Is the world really getting so much better? Rodrigo Aguilera argues that, despite what some say about progress in the twenty-first century, we are still falling far short of where we could be. Despite the doom and gloom of financial crises, global terrorism, climate collapse, and the rise of the far-right, a number of leading intellectuals (Steven Pinker, Hans Rosling, Johan Norberg, and Matt Ridley, among others) have been arguing in recent years that the world is getting better and better. But this progress narrative is little more than a very conservative defence of the capitalist status qu... View More...
The Law was originally published in French in 1850 by Frederic Bastiat. It was written two years after the third French Revolution of 1848. From Wikipedia: Claude Fr d ric Bastiat (29 June 1801 - 24 December 1850) was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly. He was notable for developing the important economic concept of opportunity cost. Bastiat was born in Bayonne, Aquitaine, France. When he was nine years old, he was orphaned and became a ward of his paternal grandparents. At 17, he left school to work in his family's export business. Econ... View More...
The New York Times bestseller hailed as the best business book of 2010 (Huffington Post). As soon as the financial crisis erupted, the finger-pointing began. Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers?According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is li... View More...
Selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013 Governments today in both Europe and the United States have succeeded in casting government spending as reckless wastefulness that has made the economy worse. In contrast, they have advanced a policy of draconian budget cuts--austerity--to solve the financial crisis. We are told that we have all lived beyond our means and now need to tighten our belts. This view conveniently forgets where all that debt came from. Not from an orgy of government spending, but as the direct result of bailing out, recapitalizing, and adding liquidity to the broken ba... View More...
Market process theory is crucial to our knowledge and expectations of actors working toward economic coordination and cooperation. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, there has been a renewed interested in using new applications of market process theory to better understand the global political economy. This volume brings together original research from the Austrian, Virginia, and Bloomington schools of political economy to analyse central elements of market process and market order. These include economic calculation, entrepreneurship, institutions and learning. Edited by three of the l... View More...
Wouldn't you love to abolish the IRS ...Keep all the money in your paycheck ...Pay taxes on what you spend, not what you earn ...And eliminate all the fraud, hassle, and waste of our current system?Then the FairTax is for you. In the face of the outlandish American tax burden, talk-radio firebrand Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder are leading the charge to phase out our current, unfair system and enact the FairTax Plan, replacing the federal income tax and withholding system with a simple 23 percent retail sales tax on new goods and services. This dramatic revision of the current system,... View More...
Wouldn't you love to abolish the IRS ...Keep all the money in your paycheck ...Pay taxes on what you spend, not what you earn ...And eliminate all the fraud, hassle, and waste of our current system?Then the FairTax is for you. In the face of the outlandish American tax burden, talk-radio firebrand Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder are leading the charge to phase out our current, unfair system and enact the FairTax Plan, replacing the federal income tax and withholding system with a simple 23 percent retail sales tax on new goods and services. This dramatic revision of the current system,... View More...
An upbeat antidote to the gloom and doom forecasts of the financial future Just about everyone is worried about the economy and markets. And the fear is that they will stay down for a long time. But a few brave voices say that the gloom and doom forecasts are just too pessimistic. Reality is that entrepreneurs don't give up. History is pretty clear, every time the economy is thought to be done, worn out, finished, it bounces back and heads to new highs. In fact, the economy and the markets-counter to conventional wisdom-have started to improve in the first half of 2009. Even housing is showing... View More...
A spirited and insightful examination of the need for American tax reform--arguably the most overdue political debate facing the nation--from one of the most legendary political thinkers, advisers, and writers of our time. A thoughtful and surprising argument for American tax reform, arguably the most overdue political debate facing the nation, from one of the most respected political and economic thinkers, advisers, and writers of our time. The United States Tax Code has undergone no serious reform since 1986. Since then, loopholes, exemptions, credits, and deductions have distorted its clari... View More...
What is the GDP, and what does it mean? Why does the stock market go down when interest rates go up? What causes a dreaded recession? Economics impacts everyone's life, but most people take on faith what they read in the newspaper. Now, for anyone who doesn't know much about economics, noted economist Todd Buchholz explains it all simply and clearly. With refreshing wit and irreverence, Buchholz takes readers by the hand and reveals the basic rules behind everything from food prices to trade deficits. Instead of complicated graphs and charts he uses examples from contemporary life and popular ... View More...
If you read only one economics book this year, read this one."--Larry Summers, Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama A must-read for students of economics, New Ideas from Dead Economists offers an entertaining and accessible introduction to the great economic thingers throughout history. Through the teachings of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and more, renowned economist Todd Buchholz shows how these age-old ideas still apply to our modern world. In this revised edition, Buchholz offers an i... View More...
If you read only one economics book this year, read this one."--Larry Summers, Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama A must-read for students of economics, New Ideas from Dead Economists offers an entertaining and accessible introduction to the great economic thingers throughout history. Through the teachings of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and more, renowned economist Todd Buchholz shows how these age-old ideas still apply to our modern world. In this revised edition, Buchholz offers an i... View More...
If you read only one economics book this year, read this one."--Larry Summers, Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama A must-read for students of economics, New Ideas from Dead Economists offers an entertaining and accessible introduction to the great economic thingers throughout history. Through the teachings of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and more, renowned economist Todd Buchholz shows how these age-old ideas still apply to our modern world. In this revised edition, Buchholz offers an i... View More...
Featuring brand new sections on the remarkable shifts in the world economy, this economic study is a relevant, entertaining, and fascinating guide for those seeking both a solid lesson on the development of economic theory throughout the past two hundred years and a balanced perspective of our current economic state on the brink of the millennium.
By applying age-old economic theories to contemporary issues, Todd Buchholz helps readers to see how the thoughts and writings of the great economists of the past have vital relevance to the dilemmas affecting all our lives today. View More...
If you read only one economics book this year, read this one."--Larry Summers, Secretary of the Treasury for President Clinton, Director of the National Economic Council for President Obama A must-read for students of economics, New Ideas from Dead Economists offers an entertaining and accessible introduction to the great economic thingers throughout history. Through the teachings of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and more, renowned economist Todd Buchholz shows how these age-old ideas still apply to our modern world. In this revised edition, Buchholz offers an i... View More...
Praised as "an entertaining and torrential flow of a book" by Nature magazine, The Big Thirst is a startling examination of the passing of the golden age of water and the shocking facts about how water scarcity will soon be a major factor in our lives. The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Rather than only three states of water--liquid, ice, and vapor--there is a fourth, "molecular water," fused into rock 400 miles deep in the Earth, and that's where most of the planet's water is found. Unlike most precious re... View More...
What happens when advances in technology allow many things to be produced for more or less nothing? And what happens when those things are then made available to the consumer for free? Chris Anderson considers a brave new world where the old economic certainties are being undermined by a growing flood of free goods. View More...