From the category archives:

Ideas on Liberty and The Freeman

A Year at FEE

February 1, 2003

Liberty
February 2003
by Mark Skousen
Is the sun setting on the world’s oldest freedom organization?
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is often called “America’s oldest freedom organization.” It predates the Institute for Humane Studies, the Cato Institute, and the Libertarian Party; its monthly magazine The Freeman (now Ideas on Liberty), was published for years before Reason or [...]

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From Poverty to Riches: Is There a Magic Elixir?

July 1, 2002

From The President’s Desk
Published in Ideas on Liberty
July 2002
by Mark Skousen
“The problem of making poor countries rich was much more difficult than we thought.”
—William Easterly, World Bank1
“If there is one formula for our success, it was that we were constantly studying how to make things work, or how to make them work better.”
—Lee Kuan Yew, [...]

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A Painless Way to Triple Your Savings

June 1, 2002

From The President’s Desk
Published in Ideas on Liberty
June 2002
by Mark Skousen
“The human mind is charming in its unreasonableness, its inveterate prejudices, and its waywardness and unpredictability.”
—LIN YUTANG1
“Behavioral” finance is the hot new field in the rapidly growing “imperial” science of economics. Consider the titles of recent books on the subject: Irrational Exuberance by Robert Shiller [...]

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One Capitalist’s Advice: Attract Attention!

November 1, 2001

November 2001
From the President’s Desk
Ideas on Liberty
by Mark Skousen
“Individualism, private property, the law of accumulation of wealth, and the law of competition . . . are the highest result of human experience, the soil in which society, so far, has produced the best fruit.” —ANDREW CARNEGIE’
A few days after my move to New York, I [...]

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Where Are the Best Schools in Austrian Economics?

July 1, 2001

Ideas On Liberty
Economics on Trial
July 2001
by Mark Skousen
“We must raise and train an army of fighters for freedom.”
—F. A. Hayek
Frequently students or parents approach me at investment or economics conferences with the question, “Can you recommend an undergraduate or graduate program in free-market economics?” With the explosive interest in a degree in economics, it’s [...]

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Pulling Down the Keynesian Cross

June 1, 2001

Ideas On Liberty
Economics on Trial
June 2001
by Mark Skousen
“The circle had come right round; it was as though Keynes had never been.”
-Robert Skidelsky1
“Textbooks have to be rewritten in the aftermath of each scientific revolution.”
-Thomas S. Kuhn2
In his third and final volume on John Maynard Keynes, Robert Skidelsky comes to the shocking conclusion that the Keynesian [...]

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It All Started with Adam

May 1, 2001

Ideas On Liberty
Economics on Trial
May 2001
by Mark Skousen
Adam Smith, that is. Having just completed writing a history of economics,1 I have concluded that, despite the protestations of Murray Rothbard and other detractors, the eighteenth-century moral philosopher and celebrated author of The Wealth of Nations deserves to be named the founding father of modern economics.
The [...]

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Social Security Reform: Lessons from the Private Sector

March 1, 2001

IDEAS ON LIBERTY
Economics on Trial
MARCH 2001
by Mark Skousen
“Of all social institutions, business is the only one created for the express purpose of making and managing change. Government is a poor manager.”
—Peter F. Drucker 1
In the ongoing debate over the privatization of Social Security, one story has been over-looked: The private business sector in the United [...]

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The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, Updated

November 1, 2000

Economics on Trial
Ideas on Liberty
November 2000
by Mark Skousen
“In [...]

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Having Their Cake

October 1, 2000

Economics on Trial
Ideas on Liberty
October 2000
Having Their Cake
by Mark Skousen
“The duty of ’saving’ became nine-tenths of virtue and the growth [...]

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