Other books exist that warn of the dangers of empire and war. However, few, if any, of these books do so from a scholarly, informed economic standpoint. In Depression, War, and Cold War , Robert Higgs, a highly regarded economic historian, makes pointed, fresh economic arguments against war,...

Mainstream academic economists fall disproportionately into two opposing groups. In one of these groups, the members see free markets as tending to fail relative to formal theoretical conditions for optimality. In the other group, the members see free markets as tending to work better than any...