Deirdre McCloskey talks with Russ Roberts about how markets affect the ethics of individuals, and refutes the commonly-held belief that capitalism can be ethically damaging by examining the works of Adam Smith and historical examples of ethics growing alongside free…
What did Keynesian and Austrian economists predict about the housing bubble and the recession to come? This video shows the predictions of economists from both Keynesian and Austrian perspectives, thus highlighting the differences between the two schools of economics.
Cowen’s evaluation of Austrian Business Cycle Theory, which focuses on how interest rates and government policy can incentivize investors and entrepreneurs to focus resources in areas which otherwise would have been avoided.
Cowen’s evaluation of Keynesian Theory, which claims that economic slumps are a result of falling aggregate demand, or the sum of consumption, investment, and government spending.
Tyler Cowen evaluates the economic theory popularized by Milton Friedman that claims that money supply fluctuations drive the rate of inflation and deflation by looking at historical and practical examples of its usage.
This article in the Wall Street Journal describes the economic decisions made throughout the 1990s made by Larry Summers, then President-Elect Obama’s choice for who would be in charge of the National Economic Council. The Compleat Summers (Text)
Mark LeBar examines government’s special nature, and in considering why government institutions are so special we can decide what the limits of government should actually be.
Something as seemingly simple as a pencil is created through unimaginable knowledge that no single person can possibly have, making a case for a society that lets all creative energies flow freely. I, Pencil (Text)
Hayek argues that an decentralized market is the most efficient market available because no one actor could possibly know everything that is otherwise communicated through prices. The Use of Knowledge in Society (Text)
Mike Munger discusses why organizations use firms despite the efficiency of markets and how those firms help make economic decisions.
Many of the societal norms we all follow today were not the product of deliberate planning, but a product of spontaneous order. Tom W. Bell uses the works of Adam Smith and Friedrich Hayek to explain spontaneous order and how…
How do incentives affect individuals and the choices they make? A discussion on how institutions influence the decisions that all individuals make through the incentives they offer.
It’s easy to understand that incentives influence policy-making decisions, but determining all the ways that a policy could influence individual behavior is more difficult. Professor Angela Dills explains the importance of looking at not only the obvious incentives that arise…
Professor Mario Villarreal-Diaz uses marginal analysis, or examining the benefits of choosing one option compared to the costs of that option, to explain why diamonds cost more than water, and how we use both marginal analysis and opportunity cost to…
Mario Villarreal-Diaz explains the important concept of opportunity cost, which is what is given up when one choice is pursued over another.
Don Bordeaux explains that a product’s value does not lie in the amount of money or resources that went into creating it, but rather the subjective value that a consumer puts on that product.
A short video explaining why destruction does not create economic prosperity.
A comprehensive, ground-up introduction to deductive economic science. Not charts and graphs, but the fundamental principles of the study of rational human behavior from the basic actions of a single individual to the complex world of money and markets.
An introduction to the often counter-intuitive science of basic economic thinking. Why do seat-belts kill? Why does popcorn cost more at the movies?
"There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must…