The Philosophy of Liberty

The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible is a libertarian book written by Ken Schoolland, a libertarian and professor of economics. Although it is read by many adults, it is aimed at the young audience, hoping to show young people Schoolland's concerns about statist society in ways they can easily understand.

The preface of the book, "The Philosophy of Liberty", has been turned into a very popular short film, distributed on the internet in many formats, including flash animation, video, slideshow or text, in around forty languages.

Thomas Sowell on the Housing Boom and Bust

Thomas Sowell discusses how we got into the current economic disaster that developed out of the economics and politics of the housing boom and bust.(...)

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social critic, political commentator and author. He often writes as an advocate of laissez-faire economics. He is currently a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. In 2003, he was awarded the Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement.

Paul Romer's radical idea: Charter cities

How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it's trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: "charter cities," city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. (Could Guantánamo Bay become the next Hong Kong?)

MATT RIDLEY ON EVOLUTION, ECONOMICS, AND "IDEAS HAVING SEX"

Matt Ridley, an Oxford-educated zoologist, turned to journalism in 1983 when he got a job as The Economist’s science reporter. He soon became the magazine’s Washington correspondent and eventually served as its American editor.

Ridley has written several acclaimed books that combine clear explanations of complex biology with discussions of the science’s implications for human society. In the reason.tv interview, Ridley discusses some of the themes in The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature; The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation; Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters; and Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, & What Makes Us Human; as well as his forthcoming book which seeks to understand how and why human progress happens.

Paul Feine and Alex Manning interviewed Ridley in the Milton and Rose Friedman Reading Room at Chapman University in Orange, California.

Authors@Google: David Friedman

David Friedman visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book "Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World." This event took place on September 3, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.

In his brand new work, Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World, the famed economist David Friedman presents a variety of technological revolutions in the next 20 years and their implications. If dead could be brought alive, genes of the unborn could be picked and matched to a perfect combination, and robotic flies are the future of surveillance cameras, then what does this all mean for the traditional values and ideals our society is based on? Our passive consumption of evolving technology could lead to more or less privacy than we have ever known, freedom or slavery, effective immortality and radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play.

David D. Friedman is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, California. After receiving a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of Chicago, he switched fields to economics and taught at Virginia Polytechnic University, the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at Los Angeles, Tulane University, the University of Chicago, and Santa Clara University. A professional interest in the economics of law led to positions at the law schools of the University of Chicago and Cornell and thereafter to his present position, where he developed the course on legal issues of the twenty-first century, which led to his writing Future Imperfect.

The Anti-Capitalists: Barbarians at the Gate

The Mises Memorial Lecture, The Anti-Capitalists: Barbarians at the Gate, given by Larry Sechrest at the 2008 Austrian Scholars Conference, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn Alabama; 15 March 2008.(...)

Larry J. Sechrest is a Research Fellow at The Independent Institute, and Professor of Economics and Director of the Free Enterprise Institute at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington, where his undergraduate work was in history and philosophy with graduate work in economics and finance. He is a Foundation Scholar with the Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education in New York City and also serves as a Trustee of the Free Radical Foundation in Wellington, New Zealand and on the Board of Advisors of the Defense of Freedom Foundation in Newport Beach, California.

Authors@Google: Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer discusses his book "Mind of the Market" as part of the Authors@Google series.

How did we evolve from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumer-traders? Why are people so irrational when it comes to money and business? Bestselling author Dr. Michael Shermer argues that evolution provides an answer to both of these questions through the new science of evolutionary economics. Drawing on research from neuroeconomics, Shermer explores what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and how trust is established in business. Utilizing experiments in behavioral economics, Shermer shows why people hang on to losing stocks and failing companies, why business negotiations often disintegrate into emotional tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy. Employing research from complexity theory, Shermer shows how evolution and economics are both examples of a larger phenomenon of complex adaptive systems. Along the way, Shermer answers such provocative questions as: Do our tribal roots mean that we will always be a sucker for brands? How is the biochemical joy of sex similar to the rewards of business cooperation? How can nations increase trust within and between their borders? Finally, Shermer considers the consequences of globalization and what will happen if nations allow free trade across their borders.

Milton Friedman - Greed

Milton Friedman was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. An advocate of economic freedom and personal liberty, Friedman made major contributions to the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history and statistics. In 1976, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.

In this excerpt from an interview with Phil Donahue in 1979, Friedman discusses greed and capitalism.

Authors@Google: Bjorn Lomborg

In Cool It, Bjørn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, are often based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may very well have little impact on the world's temperature for hundreds of years. Rather than starting with the most radical procedures, Lomborg argues that we should first focus our resources on more immediate concerns, such as fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS and assuring and maintaining a safe, fresh water supply—which can be addressed at a fraction of the cost and save millions of lives within our lifetime. He asks why the debate over climate change has stifled rational dialogue and killed meaningful dissent.

Bjørn Lomborg is the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2004 and has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He is presently an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and in 2004 he started the Copenhagen Consensus, a conference of top economists who come together to prioritize the best solutions for the world's greatest challenges.

I, Pencil

I, Pencil is Leonard Read's most famous essay. The full title is "I, Pencil. My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read" and it was first published in the December, 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled "I...Pencil" in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name.

"I, Pencil" is written in the first person from the point of view of an Eberhard Faber pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.

Debunking myths about the "Third World"

You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. The Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) turns complex global trends into lively animations, making decades of data pop. Asian countries, as colorful bubbles, float across the grid -- toward better national health and wealth. Animated bell curves representing national income distribution squish and flatten. In Rosling's hands, global trends -- life expectancy, child mortality, poverty rates -- become clear, intuitive and even playful.

Principles of economics, translated

Yoram Bauman has appeared at venues ranging from the New York Improv to the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting. He is a regular at the Comedy Underground in Seattle, where he runs Non-Profit Comedy, a political-ish comedy benefit show (featured in the Seattle P-I). When not performing stand-up he consults on climate change and other environmental economics issues and teaches at the University of Washington.

Authors@Google: Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics and director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He writes for MarginalRevolution.com, the #1 economics blog according to blogpulse.com. Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, called this blog "awesomely good, every day." Cowen also writes a monthly column for the business section of The New York Times, and contributes to many other publications.

In DISCOVER YOUR INNER ECONOMIST: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist , economics professor Tyler Cowen shows how many of our needs, whims, and wants can be understood through markets. Want to vent some anger? A bar in China lets you pay to beat up the staff. Want to talk to aliens? For $3.99 a minute a company will broadcast your phone call directly into space.

This event happened September 14, 2007 at the Google NY office.

Authors@Google: Robert Frank

Author Robert Frank discusses his book "The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas" as a part of the Authors@Google series. This event took place on July 23, 2007 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. (...)

Robert Frank is the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management Professor of Economics at Cornell University's S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management. He is a monthly contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times.

Charlie Rose - An hour with Milton Friedman

An hour conversation with Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman about his life, his contributions to economics, the Republican Party and his view on the direction of the United States and the world.

The Bastiat Collection

In this Mises Institute thirty-minute interview, Dr. Mark Thornton, the compiler and general editor of "The Bastiat Collection," explains Bastiat's significance, and tells the fascinating story of how this definitive collection came to be. He further explains its significance for the future of liberty. Frédéric Bastiat was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly.

Candidates@Google: Ron Paul

2008 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul in discussion with Google executive Elliot Schrage as part of the company's Candidates@Google series. (...)

Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is a 10th-term Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, a member of the Republican Party, a physician, and a candidate for the 2008 presidential election. He has represented Texas's 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997 and represented Texas's 22nd district in 1976 and from 1979 to 1985. He earned the nickname "Dr. No" because he is a medical doctor who votes against any bill he believes violates the Constitution.[1] On March 12, 2007, Paul announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election seeking the nomination of the Republican Party.

The Call of the Entrepreneur

The trailer for a new documentary being released by the Acton Institute that focuses on the stories of three entrepreneurs. A study of the call to create wealth and the benefit of business and free markets to society.

A merchant banker. A failing dairy farmer. A refugee from Communist China. One risked his savings. One risked his farm. One risked his life.

Why do their stories matter? Because how we view entrepreneurs—as greedy or altruistic, as virtuous or vicious—shapes the destinies of individuals and nations.

Milton Friedman on Icelandic State Television in 1984

Professor Milton Friedman came to Iceland in 1984 to give a lecture at The University of Iceland.

This is an interview with him on Icelandic State Television. The setup is interesting, with Friedman are three radically left-wing scholars who criticize him each at a time for everything from monetary policy to drug policy. One of them, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, is the current president of Iceland

Mine Your Own Business

Mine Your Own Business exposes the dark side of environmentalism. The documentary hacks away at the cosy image of environmentalists' as well meaning, harmless activists. It talks to some of the world's poorest people about how western environmentalists are campaigning to keep them in poverty because they think their way of life is quaint. It is the first documentary to ask hard questions of the environmental movement.