Education

Doug French reviews the hit economics book Freakonomics.

Is Freakonomics worth the hype? Yes and no, in Robert Murphy's opinion.

We tend to think of economics as a sterile, number-clotted discipline, writes Colby Cosh, but most of the great economists have antagonized the received wisdom of their day.

Hans Hoppe writes: "If I made one mistake, it was that I was too cooperative and waited too long to go on the offensive."
 

Has academia become so politicized that teaching good economics, and using politically sensitive illustrations, can lead to threats, fines, penalties, demotion and worse? It certainly seemed so in early February when Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a leading student of Murray Rothbard and senior fellow of the Mises Institute, received an egregious letter from the Provost of his university.

Politcal movements often find themselves hypnotized by the prospect of power and passively obeying the commands of the state to dance, sing, and otherwise perform according to the state’s bidding.

Thank you David at Cantillon’s Paradise for the plug for

There are very few times in a student’s life when he or she can escape the drills and drudge

Was George Stigler sympathetic to the Austrian school? Lachmann doesn’t think so because Stigler was a favorite student of Knight. Austrians should have dealt with Keynes, instead they quarreled with Knight.

What policies do Austrians pursue? Those that favor the market.

The professors of tomorrow can either be free to think, research, write, and publish, without interference by the state or its proxies, or they risk becoming what Barzun calls commissars with PhDs.