Donald J. Boudreaux

A Swollen River of Indebtedness

The first book that Nobel-laureate economist James Buchanan wrote is titled Public Principles of Public Debt. Published in 1958, at the zenith of Keynesianism’s ascendancy among economists, this book exposed […]

There Is No Such Creature as The People

Among the most important advances in the social sciences of the 20th century is Kenneth Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem. The full explanation of this theorem first appeared in Arrow’s 1951 book, […]

The Case Against Oren Cass

Conservative scholar Oren Cass wants to “redefine the economic orthodoxy that guides the nation’s politics and public policy.” He’s convinced that economists wrongly discount the importance of work while naively […]

Some Great Books for Stuffing Stockings

This is a lucky day for those of you who have procrastinated until the last minute to finish your Christmas shopping: I offer here a list of seven superb books […]

Government Intervention Is Unscientific

Sit in any time beyond the first month of a typical ECON 101 class and here’s what you’ll be taught: free markets work well, but only under conditions that seldom […]

Twenty Crazy Beliefs on Economics and Politics

Why do so many American Progressives, fearing that rich people abuse state power, aim to reduce the riches of rich people, instead of the state power that Progressives admit is […]

The Wonderful Surprises of Comparative Advantage

Human society is permeated with comparative advantage. When each person specializes in performing that task, or small set of tasks, for which he or she has a comparative advantage — […]

What Is Comparative Advantage?

An economic entity’s technical ability to produce some particular product is, by itself, irrelevant for determining if that entity should produce that product itself or, instead, acquire that product by first producing something else and then trading that something else for the product.