U.S. History

The State of California is now forcing insurance companies to cover homeowners who put their houses in some of the most fire-prone areas. What could go wrong?

Advocates for "blue laws" want to impose more laws on shopkeepers. These moral crusaders should instead start by setting a good example, and stop watching football games, ordering pizzas, or filling up on gas on Sunday.

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel joins Bob Murphy for an in-depth discussion of the economics of slavery, touching on subtleties such as the labor/leisure trade-off, and the recent claims by some historians that slavery was efficient.

Thanksgiving started out as a terribly political holiday. But it has gotten better with age as more people have been interested in beer and football than in politics.

The Morgan-Rockefeller forces began to organize a "reform" movement to cure the "inelasticity" of money and to move slowly toward the establishment of a central bank.

In the 19th century, the common view of federal soldiers was "as slackers on the public dole" and people with "such a lazy life," as to be "certainly not worth their country's crying about."

Middle-income households and workers haven't been disappearing. They've been moving into higher income levels, while the lowest-income groups have been getting smaller. But another recession could erase many of the gains made over 20 years.

Presented at Jekyll Island, Georgia, in September 1986.

Presented at Jekyll Island, Georgia, in September 1986.

The economic policy dominant in the Europe of the 17th and 18th centuries assumed that intervention in economic affairs was a proper function of government.