You might have read the story about the Socialist Alarm Clock. Here’s one version. A friend who wishes to remain anonymous sent his libertarian version and asked me to post it: This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock built by the ingenuity of millions of individuals all working for their own gain,...
Read More »

Here’s John Papola, one of the people behind the Keynes-Hayek Rap. On the Mises Blog, Jeff Tucker discusses Papola’s talk. Roger Garrison’s Austrian Business Cycle Theory lecture–which is the best self-contained discussion of the basics available anywhere–can be found on the Mises Institute’s YouTube Channel, and his slides can be downloaded from his website.

Reposted from Division of Labour: Quoth a Facebook friend, in linking this piece about a proposed ban on salt in New York restaurants: “Just when I thought people protesting the trans fat ban using a slippery slope argument were being ridiculous, some jackass goes & proves them right. Art Carden, enjoy the sweet salty...
Read More »

James Otteson speaks at the 2010 FEE Homeschool Debate Tournament on Karl Marx v. Adam Smith (HT: James Otteson). The Classical Liberal Tradition: Marx v. Smith from FEE on Vimeo.

I just found out that my paper “Economic Progress and Entrepreneurial Innovation: Case Studies from Memphis” was accepted by the Southern Journal of Entrepreneurship. The revised version is here. The abstract: Entrepreneurial innovation encourages economic progress, and an institutional climate that encourages risk taking, rewards success, and weeds out failure is essential to a...
Read More »

The idea that markets are efficient has come under fire in recent months. Can we be confident that market participants will make repeated, systematic errors? Consider an example. We were taking a walk in our neighborhood a few days ago and came across an office chair that one of our neighbors had put by...
Read More »

The Mises Institute has made available, at a price of $0, audio recordings of some of Murray Rothbard’s microeconomics lectures from 1986. The discussions of price controls and the economics of oil are very interesting.

In prepping for my appearance on Radio Free Market this afternoon I’ve done some thinking about society’s search for Great Leaders and Great Men. This made me think about a recent post on Aid Watch by William Easterly that everyone should read and a few passages in Democracy in Deficit, which I’m ashamed to...
Read More »

Carden, Art and Robert A. Lawson. 2009. Human Rights and Economic Liberalization, under review at Business and Politics. This paper has made the rounds at a handful of conferences and is finally available. Thanks to everyone who has offered comments and suggestions. The abstract: Using several case studies and data from the Economic Freedom...
Read More »

Last week, I spoke to a class at Idlewild Presbyterian Church on the economics of drug prohibition. My notes are below. Cross-posted at Division of Labour.