Harwood Economic Review
Winter 2020
Table of Contents
The Obama Film American Factory Backfires
Peter C. Earle
Luce Brings Light to the Age of Anxiety
Taleed Brown and Jeffrey A. Tucker
Business Ethics and Morality of the Marketplace
Richard M. Ebeling
Frozen II: Saved by Blessedly Superficial Viewers
Jeffrey A. Tucker
The Joker and the Ideology of Destructionism
Jeffrey A. Tucker
The Unbearable Drabness of Command Economies
Anthony Gill
The Many Threats to the Liberal Project
Peter Boettke
Social Media’s Bumpy Ride to Better Ideas
Max Gulker
The Myth of Heroism
Stephen Davies
Coffee and Wine: The Subjective Theory of Value at Work
Max Gulker
The Politicization of Taylor Swift
Jeffrey A. Tucker
Eulogy for Neil Peart, Champion of Freedom
Peter C. Earle
AIER Staff
Founded in 1933, The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) educates people on the value of personal freedom, free enterprise, property rights, limited government, and sound money. AIER’s ongoing scientific research demonstrates the importance of these principles in advancing peace, prosperity, and human progress.
Richard M. Ebeling
Richard M. Ebeling, an AIER Senior Fellow, is the BB&T Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Free Enterprise Leadership at The Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Ebeling lived on AIER’s campus from 2008 to 2009.
Books by Richard M. Ebeling
Max Gulker
Max Gulker is a former Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Reason Foundation. At AIER his research focused on two main areas: policy and technology. On the policy side, Gulker looked at how issues like poverty and access to education can be addressed with voluntary, decentralized approaches that don’t interfere with free markets. On technology, Gulker was interested in emerging fields like blockchain and cryptocurrencies, competitive issues raised by tech giants such as Facebook and Google, and the sharing economy.
Gulker frequently appears at conferences, on podcasts, and on television. Gulker holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University and a BA in economics from the University of Michigan. Prior to AIER, Max spent time in the private sector, consulting with large technology and financial firms on antitrust and other litigation. Follow @maxg_econ.
Jeffrey A. Tucker
Jeffrey A. Tucker served as Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research from 2017 to 2021.
Peter Boettke
Peter J. Boettke is a Senior Fellow with the American Institute for Economic Research. He is a University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University, as well as the Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, and BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Boettke is a former Fulbright Fellow at the University of Economics in Prague, a National Fellow at Stanford University, and Hayek Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics.
Books by Peter Boettke
Stephen Davies
Dr Steve Davies, a Senior Fellow at AIER, is the Head of Education at the IEA. Previously he was program officer at the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University in Virginia. He joined IHS from the UK where he was Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University, Ohio.
A historian, he graduated from St Andrews University in Scotland in 1976 and gained his PhD from the same institution in 1984. He has authored several books, including Empiricism and History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and was co-editor with Nigel Ashford of The Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought (Routledge, 1991).
Books by Stephen Davies
Peter C. Earle
Peter C. Earle is an economist who joined AIER in 2018. Prior to that he spent over 20 years as a trader and analyst at a number of securities firms and hedge funds in the New York metropolitan area. His research focuses on financial markets, monetary policy, and problems in economic measurement. He has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNBC, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, NPR, and in numerous other media outlets and publications. Pete holds an MA in Applied Economics from American University, an MBA (Finance), and a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Selected Publications
“General Institutional Considerations of Blockchain and Emerging Applications” Co-Authored with David M. Waugh in The Emerald Handbook on Cryptoassets: Investment Opportunities and Challenges, edited by Baker, Benedetti, Nikbakht, and Smith (2023)
“Operation Warp Speed” Co-authored with Edwar Escalante in Pandemics and Liberty, edited by Raymond J. March and Ryan M. Yonk (2022)
“A Virtual Weimar: Hyperinflation in Diablo III” in The Invisible Hand in Virtual Worlds: The Economic Order of Video Games, edited by Matthew McCaffrey (2021)
“The Fickle Science of Lockdowns” Co-authored with Phillip W. Magness, Wall Street Journal (December 2021)
“How Does a Well-Functioning Gold Standard Function?” Co-authored with William J. Luther, SSRN (November 2021)
“Populist Prophets, Public Prophets: Pied Pipers of Lucre, Then and Now” in Financial History (Summer 2021)
“Boston’s Forgotten Lockdowns” in The American Conservative (November 2020)
“Private Governance and Rules for a Flat World” in Creighton Journal of Interdisciplinary Leadership (June 2019)
“’Federal Jobs Guarantee’ Idea Is Costly, Misguided, And Increasingly Popular With Democrats” in Investor’s Business Daily (December 2018)
Books by Peter C. Earle
Taleed Brown
Taleed Brown is the former Media Manager for AIER and creative professional with experience in digital marketing and content creation.
He is Co-founder of Atlanta based startup Bespoke Black Media and has a YouTube channel with more than 5 million collective views.
He’s been featured on The Rubin Report, FEE.org, and has spoken at the Anarchapulco conference.
Anthony Gill
Anthony Gill is a professor of political economy at the University of Washington and a Distinguished Senior Fellow with Baylor University’s Institute for the Study of Religion.
Earning his PhD in political science at UCLA in 1994, Prof. Gill specializes in the economic study of religion and civil society.
He received the UW’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1999 and is also a member of the Mont Pelerin Society.