Tag Archives: economics

Toward a Truly Free Market

Posted on January 18, 2014 by smellincoffee

Toward a Truly Free Market: A Distributist Perspective on the Role of Government, Taxes, Health Care, Deficits, and More© 2011 John C. Medaille  282 pages  “I been a-wonderin’ why we can’t do that all over. All work together for our own … Continue reading →

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small is beautiful

Posted on January 14, 2014 by smellincoffee

small is beautiful: economics as if people mattered© 1973 E.F. Schumacher288 pages Get big or get out, said the Secretary of Agriculture to American farmers in the 1970s. But as the consequences of widespread industrialism and general upheaval began to … Continue reading →

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Home Economics

Posted on September 28, 2013 by smellincoffee

Home Economics© 1987 Wendell Berry192 pages The term economics originally referred to household management, and to Wendell Berry, that’s what it should remain still. Home Economics collects essays on the meaning and relation of economy to human life. In it, … Continue reading →

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Free to Choose, Born to Buy (and Left to Die)

Posted on September 24, 2013 by smellincoffee

In the past two weeks I’ve been reading a series of books which connected together despite being on disparate subjects. Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose, published in the 1970s, argues for a completely free market — that is, one with … Continue reading →

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Radicals for Capitalism

Posted on September 1, 2013 by smellincoffee

Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement© 2008 Brian Doherty740 pages Libertarianism has been in the news recently: Julian Assange referred to its rising wave in the Republican party as America’s best hope for halting … Continue reading →

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Basic Economics

Posted on August 14, 2013 by smellincoffee

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy © 2010 Thomas Sowell 789 pages (4th edition) Basic Economics is a sweeping introduction  to the fundamental principles of market economics and their application to  constituent elements of the local and global economy like … Continue reading →

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The Choice

Posted on July 25, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism© 2006 Russ Roberts128 pages  Imagine that George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life had wrestled not with the impulse to throw himself off of a bridge, but with the decision whether … Continue reading →

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The Price of Everything

Posted on July 15, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Price of Everything© 2009 Russell D. Roberts 224 pages The Price of Everything is an economics novel about the virtues of prices and markets, explaining how they work to maximize efficiency and spread goods out among those who need … Continue reading →

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The Invisible Heart

Posted on May 25, 2013 by smellincoffee

The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance© 2001 Russ Roberts282 pages The Invisible Heart is an oddly sweet argument introduction to the thinking behind classically liberal economics, taking the form of a dialogue between one Sam Gordon, an economics professor, and Laura … Continue reading →

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Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet

Posted on April 13, 2013 by smellincoffee

Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet352 pages© 2008 Michael T. Klare For much of the 20th century, a handful of industrialized countries enjoyed access to a seemingly infinite supply of oil. But a century of economic progress has seen global demand for … Continue reading →

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