Economy

This posting is Part XII in a series of postings about economic thoughts. Years ago, Leonard E. Read of the Foundation for Economic Education wrote a now-famous story entitled I, Pencil. The story describes how, in the production of something as simple as a pencil, the free market naturally brings together many different physical materials…

This posting is Part XI in a series of postings about economic thoughts. The excerpts in this posting are taken from Chapter 3 in Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy and discusses prices, a key structural element in a competitive capitalistic economy. Prices play a crucial role in determining how…

This posting is Part XI in a series of postings about economic thoughts. The excerpts in this posting are taken from Chapter 3 in Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy and discusses prices, a key structural element in a competitive capitalistic economy. Prices play a crucial role in determining how…

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 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 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…