Ancestry.com last year and it came back exactly as expected with the vast majority being “Irish or Scottish” and tiny amounts of Western Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. Today I received an update from Ancestry.com with a more refined analysis and it turns out that the majority of my DNA comes from the same place where Cantillon was born in the County Kerry area! Ancestry.com describes the area as a “perfect place for rebels and outlaws who sought refuge from British authority”!

Very satisfied with this Ancestry.com thing!

 

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