Globalization disrupted the seemingly solid construction emerged in the aftermath of WW II, called the international trade system. For over fifty years, the system grew constantly thanks to the increasing number of countries that joint it as well as to its ubiquitously-accepted rules. For better...

This paper provides an introduction to the special issue on international lending of last resort. Starting from debates about rescue operations and unconventional policies of major central banks in the contexts of the Global Financial Crisis and the European Debt Crisis, it draws attention to...

The author argues that the decay of liberal capitalism is the consequence of social rules that leave unconstrained the unwarranted intrusion of government into our economic affairs and reward leaders who can succeed in this process of power politics

The authors offer perspective on the world financial crisis. Specifically, they claim it was a perfect storm of policy errors that caused the housing bubble and then perpetuated the recovery period into an over-extended recession

Economic freedom is an important contributor to growth and prosperity within countries and across the globe, as well as a key component of individual liberty in the classical liberal tradition. Many ethicists and social scientists criticise the relative distribution of the benefits of economic...

The governance of the fiat money system via democratically elected government and financial institutions aims to ensure that all can transact fairly and safely with confidence in the stability and viability of that system in an equitable manner for all citizens. Rawls (1971) suggested that the...

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the Great Depression (1929-1933) and the Great Financial Crisis (2007-2009) by contrasting the crises' main driving forces and how they relate to each other with respect to the United States. To this end, causes, consequences and measures undertaken...

Does the entrepreneurial market process reflect an equilibrating or disequilibrating tendency in the allocation of resources? We address this question by utilizing the case of Malcom McLean, who pioneered and introduced container shipping to international trade. We argue that Schumpeterian and...

This paper argues that liberty and progress arose due to the generalized increasing returns to economic activity. These increasing returns follow from the gradual, cumulative process of institutionalizing liberties. As a society adopts an institutional framework from accumulated liberties, there...

The basic idea of an institution (formal and/or informal) may be conceived as an aggregate structure that has an influence on the individuals. Entrepreneurship is observed to be dependent on institutions for its performance. Constraining and enabling functions of institutions impose certain...