This paper suggests that contemporary economics is characterized by three key features. First, it is focused on 'big questions' in political economy and is willing to look outside economics to search for these questions and their answers. Second, contemporary economics is empirically focused....

Is a monopolized banking sector a threat to democracy? While Oskar Lange and Abba Lerner (1944) recognized that socialism was a threat to democracy, they also held that a tendency towards banking sector monopolization under capitalism would undermine democracy through the inevitable...

Can an electorate use the projected life expectancy of a lifetime-appointed executive to enforce binding, informal term limits? Informal term limits, based on the life expectancy of an executive candidate at election, would enable an electorate to exercise discretion in adjusting tenure lengths...

Alabama has been traveling down a fiscally unsustainable road. The burden of unchecked fiscal irresponsibility will ultimately fall on taxpayers, making Alabama an unattractive location for residency or business. This path has led Alabama to a crossroads, one where the choice is to continue down...

While the primary causes of the 2007-8 financial crisis are disputed, many economists hold that the monetary policy missteps played a role in causing or prolonging the financial crisis. In light of the perceived failure of monetary orthodoxy, monetary models are being theoretically refined and...

How has the impact of wars affected our historical understanding of U.S. economic performance? While most economists believe the Federal Reserve has improved performance, the existing literature fails to account for exogenous shocks such as periods of war. This paper compares U.S. economic...

Even notable free market scholars in the 20th Century lamented the inescapable decline in intimate social relations that would emerge from the wide-scale adoption of an extended market order. This paper challenges this view that markets erode social relations by challenging the concept that the...