Best of
Economics

1981

The Ethics of Liberty


Murray N. Rothbard - 1981
    Murray N. Rothbard's classic The Ethics of Liberty stands as one of the most rigorous and philosophically sophisticated expositions of the libertarian political position.What distinguishes Rothbard's book is the manner in which it roots the case for freedom in the concept of natural rights and applies it to a host of practical problems. An economist by profession, Rothbard here proves himself equally at home with philosophy. And while his conclusions are radical--that a social order that strictly adheres to the rights of private property must exclude the institutionalized violence inherent in the state--his applications of libertarian principles prove surprisingly practical for a host of social dilemmas, solutions to which have eluded alternative traditions.The Ethics of Liberty authoritatively established the anarcho-capitalist economic system as the most viable and the only principled option for a social order based on freedom. This edition is newly indexed and includes a new introduction that takes special note of the Robert Nozick-Rothbard controversies.

Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation


Amartya Sen - 1981
    The author develops the alternative method of analysis--the 'entitlement approach'--concentrating on ownership and exchange, not on food supply. The book also provides a general analysis ofthe characterization and measurement of poverty. Various approaches used in economics, sociology, and political theory are critically examined. The predominance of distributional issues, including distribution between different occupation groups, links up the problem of conceptualizing poverty withthat of analyzing starvation.

Epistemological Problems of Economics


Ludwig von Mises - 1981
    In this treatise, he argues that the core intellectual errors of statism, socialism, protectionism, racism, irrationalism can be found in a revolt against economic logic and its special character. Epistemological Problems of Economics was original published in 1933, a period when the social sciences and economic policy were undergoing upheaval. The classical view of economics as a deductive science, along with the laissez-faire policies implied by that view, were being displaced by positivism and economic planning. Mises set out to put the classical view on a firmer foundation. In so doing, he examines a range of philosophical problems associated with economics. He goes further to delineate the scope of the general science of human action. This treatise, out of print for many years, is now brought back by the Mises Institute in a 3rd edition, with a comprehensive introduction by Jörg Guido Hülsmann, senior fellow of the Mises Institute. He observes that "the great majority of contemporary economists, sociologists, political scientists, and philosophers are either completely unaware of Mises's contributions to the epistemology of the social sciences or think they can safely neglect dealing with them. They are in error. One can ignore a thinker, but the fundamental problems of social analysis remain. There will be no progress in these disciplines before the mainstream has fully absorbed and digested Mises's ideas."

Gold, Peace, and Prosperity: The Birth of a New Currency


Ron Paul - 1981
    In that sense, it is the perfect conversation starter, and it could inspire more reading and activism for sound money. Author Ron Paul has been the leading champion of sound money in the Congress. He explains why sound money has meant the gold standard. The monograph is written in the clearest possible terms with the goal of explaining the basics of paper money and its effects of inflation, business cycles, and government growth. He maps out a plan to bring about a dollar that is as good as gold, one that would be protected against manipulation by government and central bankers. Part of that strategy is the minting of a new gold one but the more far-reaching plan involves a redefinition of the dollar and complete monetary competition. This monograph first appeared in 1981, and it has been in wide distribution ever since. But we've never had an edition this beautiful, this affordable, and this handy.

Wealth and Poverty


George Gilder - 1981
    In this acclaimed work, Gilder offers an illuminating discussion of how to increase wealth and curtail poverty, arguing that most welfare programs only serve to keep the poor in poverty as victims of welfare dependency.

Social Problems


Henry George - 1981
    George's ragings against the corrupting influence of money and power in politics, the ever-widening gap between rich and poor, rampant unemployment, and other pressing societal matters are not only passionate and muckraking, they also offer proposals for righting wrongs, making George a thinker of continuing importance in today's still-unequal world.ALSO FROM COSIMO: George's Progress and Poverty, The Science of Political Economy, A Perplexed Philosopher, Protection or Free Trade, and The Condition of Labor

Paper Money


George Goodman - 1981
    If times have been so good, why do we feel so bad2. Why not call up the economists3. Apocalyptic fiction4. The chilling symbol: A wheelbarrow full of money5. Why houses become more than houses6. The proliferating dollar: How the key currency got debased7. How OPEC started, and grew, and engineered the greatest transfer of wealth in world history8. Why the "energy crisis" is misnamed, and why it is a financial threat no matter what the name9. The Saudi connection: The Kingdom and the power10. Recycling the petrodollars: Treacherous seas, gale-force winds, fire!11. The stock market: What do we do on Monday morning?12. What paper money meansNotesBibliographyIndex

Economic Security in Islam


يوسف القرضاوي - 1981
    The author depicts the basic principles of the Islamic Economic System in the light of the Holy Qur'an and the Sunnah. He also offers a comparative study of the economic systems functioning under the three ideologies viz., Communism, Capitalism and Islam, contrasting them objectively and establishing the superiority of the latter with convincing arguments. Capitalistic and Communism Ideologies have proven to be lacking in giving mankind the much needed peace and security. These ideologies are rather fatal in the peace and progress of humanity. While the Economic System gifted by Islam, like its laws and orders are relevant to all other social disciplines, can safely be called universal law. It works in any kind of society. It is a system of brotherhood and mutual love and affection. It never favours class-struggle and hatred. It provides real peace, safety and tranquility to mankind.

A Life in Our Times


John Kenneth Galbraith - 1981
    . . . As entertainment, the book is a total success."--The New York Times Book Review"Absorbing and irresistible."--The New Yorker"A highly perceptive commentary on all our yesterdays . . . anecdotal, amusing, animated and above all, illuminating."--John Barkham Reviews"An enjoyable book, full of fun, full of wisdom, and full of rare insights into the history of our times."--The New Republic"A delightfully teeming book . . . [John Kenneth] Galbraith's comic voice is a distinctive and durable literary achievement."--Atlantic Monthly

Structure and Change in Economic History


Douglass C. North - 1981
    North's investigation is the question of property rights, the arrangements individuals & groups have made thru history to deal with the fundamental economic problem of scarce resources. In six theoretical chapters, North examines the structure of economic systems, outlines an economic theory of the state & the ideologies that undergird various modes of economic organization, & then explores the dynamic forces such as new technologies that cause institutions to adapt in order to survive. With this analytical framework in place, major phases in Western history come under careful reappraisal, from the origins of agriculture & the neolithic revolution thru the political economy of the ancient & medieval worlds to the industrial revolution & the economic transformations of the 20th century. Structure & Change in Economic History is a work that will reshape many established explanations of the growth of the west.

The Ultimate Resource


Julian L. Simon - 1981
    The description for this book, The Ultimate Resource, will be forthcoming.

Following Christ in a Consumer Society: The Spirituality of Cultural Resistance


John F. Kavanaugh - 1981
    In an era of fraud, corruption, and the relentless celebration of image over substance, the message of this perennial best-seller is more timely than ever.

Four Lectures on Marxism


Paul M. Sweezy - 1981
    One of the twentieth century's foremost Marxian economists discusses the dialectical method, the contradictions of capitalism, and the future of Marxism.

Capitalism and the State in Modern France: Renovation and Economic Management in the Twentieth Century


Richard F. Kuisel - 1981
    

Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion


P.T. Bauer - 1981
    Bauer challenges widely held views about economic development, colonialism, the foreign aid process, the goal of egalitarianism and the population explosion.

Economic Development In The Third World


Michael P. Todaro - 1981
    

The Economics of Money and Banking


Lester Vernon Chandler - 1981
    

Structural Change and Economic Growth: A Theoretical Essay on the Dynamics of the Wealth of Nations


Luigi L. Pasinetti - 1981
    The conditions for full employment and full capacity utilisation are examined when prices are stable and when there is inflation. This approach is carried out, not in terms of input-output relations, as has become customary in multisector models, but rather in terms of vertically integrated sectors. This makes it possible to analyse the economic growth process in terms of the structural dynamics of production, of prices and of employment. Remarkable implications are drawn for a surprisingly large number of theoretical problems, which have been under discussion since Adam Smith: from price theory to the theory of rates of profit and the rates of interest; from production theory to the theories of fluctuating growth, ever-changing composition of output, choice of technique and international trade.

Markets And Minorities Paper


Thomas Sowell - 1981
    

The Voegelinian Revolution: A Biographical Introduction


Ellis Sandoz - 1981
    This is the first full-scale treatment of his inquiry into the reality of man's political existence. It includes close readings of the texts, with Voegelin's own comments on them interspersed, offering a thorough explication of the philosopher's quest.Incorporating an "Autobiographical Memoir" prepared in collaboration with Voegelin especially for the volume, Ellis Sandoz interweaves the events of this great thinker's life with the philosophical inquiry to which that life has been devoted. Among the uniquely engaging biographical subjects covered are Voegelin's reminiscences of his involvement with such seminal minds as Max Weber, and with Karl Kraus, Hans Kelsen, and other lights of Vienna's intellectual community of the 1920s and 1930s; a full discussion of his early responses to national socialism and his escape from the Anschluss in 1938; and a summary of his early years in America, with particular attention to the years at Louisiana State University with Cleanth Brooks, Robert Penn Warren, and Robert Heilman.Carefully analyzing Voegelin's contribution to our understanding of ourselves, Sandoz convincingly argues that Voegelin's achievement is revolutionary. He emphasizes the common sense running through Voegelin's thought, and reveals how Voegelin reached a new analysis of reality and provides us with a new science of human affairs. Sandoz does not reveal the "truth to end the quest for truth," but shows how such "stop history" answers are defective. Exploring the meaning of that "first truth" as it has been intellectually and spiritually unraveled by one of our century's leading thinkers, Voegelinian Revolution shows anyone interested in politics and human affairs how to follow Voegelin's path. This book will be of interest to historians, political theorists, students of philosophy and religion, and educated readers concerned about the plight of American/Western civilization and looking for a new view on our current "crisis."

Evolutionary Economics


Kenneth E. Boulding - 1981
    It looks at commodities, for example, as if they were a species in the social ecosystem. Boulding describes his new model with clarity and wit, showing its roots in classical economics and exploring the prospects of an evolutionary approach for bettering human conditions.

Building a Sustainable Society


Lester R. Brown - 1981
    For more than seventeen centuries its population grew steadily until suddenly, around A.D. 900, the society collapsed. Within decades the population fell to one-tenth its previous level. The apparent reason: soil erosion.

Public Finance: A Normative Theory


Richard W. Tresch - 1981
    Through its concentration on the microeconomic theory of the public sector in the context of capitalist market economics it addresses the subjects traditionally at the heart of public sector economics, including public good theory, theory of taxation, welfare analysis, externalities, tax incidence, cost benefit analysis, and fiscal federalism. Its goal of providing a foundation, rather than attempting to present the most recent scholarship in detail, makes this Second Edition both a valuable text and a resource for professionals.

The Oppressed Middle: Politics of Middle Management: Scenes from Corporate Life


Earl Shorris - 1981
    

Fei Xiaotong and Sociology in Revolutionary China


R. David Arkush - 1981
    Trained in London under Malinowski, Fei Xiaotong achieved eminence in the 1930s and 1940s for his pioneering studies of Chinese peasant life and for his popular articles, which stirred a wide audience in China to an awareness of social and political problems. A non-Marxist who came to sympathize with the Communists, Fei was gradually constrained in his activities after the Revolution until, in the 1950s, a massive propaganda campaign vilified him as a bourgeois rightist intellectual. Almost twenty years of silence and disgrace followed. Only recently, following the death of Mao, has Fei suddenly reemerged as a leader in the effort to revitalize the social sciences in China. The story of Fei's life told here is, in a sense, the story of Westernized intellectuals in China at a time of peasant revolution. His writings enunciate the views of a sensitive observer of Chinese and Western society during that period of dramatic change.

Labor, Class, and the International System (Studies in Social Discontinuity)


Alejandro Portes - 1981
    

Resettling America: Energy, Ecology, & Community


Gary J. Coates - 1981
    

The McNamara Years at the World Bank: Major Policy Addresses of Robert S. McNamara, 1968-1981


Robert S. McNamara - 1981