EJW Audio

Magnus Henrekson and collaborators have produced three important books exposing the fraudulence of Europe’s green projects and policies. He explains why the fraud persists despite the obviousness of its fraudulence. Two of the books have been treated in Econ Journal Watch, one review essay by one review essay by John Constable and one by one review essay by Michael Munger , who kindly conducted th...

An influential article by Jonathan Pekar and 28 other authors published in Science in 2022 claimed that Bayesian analysis of the molecular phylogeny of early SARS-CoV-2 cases indicated that the likelihood that two successful introductions to humans had occurred was greater than the likelihood that just one had occurred. Michael Weissman explains  his EJW article , which discusses a fundamental err...

Dan Johansson discusses his  2004 vocabulary analysis of graduate textbooks  used in economics programs. He investigated their treatment of two sets of ideas. One is knowledge and discovery: entrepreneur, innovation, invention, tacit knowledge, and bounded rationality. The other deals with social rules: institutions, property rights, and economic freedom. Today, mainstream economics gives more att...

The writings of Isaiah Berlin (1909–1997), now published chiefly by Princeton University Press, have in large part been brought to light thanks to the work—over five decades—of Henry Hardy. A Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, Hardy discusses Berlin’s life, work, and thoughts. Hardy maintains The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library ( link ). Selections from Berlin on Karl Marx were republished in Econ J...

Jason Sorens discusses his  article  about three recent papers that might lend support to opponents of liberalization. One paper finds that housing supply has no long-run effect on local rents, while two others find that restricting housing supply might translate into amenities. Sorens argues that the evidence so far still supports the conclusion that supply-side zoning liberalization typically lo...

In 2022, Swedish historian of economic thought Lars Magnusson published a major book (in Swedish) about Swedish economic thought, from the late Middle Ages to the mid 19th century. The title (in English):  From Medieval Provincial Law to State Liberalism: Economic Thought in Sweden . One theme is that proto-liberal thinking, often mixed in varying degrees with so-called mercantilist tendencies, ma...

George Selgin discusses his book False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933–1947 (University of Chicago Press, 2025), which was treated to a review essay by Jason Taylor in the March 2025 issue of Econ Journal Watch.

Professor Ivan Katchanovski discusses  his article  examining the Maidan massacre and the ouster of President Yanukovych in Ukraine in 2014.   This interview is conducted by Professor Glenn Diesen and is available on YouTube with video and subtitles here .

Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University is interviewed by Daniel Klein about being an economist, his favorite economists, his economist mentors, and his thoughts about the economics profession today. The conversation turns to his own ideological outlook and whether it has changed over the decades, and, then, to US foreign policy, particularly with respect to Russia.

Drawing on  his EJW article coauthored with Alejandro Goméz , Nicolás Cachanosky guides us through classical liberalism at work in Argentina from 1816 to 1884. The authors shall be bringing the Argentine story up to the present in a sequel that is forthcoming.

Professor Glenn Diesen discusses Russophobia historically considered. He is the author of  Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics  (2022). The discussion takes its point of departure with Richard Cobden’s “Cure for the Russo-phobia” pamphlet (1836), an abridged version of which  is published in EJW .

Michael O’Connor is interviewed by David Barker on O’Connor’s  major critique  of the use of Sharpe ratios in hypothesis testing and investing. O’Connor cautions against relying on Sharpe ratios when choosing investments.

John Hand discusses  his EJW article coauthored with Jeremiah Green , a quasi-replication of a series of studies by the consulting firm McKinsey, on firm performance and executive race/ethnic diversity. Green and Hand find no statistically significant relationship whereas the McKinsey studies find a positive relationship. Professor Hand is interviewed by David Barker.

Dan Klein tells of the EJW series Classical Liberalism by Country and draws lessons about liberal civic virtue. His remarks are based on  a published Introduction to the project . The series is ongoing. All of the EJW articles are accessible  here . Twenty-three of the articles were republished (often with postscripts added) in 2023 in three volumes by  CL Press : Volume 1  (six nations plus Klein...

Edwin van de Haar discusses the classical liberal movements in the Netherlands from the Dutch Golden Age, through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and down to today. His discussion is based on  his EJW article , which extends the Classical Liberalism in Econ, by Country  series .

Paul Robinson is the author of  Russian Liberalism , published by Northern Illinois University Press, due September 2023. Robinson is Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. In the podcast, Professor Robinson also refers to his previous book  Russian Conservatism , published 2019 by Northern Illinois University Press.

Vlad Tarko and Radu Nechita discuss  their EJW article on liberalism in Romania , which is the latest contribution to the Classical Liberalism in Econ, by Country  series .

Sheilagh Ogilvie , the Chicele Professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford, explains European guilds from 1000 to 1900. The topic relates to EJW’s publication of  Vincent Gournay’s 1753 memorials against the exclusionary privileges  enjoyed by guilds in Lyon,  a 1758 squib against barber privileges  in Edinburgh, as well as numerous items on modern occupational licensing (listed  her...

Art Carden discusses  his EJW article with Phil Magness  vindicating William H. Hutt from “racism”/“white supremacism” charges leveled by William Darity, M’Balou Camara, and Nancy MacLean.

David Barker criticizes the article in Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking, by Federal Reserve researchers, which concluded that climate change would have a large economic impact.  Barker’s critique  appeared in the September 2022 issue of EJW.

Illustrating with Sweden and economics, Eva Forslund and Magnus Henrekson explore the pull toward using English in academics, and the downsides, based on  their EJW article from September 2022 .

Drawing on  his EJW article coauthored with Amelia Janaskie , Phil Magness criticizes Quinn Slobodian’s work on Ludwig von Mises and criticizes the Cambridge University Press journal Contemporary European History for failing to choose truth above falsehood.

Michael Weissman, a physicist, criticizes three papers published in Physical Review Physics Education Research, based on  his EJW article published in March 2022 .

Sebastián Rodríguez discusses  his article with Gilberto Ramírez on liberalism in Colombia , which is the 22nd article in the Classical Liberalism in Econ, by Country  series .

Echoing Gunnar Myrdal, Dan Klein praises ideological disclosure, viewing it as similar to the disclosure of vested interests. He shares survey results,  published in The Independent Review , showing that most economists like it when an author tells where she is coming from. Klein draws also on  an EJW article , featuring quotations from Myrdal, and  an Economic Affairs article .