EconLib Newsletter

November 2019


'Tis the Season for Nobel Laureates
Hello, friends! Thank you for continuing to join us as we continue our journey of exploration of our world through the lens of economics.

This past month, our world gained three new Nobel laureates. Abhijit Banerjee ([link removed]) , Esther Duflo ([link removed]) and Michael Kremer ([link removed]) shared the 2019 award “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”

At Econlib, we're fortunate to house a great deal of information on the list of laureates, often through direct interaction with them. Banerjee, for example, is a past guest on EconTalk ([link removed]) .

Other Nobel laureates who have appeared on EconTalk include Paul Romer, ([link removed]) Richard Thaler, ([link removed]) Angus Deaton, ([link removed]) Eugene Fama ([link removed]) , Alvin Roth ([link removed]) , Edmund Phelps ([link removed]) , and Vernon Smith ([link removed]) . And these aren't the only laureates to have appeared, but we think you get the picture.

To learn about some other laureates, you might also check out some of our Econlib videos. Here you can find video interviews with Milton Friedman ([link removed]) , James Buchanan ([link removed]) , and Gary Becker, ([link removed]) among others. Here you can find complementary questions for discussion, as well as links to many related resources.

We have so many resources on the laureate tradition, by this time next month we'll have an all-new Econlib Guide to showcase them. We hope you'll check back then. Until then, thanks for reading, and fee free to drop us a line with your feedback anytime at [email protected]. We love to hear from you.

EconLib Feature Articles, November 2019


** How We Failed Our Economics Students and Caused Low Government Approval Ratings
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by Russell S. Sobel


Quite simply, the public is, and has generally always been disappointed in government action and performance (at least when we are not at war).

It should be no wonder the average U.S. college-educated citizen feels this way... What a disservice we as economists have done to our students! For those readers who have had this type of education in your principles of economics curriculum, I apologize. We, as a profession, have misled you. And for any economics instructors reading, let me tell you how you can do a better job for your students.



Read More. ([link removed])

[link removed]

Inside Leviathan: Lessons from Gordon Tullock’s Bureaucracy

By Stefanie Haeffele and Anne Hobson

Bureaucracy has a reputation of being a ‘necessary evil’ in modern western society.

While bureaucracy is at the core of many of our complaints, it is also the hierarchical administrative structure that makes sure large companies and governmental agencies can grow in scale and scope, efficiently pay all of their employees, and comply with proper accounting practices. Understanding the capabilities and limitations of bureaucracy is, therefore, key to understanding the opportunities and challenges that organizations face.
([link removed]) Read More. ([link removed])


** Romance and Reality: A review of Romance of the Rails by Randal O’Toole
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** by David R. Henderson

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O’Toole, a long-time fan of railroads, puts his fandom aside and shows what a disaster government subsidies to, and regulations of, rail transportation have been.

His bottom line is that in case after case, governments have turned the clock back on transportation, resisting and trying to reverse its progress.

Read More. ([link removed])


** How Democratic Capitalism Works
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by Arnold Kling


Defenders of the liberal order fear authoritarian populism on the right as well as an illiberal left that, in the name of justice, is willing to suppress speech and turn to socialism.

Iversen and Soskice offer a much more optimistic outlook. They see democratic capitalism as a self-healing system that has survived more than a century of wars and crises.

Read More. ([link removed])

FEATURED ECONLOG POSTS
Featured Post: Pierre Lemieux, American Sanctions: Why Foreigners Obey ([link removed])

Why are international sanctions decreed by the US government obeyed by the targeted “sanctioned persons,” who are foreign nationals generally out of reach of penalties from American authorities? The answer is simple but apparently unknown to many people. The sanctioned persons are not expected to do anything to obey. What the sanctions do is to prohibit Americans (as well as nationals of third countries) from dealing with the foreign sanctioned persons (which include individuals and entities), and the criminal penalties target Americans.

More Recent Posts
* Scott Sumner, C ([link removed]) an tariffs have a deflationary impact? ([link removed])
* Pierre Lemieux, American Sanctions: Why Foreigners Obey ([link removed])
* John Alcorn, P ([link removed]) rohibitions: Mind Drugs and Policy ([link removed])
* Amy Willis, Introduction to Economics- Best Books? ([link removed])
* Sarah Skwire, H ([link removed]) ow Crackpotted is Your Economics? ([link removed])
* David Henderson, Getting Rich on Low Pay ([link removed])
* G. Patrick Lynch, Rent Seeking: Not Just a Public Problem ([link removed])
* Michael Munger, Students Selling Notes ([link removed])

FEATURED ECONTALK EPISODES
Ryan Holiday on Stillness is the Key ([link removed])
Ryan Holiday ([link removed]) talks about his latest book, Stillness Is the Key, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts ([link removed]) . Holiday explores how stillness--the cultivation of serenity and focus--can affect how we live and how we perceive life. Topics discussed include the performance artist Marina Abramovic, Winnie the Pooh, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame induction speech. Holiday also explains how he keeps track of information and how his system makes it easier for him to write his books.

How can you prepare yourself for stillness???Don't miss our EconTalk Extra on Holiday's episode, Cultivating Stillness ([link removed]) , also at Econlib.

And if you're interested in the sort of books Holiday reads, join us at #EconlibReads ([link removed]) this month as we explore Josef Pieper's Leisure: The Basis of Culture ([link removed]) , which Holiday has mentioned in each of his interviews.

More Recent Episodes:
* S ([link removed]) abine Hossenfelder on Physics, Reality, and Lost in Math ([link removed])
* A ([link removed]) ndrew McAfee on More from Less ([link removed])
* S ([link removed]) usan Houseman on Manufacturing ([link removed])
* M ([link removed]) ichele Gelfand on Rule Makers, Rule Breakers ([link removed])

FEATURED CEE ENTRIES
Featured Entry: Friedrich August Hayek ([link removed]) biography

If any twentieth-century economist was a Renaissance man, it was Friedrich Hayek. He made fundamental contributions in political theory, psychology, and economics. In a field in which the relevance of ideas often is eclipsed by expansions on an initial theory, many of his contributions are so remarkable that people still read them more than fifty years after they were written.

Hayek was the best-known advocate of what is now called Austrian economics ([link removed]) . He was, in fact, the only major recent member of the Austrian school who was actually born and raised in Austria.
* See also Socialism ([link removed]) , by Robert Heilbroner
* F.A. Hayek and the Rebirth of Classical Liberalism ([link removed]) , by John N. Gray
* Information ([link removed]) , by Joseph E. Stiglitz
* Marginalism ([link removed]) , by Steven E. Rhoads
* See also Economics as a Coordination Problem: The Contributions of Friedrich A. Hayek ([link removed]) , by Gerald P. O'Driscoll
* See also Rehabilitating Self-Help: Why Hayek Was Wrong about Samuel Smiles ([link removed]) , by Roger Donway
* See also The Role of the Economist in a Free Society: The Art of Political Economy ([link removed]) , by Peter Boettke
* John Maynard Keynes ([link removed]) biography

"Man is an animal that bargains," said Smith. Our commercial interactions help us further our individual interests and civilize us at the same time. How is the free market necessary for Smith's "system of natural liberty?"

Watch An Animal That Trades ([link removed]) at AdamSmithWorks.org ([link removed]) .
Watch. Think. Discuss. Learn.

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