Liberty Fund
Liberty Fund was founded in 1960 by Pierre F. Goodrich, an Indianapolis lawyer and businessman, to the end that some hopeful contribution may be made to the preservation, restoration, and development of individual liberty through investigation, research, and educational activity.
Now available: On Executive Power in Great States, by Jacques Necker. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Aurelian Craiutu.
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For over four decades, Liberty Fund has made available some of the finest books in history, politics, philosophy, law, education, and economics—books of enduring value that have helped to shape ideas and events in man’s quest for liberty, order, and justice.
Featured Book On Executive Power in Great States
By Jacques Necker
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Aurelian Craiutu
Jacques Necker (1732–1804) was a Swiss statesman and financier who played a crucial role in French political life from 1776 to 1789. Born in Geneva, he was a devout Protestant who amassed considerable wealth as a successful banker. In October 1776, he was appointed as director of the Royal Treasury and, later, in June 1777, as director general of finances of France under Louis XVI. While in charge of the finances of the kingdom, his most famous decision, in 1781, was to make public the budget of France for the first time, a novel practice in an absolute monarchy.
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These resources are designed to further Liberty Fund’s educational activities. They include classic works in the tradition of limited government, as well as lively current discussions of how classical-liberal principles apply in today’s world.
EconTalk July 13, 2020
Josh Williams on Online Gaming, Blockchain, and Forte
Josh Williams, co-founder and CEO of the blockchain gaming company Forte, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of online gaming and the potential of a blockchain-based gaming platform to create market economies with property rights within online games.
AdamSmithWorks July 8, 2020
Law & Liberty July 13, 2020
Flaunting a Presumptuous Innocence
It shows moral arrogance to pass a breathtakingly severe judgment on your forebears and fail to imagine that your descendants won't do the same to you.
Law & Liberty July 13, 2020
The Little Sisters Win—For Now
The win for Little Sisters of the Poor isn't the nightmare the media describes. But in another way, it does point to a dysfunctional constitutional order.
Law & Liberty July 13, 2020
Despair in a Decadent Republic
Deaths of despair are related to questions of meaning and the psychological conditions for social malaise.
EconLog July 12, 2020
The Lockdowns Definitely Suppressed Economic Activity
Pryce Boeye’s Hungry Hobo sandwich shops’ sales on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River have been booming since the state reopened dining rooms in mid-May, while those he owns in still-closed Illinois languish.
The pattern is repeated across the Quad Cities, a river-straddling metro area of around 420,000 that includes Scott and Muscatine counties on the Iowa side, as well as Rock Island and Henry counties in Illinois. The contrasting state reopening policies have created two tracks in what had been a unified economy before the coronavirus pandemic.
The scene is playing out in other border communities around the country where workers and shoppers regularly cross state lines. The relatively stringent lockdown regime in Illinois compared with Iowa has created a clear shift in current spending patterns and potential longer-term consequences.
EconLog July 12, 2020
Could it have been much worse?
Toward the end of a recent podcast, Tyler Cowen remarked that the pandemic could have been much worse, and because we’ve been through this we’ll be much better prepared next time.
At first I agreed with both observations. But while I still believe that we’ll be much better prepared next time, I have doubts as to whether it could have been much worse. This might have been the worst possible epidemic that could possibly have hit the world in 2020. It all depends on what economists call “elasticity”, which means responsiveness of behavior to changes in incentives.
I don’t doubt for a moment that one can imagine viruses that are much more deadly than Covid-19, including SARS, AIDS and Ebola. But just because a virus has a higher case infection fatality rate (IFR) doesn’t necessarily mean it leads to a higher total death toll, or a longer economic depression. The damage depends on both the IFR and the number of cases. And in general, the number of cases will be inversely related to the IFR, other things equal.
AdamSmithWorks August 9, 2018
Part VII
Of Systems of Moral Philosophy