The Economics of Prosperity

 

I am happy to announce that my book, The Economics of Prosperity: Rethinking Economic Growth and Development is being published later this month by Edward Elgar Publishing. You can access the publisher's webpage for the book by clicking here.

 

If you prefer a pdf of a flyer for the book, you can click here.

More Tricks, Fewer Treats

 That is what Almost Daily Grant's is predicting for Halloween this year. Candy prices are up by 13% compared to last year, the largest annual increase on record. Because of general inflation, households are expected to decrease their total spending on candy. As explained in its commentary:

Talk about a sugar high.  Citing data from the Labor Department, The Wall Street Journal relays that candy prices are up 13% from a year ago, the largest one-year increase on record, owing to galloping labor costs along with flour and sugar prices.

 

Consumers are responding to those surging costs with a modest downshift, as the National Retail Federation reckons that households will average $100 in Halloween-related spending this year. That’s down from last year’s $103 outlay. 

 

More tricks, fewer treats: it’s a type of hedonic adjustment.

Spending slightly less on candy when its price is higher, means fewer units are purchased, so the kiddies will have less to enjoy.

Ritenour at the Center for Political and Economic Thought

Last month I was blessed to lecture at the Center for Political and Economic Thought at Saint Vincent College. The very good people at the Center were kind and encouraging and the students were engaging. My thanks to Mary Beth McConahey and Zachary Davis for the invitation and hospitality. I had a great time.

My lecture entitled "Do God and Economic Science Mix?" explained the biblical foundations of economics, discussed the economics of prosperity, and shed some light on the Christian ethic of property and its implications for economic policy. You can watch the lecture here:

Hans Sennholz

Today is the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Hans Sennholz. He was one of four students in the US to receive their PhD directed by Ludwig von Mises. In a large way, he is responsible for my being at Grove City College. He was hired by J. Howard Pew to be the Chairman of the Department of Economics at GCC in 1956 and he remained here until 1992. He established the tradition of Austrian economics at Grove City, which is why we continue to specialize in the humane way to do economics even in this day in which we live.

I was blessed to hear a few lectures by Sennholz given after he retired. Here is one recorded while he was in his prime. Notice he is doing the whole thing without notes:

 

Fuller on the Tom Woods Show

My friend and colleague, Caleb Fuller, recently appeared on the Tom Woods Show discussing his new book No Free Lunch. While I have not investigated the matter exhaustively I venture to guess that the Grove City College Economics program is the only one in country that has achieved 100 percent representation on the Tom Woods Show! Listen, learn, and buy the book:

Loury on the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America

 Glenn Loury, the distinguished economist at Brown University and host of  The Glenn Show, recently presented provocatively stark words about the persistence of racial inequality in America. After his remarks, presented to an academic group at Baylor University, he participates in a Q & A facilitated by my friend and Chair of the Baylor's Department of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Peter G. Klein.

 

Gordon on Fuller's No Free Lunch

David Gordon reviews No Free Lunch, the new book by my colleague Caleb Fuller. In his assessment, he praises Fuller noting that, in his analysis of economic falacies, he "follows Frédéric Bastiat and Henry Hazlitt, and he is a worthy successor of them." Gordon says the work itself is "an ideal book for introductory economics classes and for anyone who wants to understand how the free market works." High praise.