A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 8 “Solution: #1 Entrepreneurship” DeMille notes the entrepreneurial spirit is a part of the American culture, but it can be threatened by an ever-growing federal government. He says the founders were considering what type of national character the new country was going to…
Tag: Free Trade
Bourgeois Equality
Attitudes towards Bourgeois Betterment Historically Hostile
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 45 “Talk had been Hostile to Betterment” Dr. McCloskey opens this chapter with a story of a Mayan man from Guatemala, Oscar Chiquito, who had recently graduated from university despite long odds. And the long odds were due largely to his father’s hostility to…
Microeconomics
Should You Buy Fair Trade Coffee?
A Discussion of “The Economics of Fair Trade” Fair Trade is a movement to ensure producers receive higher prices for their goods, not only for coffee, but that may be the best-known example. Dragusanu, Giovannucci, and Nunn (2014) explore the Fair Trade coffee market to see if it achieves its goals:…
Macroeconomics
Do Economists Go Too Far Arguing for Free Trade?
A Discussion of “Deconstructing the Argument for Free Trade” “If all the economists were laid end to end, they still would not reach a conclusion.” “What happens when you get 10 economists in a room? You get 11 opinions.” Or the old story of President Truman wishing for a one-armed…