Library of Economics and Liberty

“There are two things you are better off not watching in the making: sausages and econometric estimates. This is a sad and decidedly unscientific state of affairs we find ourselves in. Hardly anyone takes data analyses seriously. Or perhaps more accurately, hardly anyone takes anyone else’s data analyses seriously.”

No rush, no noise, no one else on the golf course: solo golf is an entirely different game, offering physical, mental, and spiritual benefits that playing with others can’t. Listen as author and former editor of ESPN The Magazine Gary Belsky and EconTalk’s Russ Roberts discuss how golfing alone can create flow, develop physical mastery, and enhance self-awareness. Along the way, they explore what makes golf different from other sports, what it reveals about our character, and why even non-golfers... Читать дальше...

Why do factory seals matter? If you look at trading cards on eBay, you’ll find that factory-sealed sets, packs, and boxes command a premium over anything opened. If you have listened to any episode of EconTalk featuring Michael Munger, you will know that “the answer is transaction costs.”

Judy Shelton has earned media attention for her criticisms of Federal Reserve policy. In July of 2025, during an online interview with Steve Bannon, she accused Fed chair Jerome Powell of “setting himself up as some kind of an emperor” merely because he had tentatively predicted in his April remarks to the Economic Club of Chicago that then-proposed tariffs might result in price increases and slow growth.1

Sam Enright works on innovation policy at Progress Ireland, an independent policy think tank in Dublin, and runs a publication called The Fitzwilliam. Most relevant to us, on his personal blog, he writes a popular link roundup; what follows is an abridged version of his Links for February and Links for March.

One of my brothers recently joked that he would love to meet the person who first pitched gift cards. Who ever thought that consumers would agree to make their money less useful?

The Department of War wanted to deploy Anthropic’s Claude for “all lawful use.” What begins as a policy dispute between a tech company and the Department of War quietly unfolds into something far more unsettling. Listen as Dean Ball and EconTalk’s Russ Roberts trace the collision between Anthropic and the federal government over Claude’s use in classified military operations, exploring thorny questions about autonomous weapons, domestic mass surveillance, and whether a private company can demand... Читать дальше...

Centuries of argument have left a stubborn question unresolved: how much economic inequality is acceptable? Unlike inequalities rooted in race, gender, or disability—which typically attract broad moral condemnation—economic inequality in income, consumption, and wealth remains fiercely contested. That contestation does not result from a flaw in the debate; it is the debate’s defining feature.

Mancur Olson’s The Rise and Decline of Nations doesn’t provide a particularly optimistic picture: once your nation has been stable for a while, and may even have risen to wealth, it becomes more and more vulnerable to “institutional sclerosis.” This happens because small groups are better able to overcome free-riding, resulting in their ability to effectively skew the system towards their own interests. As more and more of these groups emerge, survive and are able to reap their rents—protected... Читать дальше...

There are at least two meanings for “dominance” in relation to monetary and fiscal policy.