Deirdre McCloskey

Friday, May 24, 2013

Property rights and the rule of law are not enough for prosperity

James Pethokoukis | April 9, 2013, 5:46 pm

The FT’s John Kay: And at the Institute for New Economic Thinking conference I attended last week in Hong Kong, historian Niall Ferguson described the economic disadvantage for the US of too many property rights and too much law. The conference offered … read more >

Pethokoukis

John Maynard Keynes versus Deirdre McCloskey on the gift of work

James Pethokoukis | December 24, 2012, 1:51 pm

We don’t have a 15-hour work week as J.M. Keynes once hopefully and optimistically predicted for the grandchildren of workers in 1930s. And some liberals see that as a problem, as outlined in this Big Think essay, “Why do we … read more >

Pethokoukis

What to be thankful for? Innovation, creative destruction, and the Revaluation

James Pethokoukis | November 21, 2012, 2:58 pm

“Give a woman some rice, and you save her a day. That’s the simplest form of what Christians flatter themselves by calling “Christian charity.” Give a man some seed and you save him for a year. That’s the plan of … read more >

Pethokoukis

Is this the greatest blog post ever written? Quite possibly

James Pethokoukis | October 19, 2012, 3:32 pm

Economist Deirdre McCloskey, at the Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog, explaining why economic freedom is a pretty darn good thing (via Cafe Hayek): But anyone who after the 20th century still thinks that thoroughgoing socialism, nationalism, imperialism, mobilization, central planning, regulation, zoning, … read more >

Pethokoukis

Actually, it’s Obama who is talking down the U.S. economy

James Pethokoukis | October 12, 2012, 2:03 pm

It’s the latest Obama campaign talking point: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are “talking down” the economy. Here’s President Obama last week: “Today’s news certainly is not an excuse to try to talk down the economy to score a few political points.” And here … read more >

Economics, Pethokoukis

Romney is right. Culture is why Israel and the West are rich

James Pethokoukis | August 2, 2012, 12:12 pm

Mitt Romney supposedly made an economic blunder in Israel the other day by saying that “if you could learn anything from the economic history of the world it’s this: Culture makes all the difference.” In Romney’s view, it’s culture that … read more >

Pethokoukis

Words matter: Why ‘You didn’t build that’ is way more than just a gaffe

James Pethokoukis | July 19, 2012, 7:32 pm

Economics doesn’t happen just on the factory floor or the trading floor. Most importantly, it happens between our ears. What we believe about the state of the economy today — and about what the future might hold tomorrow — can … read more >

Economics, U.S. Economy

Obama’s dangerous obsession with ‘trickle-down economics’

James Pethokoukis | April 11, 2012, 10:30 am

The President of the United States of America: In this country, prosperity has never trickled down from the wealthy few. Prosperity has always come from the bottom up, from a strong and growing middle class. … A lot of the folks … read more >

Economics, U.S. Economy

This is the wonder-working power of economic freedom and dignity

James Pethokoukis | March 7, 2012, 8:31 am

You think the Great Recession is the biggest economic story of our time? Nope. Not event close. This is: A World Bank report shows a broad reduction in extreme poverty — and indicates that the global recession, contrary to economists’ … read more >

Economics, U.S. Economy

Does Obama understand that to work is to pray? Gingrich sure does

James Pethokoukis | January 18, 2012, 4:01 pm

This, I believe, is Newt Gingrich at his very best. From Saturday’s Republican debate in South Carolina: It tells you everything you need to know about the difference between Barack Obama and the five of us, that we actually think … read more >