Donald B. Hawthorne
This posting is Part X in a series of postings about economic thoughts. Milton and Rose Friedman, in Chapter 1 of their 1979 book, Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, discuss the power of the market: …we know of no society that has ever achieved prosperity and freedom, unless voluntary exchange has been its dominant…
This posting is Part IX in a series of postings about economic thoughts. D. W. MacKenzie wrote in the October 2002 issue of The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, the monthly publication of the Foundation for Economic Education, about the coercive role of government: I am government… Coercion is both my vocation and my avocation; it…
This posting is Part VIII in a series of postings about economic thoughts. This posting contains excerpts from a previous posting that addressed the often unspoken, but very real and deeply influential, incentives that drive government behavior – and how they compare unfavorably with the incentives that drive behaviors in a competitive capitalism system: In…
This posting is Part VII in a series of postings about economic thoughts. This posting contains excerpts from Chapter 2 of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman’s 1962 classic book, Capitalism & Freedom in which he discusses the role of government in a free society: …To the [nineteenth-century] liberal, the appropriate means are free discussion and voluntary…
This posting is Part VI in a series of postings about economic thoughts. This posting contains excerpts from Chapter 1 of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman’s 1962 classic book, Capitalism & Freedom in which he continues a discussion about the relationship between economic freedom and political freedom: It is widely believed that politics and economics are…
This posting is Part V in a series of postings about economic thoughts. This posting contains excerpts from the Introduction of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman’s 1962 classic book, Capitalism & Freedom in which he begins a discussion about the relationship between economic freedom and political freedom: …The free man will ask neither what his country…
This posting is Part IV in a series of postings about economic thoughts. This posting contains excerpts from a January 2005 Reason magazine article, entitled Hayek for the 21st Century, which discusses biographer Bruce Caldwell’s thoughts on Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek’s ideas regarding: (i) the abuse of reason; (ii) fallacies and dangers of centralized planning;…
This posting is Part III in a series of postings about economic thoughts. The excerpts in this posting are taken from Chapter 24, entitled Parting Thoughts, in Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy and discuss: (i) why policy goals are trumped by incentives they create; and, (ii) the role of…
This posting is Part II in a series of postings about economic thoughts. The excerpts in this posting are taken from Chapter 23 in Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy and discuss myths about markets, including: (i) morality and markets; (ii) prices; (iii) the role of profits; (iv) non-profit organizations;…
This posting is Part I in a series of postings about economic thoughts. The excerpts in this posting are taken from Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy and define what is economics. Chapter 1: What is Economics? Virtually everyone agrees on the importance of economics, but there is far less…
