Ideas on Liberty and The Freeman

Adam Smith Reveals His (Invisible) Hand!

March 9, 2011

Today is the anniversary of the publication of Adam Smith’s most famous work,  ”The Wealth of Nations” (March 9, 1776). To celebrate this important day, I’ve written an article for FEE on Dan Klein’s discovery about the “deliberate centrality” of the invisible hand in Smith’s work, and what it all means: www.thefreemanonline.org/headline/invisible-hand-middle/ It will appear in print in [...]

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Consumer Spending Doesn’t Drive the Economy, Investment Does

May 17, 2010

The Freeman Foundation for Economic Education May 17, 2010 “Consumer spending makes up more than 70 percent of the economy, and it usually drives growth during economic recoveries.” –“Consumers Give Boost to Economy,”  New York Times, May 1 Every quarter, when the government releases its latest GDP figures, we hear the familiar refrain: “What the [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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