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The Hayek Century
Economist and Hoover honorary fellow Friedrich Hayek spent seven decades extolling the supremacy of capitalism over socialism. For most of those decades, Hayek was a voice in the wilderness. Yet as John Cassidy argues, by the end of his life Hayek was vindicated to such an extent that "it is hardly an exaggeration to refer to the twentieth century as the Hayek century."
Bruce Caldwell Delivers Keynote Address On Hayek For Library & Archives Workshop On Political Economy
On Friday, June 24, the second annual Hoover Institution Library & Archives Workshop on Political Economy hosted a public lecture by renowned scholarBruce Caldwell, professor of economics at Duke University and director of Duke's Center for the History of Political Economy.
The Essence of Hayek
The twenty-one essays in this book provide an overview of the contributions of Nobel laureate and Hoover Institution honorary fellow Friedrich A. von Hayek to the fields of economics, political theory, history, and philosophy.
The Courage of Friedrich Hayek
William F. Buckley Jr. reflects on Friedrich Hayek’s invaluable contributions to the fight against socialism—a fight that was still very much under way when Buckley delivered these remarks a quarter of a century ago.
When Economics Was Young
David R. Henderson on Keynes Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics by Nicholas Wapshott
Paul Ryan’s Intellectual Muse
We Are Not All Keynesians Now
Rhymes with "Recession"
Hoover fellow Russell Roberts is using rap music to make the dismal science far less dismal. By Charles Lindsey.
The Joy of Freedom
Why ideas really do matter. By Hoover fellow David R. Henderson.
Remembering Karl Popper
A reflection on the life of former Hoover fellow Karl Popper, one of the past century’s greatest thinkers. By Piers Norris Turner.
The Next Great Leap
The Western media tell us that China’s leaders haven’t changed much in the past twenty years, and they may well be right. What has changed is the China around them. By Hoover media fellow William McGurn.
The Economist's Pantheon
Home Economics
Making Room for Burke and Hume
Why shouldn’t American universities give conservative ideas their due? By Peter Berkowitz.
Capitalism and its Discontents: The Adam Smith Address
A review of episodes in economic and intellectual history indicates the superiority of a limited government market economy over the alternative models of economic organization. The siren calls of pundits, politicians, and even some economists in favor of communist central planning during the Great Depression; market socialism after World War II; and, more recently, massive welfare states and/or extensive government micromanagement of markets each ran afoul of their own problems and comparisons to the limited government (based on sound criteria) capitalist model. The limited government capitalist model, once again under attack from those who would greatly expand the role of government, needs its defenders, as the alternative models have proven historically, intellectually, and practically bankrupt.
Populist-in-Chief
It’s the Culture, Stupid
Trial of a Thousand Years
Behind the headlines lies an old and basic question: in the clash between Islamism and the nation-state, who will win? By Charles Hill.
Inflation and Its Discontents
This essay discusses the inflation of the 1970s and the disinflations of the 1980s and 1990s. It provides historical and intellectual history perspectives on these events. It argues that the consensus view of economists on inflation and its costs has changed more than on any other subject in the past thirty years. As late as 1980, many economists argued that the cost of inflation was low and that the cost of disinflation so great that it was better to live with 10 or 12 percent inflation than bear the temporarily higher unemployment and lost output that would accompany a disinflation.
Fortunately, Federal Reserve Board chairmen Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan engineered two rounds of disinflation, first from 12.0 percent to 4.5 percent and then to 2.5 percent. Although there were costs--a severe recession in 1981–82 and a not-so-soft landing in 1990–91--the low and relatively stable inflation of the 1980s and 1990s has been a major factor in a long boom in the United States, two long expansions interrupted by a short, mild recession. And economists' thinking about the costs and consequences of high inflation has shifted to the view that stable low inflation, like the lowest possible tax rates and minimum necessary regulation, is a fundamental pillar of maximizing sustained long-run growth.