First published in 1912 ago, Mises’s The Theory of Money and Credit makes this observation: “Gold is not an ideal basis for a monetary system. Like all human creations, the gold standard is not free from shortcomings; but in the existing circumstances there is no other way of emancipating the monetary system from the changing […]
Mises on the relative imperfections of the gold standard Read More »
I interviewed Dr. David R. Henderson after his talk at Rockford entitled “Seven Myths of Free Markets.” Professor Henderson teaches economics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and is a research fellow with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Dr. Henderson also explains the surprising, true origin of “the dismal science.” For more about Professor
David Henderson on seven myths of free markets Read More »
For this year’s conference of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, I am organizing and chairing a session on two giants of the twentieth century — Friedrich Hayek and Ayn Rand — with four scholars comparing their views on values and political economy. Topic: Hayek and Rand on Values Chair: Stephen Hicks, Ph.D., Rockford College,
Hayek and Rand on values — APEE 2011 conference Read More »
Dr. David R. Henderson is an associate professor of economics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and a research fellow with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Professor Henderson is the author of The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey and the editor of the widely used Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. He was previously a
David Henderson to speak at Rockford College Read More »
I attended a two-day conference at Wake Forest University on the Federal Reserve. The Fed is the U.S. central banking system and was founded in 1913 to replace the earlier National Banking System experiments that had been in place since the eighteenth century. I enjoyed a paper presented by George Selgin (University of Georgia) and
Has the Federal Reserve been a failure? Read More »
One measure of a nation’s success is its economic health: how free are a nation’s citizens to pursue their own economic goals, and how wealthy on average are its citizens? Almost always the wealthy countries are those that enjoy a significant degree of the economic freedom. (See the chart in the image; click to enlarge.)
Successful nations and the British empire Read More »
I’ll be giving a talk at the 2011 APEE conference in April. My title is “Cameron Hawley, Henry Kitchell Webster, and Populist Capitalism in Literature.” Here is the abstract: In the early and middle part of the twentieth-century, Hawley and Webster were strong-selling authors of novels that dramatized themes of business ethics and political economy.
Populist capitalism in literature Read More »
A pair of striking excerpts from a discussion at CNN Money between motivational speaker Ken Blanchard and Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurship at Case Western. Here is Scott Shane on whether the government should encourage entrepreneurship or craft policies to divert resources to high-growth companies: “From a societal point of view, if you have a
Entrepreneurship, individualism, and collectivism Read More »