Stability is destabilizing. These three words concisely capture the insight that underlies Hyman Minsky's analysis of the economy's transformation over the entire postwar period. The basic thesis is that the dynamic forces of a capitalist economy are explosive and must be contained by...

Stability is destabilizing. These three words concisely capture the insight that underlies Hyman Minsky's analysis of the economy's transformation over the entire postwar period. The basic thesis is that the dynamic forces of a capitalist economy are explosive and must be contained by...

The ‘societal crisis of the present' (Gesellschaftskrisis der Gegenwart) is defined by the German neoliberals Eucken, Röpke and Rüstow as a state of ‘massification' (Vermassung), proletarianization and disintegration – accompanied by a far-reaching moral decadence, an ethical nihilism...

In 1481 when King John II ascended to the throne of Portugal, it was on the verge of bankruptcy. A quarter of a century later, Portugal all but ruled the world, economically and scientifically – at least. This article seeks to investigate the policy decisions of King John II and his successor,...

While countries continue to negotiate new mega free trade agreements in the EU and the US, they increasingly rely on anti-dumping laws to protect their industries from predatory pricing and the high costs of global structural change. Legally sanctioned protectionism has become a prominent...

In the modern lexicon, money is pure instrumentality, a colorless medium that transparently expresses real value. Contrary to that trope, however, we can get “inside” money: we can reconnoiter it as a structure entailing value that is engineered by certain societies. Taking a...

The paper examines the viability of applying transaction cost reasoning to the government by discussing the possibility of further international cooperation in the field of antitrust. Given that, in their international relations, the analogy between states and private actors is more realistic...

Commentators have poured forth a loud and sustained outcry over the past few years that sees property rule treatment of intellectual property (IP) as a cause of excessive transaction costs, thickets, anticommons, hold-ups, hold-outs, and trolls, which unduly tax and retard innovation,...

What does global trade mean for the environment of any particular place? It can produce place-based transformations that are both positive and negative. The Kuznets curve is often touted as a solution that resolves the conflict between trade promotion and environmental protection by purporting...

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...