Political Economy, Concisely

by De Jasay, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780865977785
• ISBN10: 086597778X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-31
• Publisher: Liberty Fund

Summary

Anthony de Jasay is arguably one of the most independent thinkers and influential libertarian political philosophers of our time. Through his writings he challenges the reigning paradigms of modern democratic government, providing an antidote to the well-intentioned yet, in Jasay's opinion, nave advocacy of expanded state power. As part of the series The Collected Papers of Anthony de Jasay, this volume introduces readers to Jasay's no-nonsense approach to contemporary economics and provides a foundation for the more intricately argued essays in other books in the series.

Author Biography

Anthony De Jasay is an independent theorist living in France. Trained as an economist in Australia, he held a research fellowship at Oxford University before moving to Paris and working in finance. In retirement he is active as an independent scholar. His books, translated into a half dozen languages, include Justice and Its Surroundings and Social Contract, Free Ride. Hartmut Kliemt is Professor of Philosophy and Economics at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Rights, Property, and Markets
Property or "Property Rights"?	p. 3
"Design Faults" in Locke's Theory of Property Taint Ownership with Guilt	p. 8
Is Ownership a Myth?	p. 13
How to Get a Free Lunch? Just Apply for It	p. 18
The Problem of Contract Enforcement	p. 18
The Public Goods Dilemma	p. 23
Trying the Free Market	p. 32
The Statist Legacy	p. 40
Your Dog Owns Your House	p. 44
The Common Sense of Non-Economics
The Yakoubovich Syndrome, or Lies, Damn Lies, and Economic Policy	p. 53
Winning Policy Battles but Losing the War Against Economic Realities	p. 57
Paying Ourselves More of Their Money	p. 61
The Doctrine of "Unequal Exchange": The Last Refuge of Modern Socialism?	p. 65
Corporate Managers: Are They Going to Kill Capitalism?	p. 69
When the Economy Needs Morals	p. 74
The Political Economy of Force-Feeding	p. 78
Hostile to Whom?	p. 83
Mannesmann's Courtesy Could Prove Rare	p. 88
French and Russian Tragicomedies
Can Putin Build a Real Economy from Oil and Rigor?	p. 95
Russia and the New Europe: Growing Apart	p. 99
Russia Hopping Along on Clay Feet	p. 103
The French Tragicomedy	p. 107
How the French "Social Model" Could Self-Destruct	p. 111
A Little Bit of History Repeating	p. 116
There Is No French Exception	p. 119
The Hobbling of Private France	p. 123
The Capitalism They Hate
The Capitalism They Hate	p. 129
Striving to Get Richer and Poorer	p. 138
"Bread and Circuses" in the Modern Welfare State	p. 142
Who Minds the Gap?	p. 147
Float or Sink? The Millstone of the "Social Market" in Germany	p. 153
How Germany and France, the Sick Men of Europe, Torture Themselves	p. 157
Shall We Borrow from the Children?	p. 161
Low Pay	p. 165
Freedom to Strike or Right to Strike?	p. 173
Creating Unemployment
Stamp Your Feet and Demand a Fair Deal	p. 177
Paternalism and Employment	p. 180
The Things Labor Unions Are Up To	p. 184
The Instability of the Welfare State	p. 189
Some Bad News Could Be Good News	p. 193
Built-in Unemployment: Social Protection Costs More Than It Is Worth	p. 197
Let's Throw This Model Away	p. 204
How to Stifle Employment by "Social Protection"	p. 208
Workable Alternatives	p. 212
A Tale of Two Models	p. 215
A Vicious Circle of Social Kindness	p. 218
The Future of Europe
The Economic Consequences of a United States of Europe	p. 223
A Giant Free-Trade Area or a Political Counterweight to America?	p. 227
European Crosscurrents and the Federalist Drift	p. 232
How Confederacy Could Turn into a Federal Superstate	p. 236
Majority Rule by Any Other Name	p. 240
What Now for "Europe"? Why the People Failed Their Masters	p. 244
Free-Riding on the Euro	p. 248
Some Democratic Economics	p. 252
The Soviet Legacy	p. 256
A War of Attrition between Economic Reality and Political Dreams	p. 260
A Brightening of the Economic Skies over Brussels?	p. 264
Turkey Knocking on Europe's Door	p. 268
Turkey and the EU Club	p. 273
Europe: More Secular and More Islamist	p. 277
A Bill of Rights Europe Did Not Need	p. 281
Europe's Social-Democratic "Government"	p. 285
Power Corrupts, So Let's Make It Less Absolute	p. 289
Economics, True and False
What Price Pride? On the Hidden Costs of Economic Illiteracy	p. 295
On the Economics of Protecting Employment	p. 299
The Costly Mistake of Ignoring Opportunity Costs	p. 303
"Globalization" and Its Critics: Mutual Gain vs. Cloud-Cuckoo Land	p. 307
Are High Oil Prices a Form of Exploitation?	p. 311
Immigration: What Is the Liberal Stand?	p. 316
More Nonsense on Stilts: Mr. Bentham Is at It Again	p. 320
Risk, Value, and Externality	p. 324
Index	p. 331
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