A Discussion of Oliver DeMille’s 1913 Chapter 1 “The Turning Point of Freedom” We know we have a much larger federal government than was originally designed by the framers of the U.S. Constitution, but how did that happen? Is it a natural result of growth in population or technology? Oliver…

A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 1 “The World is Pretty Rich, But Once was Poor” — In my teaching and research, I keep coming back to the question of why an economy grows, with the hope of that knowledge helping those that don’t. Can Ancient Greece Help Developing Economies? A Discussion of “Morality, Institutions and the Wealth of Nations: Some Lessons from ancient Greece”medium.com Why Countries Rich with Resources can be so Poor and How to Prevent It A Discussion of “Does Information Break the Political Resource Curse? Experimental Evidence from Mozambique”medium.com

Part 3 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 12 “Homer Economicus” Foster asserts that anti-capitalists have long feared that people’s desire to raise their standard of living would devolve into envy-driven conspicuous consumption that would trump virtue. (p. 264) Related to this criticism…

Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 12 “Homer Economicus” In the last blog, we explored Foster’s critique of behavioral economics, and now we will see how its incorrect diagnosis of the problems in economics has led to conclusions for more economic…

Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 12 “Homer Economicus” Foster turns his attention to the field of Behavioral Economics that gained a lot of attention in the early 2000’s. However, it is clear Foster is unimpressed. Two psychologists kicked the field…

Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 11 “The Darwin Wars” In the second half of the chapter, Foster turns to the origin of morality and posits it is not a recent innovation but something that is central to mankind. In the…

Part 1 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 11 “The Darwin Wars” Foster turns this chapter to an examination of the field of sociobiology, where evolutionary biology meets psychology, hoping to find answers to why we carry anti-capitalist views instinctively. Seeking the source…

Part 3 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 10 “The Rise and Fall and Rise of John Maynard Keynes” Just as the bad economy of the 1970s precipitated the end of Keynesianism and the rise of neoclassical economics, the 2008 financial crisis, the…

Part 2 of a Discussion of Peter Foster’s Why We Bite the Invisible Hand Chapter 10 “The Rise and Fall and Rise of John Maynard Keynes” Continuing on from the previous blog, we will look deeper into Keynesianism in the 20th century and what led to its fall and the…