Econlib

Econlib releases three to four new articles and columns about economics every month. These fresh pieces are publicly accessible on the first Monday of each month. All the articles and columns featured on Econlib are specially created for the Library of Economics and Liberty by esteemed professors, researchers, and journalists from around the globe. Every article and column is available online for free, allowing anyone to read them. Many of these writings spark discussions and debates in our blog, EconLog. If you have any questions regarding reprints or translations, please feel free to reach out to us.

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Inflation and the Demand for Money: The Confederacy in the Civil War

1 week ago | econlib.org | John Phelan

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the Confederacy, like any government in any situation, had three sources of money: taxing, borrowing, or printing. TaxingThe Confederacy struggled throughout to extract taxes from its citizens. “Congress enacted a tiny tariff in 1861,” historian James M. McPherson writes, “but it brought in only $3.5 million during the entire war,” partly a result of the federal blockade.
Imports Arithmetic Doesn't Explain GDP Drop

1 week ago | econlib.org | Pierre Lemieux

Suppose you measure something (say, GDP) in two steps: first, you add in some number (say, the value of imports); second, you subtract the same value.
Victims of Communism Day

1 week ago | econlib.org | David Henderson

George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin has been carrying on a campaign for years to make May 1 “Victims of Communism Day.”I agree with his goal, and I’m doing my bit here to publicize it. He writes:May Day began as a holiday for socialists and labor union activists, not just communists. But over time, the date was taken over by the Soviet Union and other communist regimes and used as a propaganda tool to prop up their [authority].
Independent Institutions and Private Force

2 weeks ago | econlib.org | Pierre Lemieux

Harvard University is a great private institution, albeit too enmeshed in our naive political zeitgeist. At least two PhD graduates from that university—and in economics, of all fields!—occupy senior positions in Trump’s entourage. About one of them, Elon Musk said that he is “dumber than a sack of bricks,” to which I would not strenuously object. Note that Harvard University is not just a factory of “radical leftists”; it also produces collectivists of the right.
Crisis and Leviathan: The Federal Government in the Civil War

2 weeks ago | econlib.org | John Phelan

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the federal government, like any government in any situation, had three sources of money: taxing, borrowing, or printing. The federal government was much more successful than its Confederate counterpart in funding the war via taxation. In August 1861, tariffs were hiked and the first federal income tax in American history was enacted.
JD Vance Meets the Pope

3 weeks ago | econlib.org | Pierre Lemieux

Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, met Pope Francis on April 20, the day before the latter’s death. The meeting with the enfeebled pope was brief and did not touch upon their disagreement about President Donald Trump’s treatment of immigrants. Early this year, Francis had declared that the mass deportation plan “damages the dignity of many men and women” (“JD Vance Was Among Last to Meet Pope Francis,” Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2025).
Of ChatGPT’s Sense of Humor

3 weeks ago | econlib.org | Pierre Lemieux

Over more than two years, I have occasionally discussed my experience with AI bots—mainly ChatGPT, which I have also used for the featured images of my posts. But except in “TikTok, Godot, Absurd Politics, and Knaves,” I have not directly addressed the AI bot’s sense of humor, which has become rather impressive. Let me give other recent examples.
Free Stuff is Expensive

3 weeks ago | econlib.org | Art Carden

There is an endless list of ways we want to improve cities and help the poor. The list of problems plaguing poor communities is long. Every major US city has areas where the schools are terrible, crime is rampant, the sidewalks and streets are little more than rubble, fresh food is in short supply, and there are no parks or playgrounds to speak of. Helping people in this lowly state should be simple. Make the schools better. Hire more cops. Spread some concrete and asphalt. Start a farmer’s market.
Why Hold Laws As Binding On the Rulers

3 weeks ago | econlib.org | Pierre Lemieux

The economic case for submitting political power (“government”) to general laws that it must itself obey is, at bottom, simple: to blunt the incentives of rulers to become despotic or tyrannical toward a portion of the ruled. (They can’t tyrannize all the ruled because they need supporters and praetorians of different sorts.) Only those confident that they will be among the exploiters rather than the exploited could disagree with this benefit of the law.
The Government You Wished For

3 weeks ago | econlib.org | Pierre Lemieux

Everybody in America who ever wanted a powerful government to do good should now be happy, for he got his wish. Too bad for half the voters who had different conceptions of the good—their personal good or the “social good”!A government powerful enough to do good is also powerful enough to do bad. A government powerful enough to decide under what conditions its subjects may trade is powerful enough to seriously disturb or ban their trading, internationally or domestically.