Peter Boettke Journalist Profile

Articles

California Bureaucrat Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

Oct 14, 2024 | econlib.org | David Henderson |Pierre Lemieux |Peter Boettke

The California Coastal Commission on Thursday rejected the Air Force’s plan to give SpaceX permission to launch up to 50 rockets a year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara County. “Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help the hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet,” Commissioner Gretchen Newsom said at the meeting in San Diego.
Is AI Dumber than a Cat? Some Related Points

Oct 13, 2024 | econlib.org | Pierre Lemieux |Peter Boettke |David Henderson

Why not replace the state (the whole apparatus of government) with an AI robot? It is not difficult to imagine that the bot would be more efficient than governments are, say, in controlling their budgets just to mention one example. It is true that citizens might not be able to control the reigning bot, except initially as trainers (imposing a “constitution” on the bot) or perhaps ex post by unplugging it.
Hayek's Nobel at 50

Oct 13, 2024 | econlib.org | Peter Boettke |David Henderson |Scott Sumner

Tomorrow, the Nobel Prize in Economic Science will be announced. Probably no single event is more responsible for the initial success of the efforts by Israel Kirzner and Murray Rothbard to generate a revival of interest in the Austrian School of Economics in the academic practice of economic science and scholarship than F. A. Hayek winning the Nobel Prize in 1974, following the South Royalton Conference just that past summer. I use italics above to emphasis the academic side of that argument.
Good as Gold

Sep 5, 2024 | fusionaier.org | Thomas Savidge |Peter Boettke |Alexander I. Salter

September 5, 2024By Thomas SavidgeOutside of some circles of monetary economists, August 15 often passes by unnoticed. It should be remembered because that date commemorates a massive overnight change in US monetary and fiscal policy. Fifty-three years ago, on August 15, 1971, President Nixon announced to the world that “I have directed Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets.” This “temporary suspension” is still in place today.
Peter Boettke & Chris Coyne on How to Run Wars

Jul 10, 2024 | mercatus.org | Peter Boettke

On this episode of the podcast, Peter Boettke interviews Chris Coyne on his latest book, How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite ,co-authored with Abigail R. Hall. How to Run Wars provides a satirical take on the logistics and ethical considerations involved in conducting wars, drawing inspiration from Bruce Winton Knight's How to Run a War.Chris discusses his motivations for writing the book, its contents, and his research agenda.
Richard Wagner

May 29, 2024 | mercatus.org | Mikayla Novak |Richard E. Wagner |Peter Boettke |Donald Boudreaux

Richard E. Wagner is the Hobart R. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University as well as a distinguished senior fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia in 1966.
Good Law & Economics, Bad Law & Political Economy

May 27, 2024 | mercatus.org | Peter Boettke

In recent years, a burgeoning literature under the intellectual umbrella of the “Law and Political Economy” (LPE) project has emerged, in response to an alleged disregard of the political and social embeddedness of both law and economics. The focus of our paper will be to render these assumptions explicit in order to argue twofold.
"Junk Fees" Typically Serve an Important Purpose

May 17, 2024 | econlib.org | David Henderson |Bruce Yandle |Peter Boettke

Charging extra for specific preferences, such as a seat selection on a flight, enables lower basic prices, increasing access to no-frills options for lower-income customers, while allowing businesses to customize their services to individual customers’ preferences. Airlines unbundle in-flight food and checked bags, for example, leading to more profit opportunities and lower base fares.
Professor Hugh H. Macaulay: A Tribute on His Centennial

May 17, 2024 | econlib.org | Bruce Yandle |Adam Smith |Ronald Coase |Peter Boettke

Click-a-ty-clack, click-a-ty-clack . . ., click-a-ty-clack. Those were the sounds that regularly echoed down the second-floor hallway of Clemson University’s Sirrine Hall in the 1980s and before. Those sounds of metal-on-metal could be expected by the economists on the floor at 10:00 in the morning, carrying a clear message: “Time for coffee!” The sounds came unmistakably from Professor Hugh Macaulay’s steel leg brace that he had worn since he suffered a bullet wound in France in World War II.
My Life as an Austrian Economist: My Philosophical Vision and the Critique of Scientism

May 17, 2024 | econlib.org | Peter Boettke |Carl Menger |Adam Smith |David Ricardo

As with any tale, it is useful to begin at the beginning. And in my instance, all my beginnings related to Austrian economics are found at Grove City College. How I ended up at Grove City is an extremely unlikely journey with zigs and zags, the probability of which defies all calculation. I was not a focused student in high school or even as I began my college career.