By Vlad Tarko
Elinor Ostrom Introduction The commons are the typical example in which self-interested individual actions do not aggregate into beneficial collective outcomes, as judged by members of the community themselves. They are the main counter-example to Adam Smith's log...
By John Estill
While much has been written about entrepreneurship in business and economics publications, much less has been written about entrepreneurial failure. Some writers in the popular press have interesting things to say, such as Megan McArdle's The Up Side of Down: Why Failin...
By Paul Forrester
Henry George A Liberty Classics Book Review of Progress and Poverty, by Henry George.1 Henry George's Progress and Poverty (1879) was among the most important and widely read books published in the 19th century, but George's work and the single tax movemen...
By Art Carden
A Liberty Classic Book Review of Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour by Helmut Schoeck.1 I've been such a fool, Vassili. Man will always be man. There is no new man. We tried so hard to create a society that is equal, where there'd be nothing to ...
By Ryan Yonk and Ethan Yang
The contrast often presented between America and China is one where Beijing is a highly competent, well-oiled autocracy while the United States is a political circus held back by partisan drama. On the surface, and especially with recent news headlines, this may seem tr...
By Richard B. McKenzie
On April 1 of this year, California fast-food restaurant chains with sixty or more national locations (for example, McDonalds and Chipotle, but not Bill's Burgers or Dick Church's Diner or other off-brand restaurants in the state without national locations) were require...
By Rosolino Candela
A Liberty Classics Book Review of Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason: Text and Documents, by F.A. Hayek (edited by Bruce Caldwell). 1 According to F.A. Hayek, what are the theoretical and historical reasons for the tragedies of socialism that emerged ...
By Arnold Kling
... digital media not only enhance information exchange and render offline life obsolete—they also reverse literacy and retrieve orality. ... This book is about orality, which once was obsolesced by writing, and about literacy, which is now becoming obsoles...
By Gregory Caskey
To begin with a bit of trivia, who said the following line? "When you give roses to others, their fragrance lingers on your hand." If you guessed Cole Porter, you'd be wrong. Nor does this line hail from a wooden quote board for sale on Etsy. It was delivered by ...
By Arnold Kling
Similarly, to advocate colorblindness is not to pretend you don't notice race. To advocate colorblindness is to endorse an ethical principle: The colorblind principle: we should treat people without regard to race, both in our public policy and in our private lives...
By Richard Gunderman
H.G. Wells Best known today for science fiction novels such as The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells was in his own day widely regarded as a prophet. Trained in science, he predicted the wireless telephone, directed energy weapons...
By Pierre Lemieux
A Liberty Classics Book Review of Against Politics: On Government, Anarchy, and Order, by Anthony de Jasay.1 We cannot be against politics, especially in a democratic regime; isn't that obvious? In his 1997 book Against Politics: On Government, Anarchy, a...
By Rachael Behr LaRose
The assumption commonly prevails that effective healthcare provision, especially during public health disasters like pandemics, must come from top-down authorities. Yet, this assumption overlooks the reality that local communities actively and routinely orchestrate the ...
By Doug Bandow
As if Washington was not busy enough internationally, serious Korea analysts wonder if Northeast Asia could erupt in flames. North Korea is rewriting its constitution to drop plans for peaceful reunification with the Republic of Korea, declaring the South to be the Nort...
By Arnold Kling
Characteristically, Friedman had a contrarian take on the Washington consensus. Ironically, the turn toward markets gave new life to the classic institutions of the postwar managed economy, namely the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). No longer w...
By Samuel Gregg
A Book Review of Animal Spirits: The American Pursuit of Vitality from Camp Meeting to Wall Street, by Jackson Lears.1 When Alexis de Tocqueville visited the young American republic in the early 1830s, he immediately noticed a deep restlessness which char...