SANFORD IKEDA
Professor of Economics
Purchase College, The State University of New York
735 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577
Sanford.ikeda@purchase.edu
CITIZENSHIP: U.S.A.
DATE OF BIRTH: 14 October 1957 (Mesa, AZ)
HOME ADDRESS: 114 Clinton St. Apt. 4-F, Brooklyn, NY 11201
CURRENT POSITIONS:
Professor Emeritus of Economics, Purchase College, SUNY 2023-present
Professor of Economics, Purchase College, SUNY 2014-2023; Department Chair 2012-21
Visiting Fellow, Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, University of Arizona, 2021-24
Faculty Affiliate, University of Arizona, 2020-present
Visiting Scholar & Research Associate, New York University, 1991-present
Visiting Professor, Universidad Francisco Marroquin, 2019-present
Board Member, Center for Market Urbanism, 2017-present
FEE Faculty Network, Foundation for Economic Education, 2012-present
Board Member, Center for the Living City, 2010-present; Treasurer, 2016-2021
Board Member, Economic Freedom Institute, 2016-present
Editorial Board, Cosmos & Taxis, 2011-present
Editorial Board, Journal of Special Jurisdictions, 2019-presest
PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
Associate Professor of Economics, Purchase College, SUNY 1998-2014
Assistant Professor of Economics, Purchase College, SUNY 1990-8
Advisor, National Endowment for the Humanities 2014
Editorial Board, Studies in Emergent Order, 2011-14
Director, Colloquium on Market Institutions & Economic Processes, spring 2007 & 2010.
Affiliated Senior Scholar, Mercatus Center 2006-7
Research Associate, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2005-08
President, Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, 2005-06
Visiting Scholar, George Mason University (3/98 and spring 2006)
Visiting Scholar, Institute for Economic Analysis, London (fall 2005)
Institute for Humane Studies Fellowship, Academic Review Committee, 1990-2005
Visiting Scholar, Mises Institute (5/98)
Adjunct Associate Professor of Economics, Pace University (1998-2002)
Visit. Asst. Prof., California State Univ. at Hayward (1987-90)
Lecturer, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1986-7)
DEGREES:
B.A. (Economics) Grove City College, June 1980
Ph.D. (Economics) New York University, February 1988. Dissertation: The Theory of Resource Monopoly and Antitrust Economics, supervised by Mario J. Rizzo (and Israel M. Kirzner)
AWARDS:
H.B. Earhart Fellowship 1984-85, 1993, 1997-98, 2000, 2005-06
F.A. Hayek Fund Award 1989, 1994, 1995
New York University Graduate Fellowship 1980-84, 1985-86
Institute for Humane Studies Summer Fellow 1984
Claude R. Lambe Fellowship 1984-85, 1985-86
EDITORSHIPS: Guest Editor, Cosmos + Taxis, 2016-17.
Editorial Board, Studies in Emergent Order, 2010-14
Editorial Board, Cosmos & Taxis, 2013-present; Guest Editor, 2015-16
RESEARCH FIELDS: Economy of cities Public policy & entrepreneurship Austrian. polit. econ. Market-process theory
CURRENT COURSES: Introductory & Intermediate Microeconomic Theory Cities, Culture, & Economy Business, Government, & Society History of Economic Thought
OTHER COURSES TAUGHT: Public Policy toward Bus. Econometrics Managerial Economics (MBA) Statistics Economics of the Arts Microeconomic Theory (MS)
Principles of Macroeconomics Public Choice Applied Microeconomics (MBA) Money and Banking Labor Economics Industrial Organization (MS) Environmental Economics Managerial Economics Political Economy of Cities (PhD)
PUBLICATIONS, RESEARCH PAPERS & PUBLIC APPEARANCES
REFEREED ARTICLES
• “Urban planning and urban values” in ˆSocial Philosophy and Policy, Vol. 38(2): 1919-209 (2021).
• “Urban Diversity and Cohesion: A Jacobsian Solution” in Cosmos + Taxis, Vol. 8, No. 8 (2020): 28-45. • “The Economy of Cities: Jane Jacobs’ overlooked economic classic” in Independent Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (2020).
• “Jane Jacobs and the knowledge problem in cities” in Critics of Enlightenment Rationalism, Gene Callahan & Kenneth McIntyre (eds), New York: Palgrave. (2020).
• “Cities, agriculture, and economic development: the debate over Jane Jacobs’s ‘cities-first thesis’,” Cosmos + Taxis, Vol. 5, Issues 3+4 (2018): 25-31.
• “A city cannot be a work of art,” Cosmos + Taxis, Vol. 4, Issues 2+3 (2017): 79-86.
• “Jane Jacobs on Henry George: Progress of Poverty,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology Vol. 74, No. 3 (2015): 495-509. • “Jane Jacobs’ critique of rationalism in urban planning,” Cosmos + Taxis, Vol. 1, Issue 3 (2014): 10-19. • “Entrepreneurship in Action Space,” Advances in Austrian Economics, Advances in Austrian Economics Vol.16 (2012): 105-39.
• “The meaning of ‘social capital’ as it relates to the market process,” The Review of Austrian Economics Vol. 21, Nos. 2/3 (2008): 167-82.
• “The political, economic, and social aspects of Katrina,” with Peter J. Boettke, Emily Chamlee-Wright, Peter Gordon, Peter T. Leeson, & Russell Sobel. The Southern Economic Journal Vol. 74, No. 2 (2007): 363-76.
• “Urbanizing Economics,” Review of Austrian Economics Vol. 20, No. 4 (2007): 213-20.
• “Dynamics of interventionism,” Advances in Austrian Economics Vol. 8 (2005): 21-57.
• “The career of Robert Moses: city planning as a microcosm of socialism,” with Gene Callahan, The Independent Review (Fall 2004).
• “Introduction” to a “Symposium on Austrian Perspectives on Urban and Regional Planning,” with Sam Staley in The Review of Austrian Economics Vol. 17, Nos. 2/3 (2004).
• “Urban interventionism and local knowledge,” The Review of Austrian Economics Vol. 17, Nos. 2/3 (2004).
• “On the failure of socialist economies to close the loop on industrial by-products: insights from the Austrian critique of planning,” Environmental Politics, with Pierre Desrochers (Fall 2003).
• “How compatible are public choice and Austrian political economy?” Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 16, No. 1:63-75 (2003).
• “Do free-market economists practice what they teach?” Quarterly Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 5, No. 4:37-41 (Winter 2002).
• “The role of ‘social capital’ in the market process,” Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, Vol. 12, No. 2/3 (2002): 229- 240.
• "Interventionism and the progressive discoordination of the mixed economy," Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 5 (1998): 37- 50.
• "The use of knowledge in government and market," Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 2 (Part A) (1995): 211-40.
• "L'analyse du processus de marche dans l'organisation industrialle: Kirzner, la contestabilite, et Demsetz," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, Vol. 2 no. 4, (December 1991): 479-98.
• "Market process theory and 'dynamic' theories of the market," The Southern Economic Journal Vol. 57 no. 1 (July 1990): 75-92. BOOKS, BOOK CHAPTERS, & INVITED PAPERS
• A City Cannot Be a Work of Art: Learning Economics and Social Theory from Jane Jacobs. Palgrave Macmillan 2023. • Dynamics of the Mixed Economy: Toward a Theory of Interventionism. Routledge (U.K.) 1997. • “Inclusionary Zoning” for Encyclopedia of Market Urbanism (forthcoming).
• “A tale of two responses” for the American Institute for Economic Research, 5 September 2017. https://www.aier.org/research/tale-two-responses
• “The Misesian paradox: interventionism is not sustainable” for Liberty Matters (lead essay), March 2016. http://oll.libertyfund.org/pages/lm-intervention
• “Dynamics of Interventionism” in Handbook of Austrian Economics. Oxford Univ. Press, 2015.
• “How land-use regulation undermines affordable housing,” (with Emily Washington) Mercatus Research Paper, 4 November 2015.
• “Jane Jacobs on Henry George: Progress or poverty?” in American Journal of Economics & Sociology Vol. 74, no. 3 (May 2015):495-509.
• “Comment on The City by Deborah Stevenson,” in Studies in Emergent Order Vol. 7 (2014).
• “Jane Jacobs’s critique of rationalism in urban planning” in Cosmos & Taxis, with Gene Callahan Vol. 1 no. 3 (2014).
• “Economic development from a Jacobsian perspective” in Sonia Hirt (ed) The Urban Wisdom of Jane Jacobs, a collection of essays in honor of Jane Jacobs (New York: Routledge 2012).
• “Does density matter?” in David A. Andersson, Charlotta Mellander, & Ake E. Andersson (eds) Handbook of Creative Cities, Northampton MA: Edward Elgar, 2011.
• “The mirage of the efficient city,” in What We See: Advancing the Observations of Jane Jacobs, (newvillagepress 2010). • “Robert Moses,” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 2008.
• “Jane Jacobs,” Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Cato Institute 2008.
• “Rent Seeking,” Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Cato Institute 2008.
• “Interventionism,” Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, Cato Institute 2008.
• "Interventionism" in The Handbook of Austrian Economics, (London: Edward Elgar, 1995).
• "Market Process" in The Handbook of Austrian Economics, (London: Edward Elgar, 1995).
• "I prefer security to freedom," in Cliches of Politics, Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 1994.
• "The dynamics of government intervention: theory and implications," in A Man of Principle: Essays in Honor of Hans F. Sennholz, Grove City: Grove City College Press, 1992.
• "Regulation as a process: comment," in Austrian Economics: Perspectives on the Past and Prospects for the Future, ed. by Richard
OTHER PUBLICATIONS M. Ebeling, Hillsdale, Mich.: Hillsdale College Press, 1991.
• “What is the actual difference between micro- and macro- economics?” for Libertarianism.org 6 June 2019. https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/microeconomics-vs-macroeconomics-whats-real-difference
• “What’s the economic meaning of cost?” for Libertarianism.org 24 January 2019.
https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/whats-the-economic-meaning-of-cost
• “Power to the neighborhoods: The devolution of authority in post-Katrina New Orleans” with Peter Gordon, Mercatus Policy Paper, Policy Comment No. 12, (August 2007).
• “Break it up: How New Orleans can finally clean up its act,” Forbes (9 April 2007).
• “Jane Jacobs,” The Freeman (September 2006).
• “Jane Jacobs, RIP,” National Review Online (27 April 2006) http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/ikeda200604270648.asp
• “Jane Jacobs and the life of cities,” In Brief, Foundation for Economic Education (27 April 2006)
http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=434
• “Introducing gastrointestinal economics” (spoof), with Gene Callahan and Sheldon Richman, LewRockwell.com (16 September 2004) http://www.lewrockwell.com/callahan/callahan137.html
• “Rent-seeking: A primer,” Ideas on Liberty, November 2003.
• “Jane Jacobs, the anti-planner,” with Gene Callahan, Mises.org Daily Articles, http://www.mises.org/articles.asp (20 June 2003). • “A beautiful movie, lousy economics,” Ideas on Liberty, August 2002.
APPEARANCES IN THE MEDIA
• Interviewed about zoning for video series on Housing in the U.S. (Bria Lloyd) for Newsy In the Loop, 11 January 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYa8Cy2Xa8A
• Interviewed for article: “Mansion demolition reopens debate over landmarking in Bushwick,” for Bklyner (Cai Pugliucci & Jo Constantz) 14 December 2020.
https://bklyner.com/mansion-demolition-reopens-debate-over-landmarking-in-bushwick/
• Webinar: “What is a city” for The Center for Market Education, Malaysia 14 July 2020.
• Radio Interview & Podcast: “What’s next for cities?” for The Property Show on WBM Malaysia, 7 July 2020. • Podcast: “Why can’t a city be a work of art” for the Institute for Liberal Studies (Ottawa), 15 November 2019.
• Interviewed for video: “City Design” for Institute for Humane Studies, Fall 2018.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bq5bLxyvCQgDhwnniDKqHKYmgt9fq49b/view
• Podcast: “The Luxurious Solution to Vancouver’s Housing Market with Sandy Ikeda” for Vancouver Real Estate Podcast, episode #134, 30 August 2018. https://www.vancouverrealestatepodcast.com/podcast/the-luxurious-solution-to-vancouvers-housing market-with-sandy-ikeda/
• Interviewed for an article: ”Santa Monica, California Commissioners Recommend Subsidy Expansion” in The Heartland Institute, 11 July 2018. https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/santa-monica-california-commissioners-recommend-subsidy expansion
• Interviewed for an article: “Putting a price on history: Professor argues that protected districts only preserve for the one percent” in The Brooklyn Paper, 10 August 2017. https://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/40/32/all-historic-districts-are mistakes-2017-08-11-bk.html
• Appeared in a documentary: “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” film by Matt Tyrnauer, 2017.
• Podcast for Startup Societies “Cities and planning,” 13 July 2017.
• Podcast: “Sanford Ikeda on Jane Jacobs,” a podcast interview with Nolan Gray for Market Urbanism, 26 July 2016. • “What you can learn from a city neighborhood” on Big Ideas Live! (webinar), 16 June 2014.
• “Cities and knowledge” for European Students for Liberty (webinar), 25 March 2014.
• “Private neighborhoods” on Garland Robinette Show WWL radio, New Orleans, 2007
• “Austrian economics and the new technology," TechEdge Radio, August 1998
• "The Health-Care Crisis," Critical Issues (Purchase College TV), 1994
• "The Fall of Communism," Critical Issues (Purchase College TV), 1993
BOOK REVIEWS
• City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York by Mason B. Williams, for Reason.com (11 June 2013). http://reason.com/archives/2013/06/11/fdrs-friend-in-new-york
• Back to the Land: Arthurdale, FDR’s New Deal, and the Costs of Economic Planning by C.J. Maloney, for The Independent Review Vol. 16, no. 3 (Winter 2012).
• The Hesitant Hand: Taming Self-Interest in the History of Economic Ideas by Steven G. Medema, for The Freeman (March 2011). • Private Neighborhoods: And the Transformation of Local Government by Robert H. Nelson, for The Freeman (January 2006). • The Future Once Happened Here by Fred Siegel, for The Freeman, November 1998.
• The Entrepreneur in Microeconomic Theory by Humberto Barreto, for The Southern Economic Journal, April 1991. PUBLIC LECTURES, RECORDINGS, AND SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS
• “Learning economics & social theory from Jane Jacobs” for Institute for Liberal Studies, 4 May 2023. • “Competition & Entrepreneurship 50th Anniversary talk” for APEE (Cancún) 17 April 2023
• “Chapter 5: Cities and social networks in action space” for NYU Colloquium, 3 April 2023.
• “Learning economics & social theory from Jane Jacobs” for Adam Smith Week, College of Charleston 21 March 2023. • “Jane Jacobs 101” for Adrina Zuniga’s urban planning class at the University of Arizona, 28 February 2023. • Online lecture on “Interventionism” for Josh Ammons’s class on International Economic Policy, 16 January 2023. • Lecture on “Jane Jacobs 101” for Urban Growth & Development class, University of Arizona, 3 November 2022. • “Piazza verus Parade” for Philosophy Politics & Economics Club, University of Arizona, 2 November 2022. • “The economics of the housing paradox” for Ursinus College, 26 September 2022.
• “Social distancing the socially distant” for Tribute to Steve Horwitz at Ball State University, 13 June 2022. • Panelist for Housing in Canada (for U. of British Columbia students) for Institute for Liberal Studies, 10 January 2022. • Zoominar: “Why the death of the city didn’t happen” for Friedrich-Naumann Foundation for Freedom, 22 April 2022. • Podcast: “What would Jane Jacobs do?” for Institute for Liberal Studies, 5 May 2021.
• Zoominar: Discussing Death and Life of Great American Cities for Professor Miguel Salve’s architecture class at Marywood University School of Architecture, Scranton PA, 19 February 2021.
• Zoominar: “The pandemic city” for Institute for Liberal Studies (Friday Talk) 22 January 2021.
• Zoominar: “Using Economics to Untangle the Housing Paradox” for Center for Ethics, Economics, and Public Policy, University of San Diego, 7 November 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0C7YzM4w10
• Webinar: “Social distancing the socially distant” for Freedom Forum IV at the Center for Economic Freedom, Mackenzie University, São Paulo, Brazil, 3 November 2020.
• Panel for Market Urbanism Round Table, (Video) 23 May 2020.
• “Urban Planning for Urban Values” for a conference on Science, Values, & Society, (Video) April 30-May 3, 2020.
• “Jane Jacobs’s Overlooked Classic” at Arizona State University (Tempe) hosted by the Center for the Study of Economic Liberty, 3 March 3 2020.
• “Why can’t a city be a work of art” for the Institute for Liberal Studies (Ottawa), (Podcast) Nov. 15 (spring 2020). • “Cities of the future?” for Colloquium on Market Institutions and Economic Processes, New York University, 3 February 2020. • “The Economy of Cities: Jane Jacobs’s overlooked economic classic” for Kings College London, 22 October 2019.
• “The nature & significance of cities, Parts I & II,” “Why a real city is messy,” “How does Paris get fed,” and “Fixing cities: housing & mobility” for Universidad Francisco Maroquin, Guatemala City, Guatemala 1-22 September 2019.
• “How does Paris get fed?” for FEEcon (Foundation for Economic Education) in Atlanta, GA 14 June 2019. • “Why a great city is messy and what not to do about it” for The King’s College, New York City, 13 November 2018.
• Spoke on “Dynamics of interventionism,” “Mercantilism,” & “Housing market” for the Liberal Studies Institute “Freedom Week” in Montreal, Canada, 13-18 August 2018.
• “A city cannot be a work of art” for FEEcon (Foundation for Economic Education) in Atlanta, Georgia, 11 July 2018. • Participant in “Existentialism and Free Markets” Liberty Fund Colloquium at Indianapolis, Indiana, 8-10 March 2018. • Colloquium director for “Freedom and Virtues Colloquium” at Lindenwood University, St. Louis, Missouri, 2-4 February 2018. • Panelist for Start-up Cities Society, New York, NY 15 February 2017.
• Discussion Leader for a VRG series “Seeing Cities in a New Light: An Exploration of Jane Jacobs” sponsored by Students for Liberty, 13 September-12 October 2017.
• “The nature and limits of Gary Becker’s theory of racial discrimination” New York University, New York 23 January 2017. • “A city cannot be a work of art” Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 15 November 2016.
• “Jane Jacobs, economist” Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 15 November 2016.
• “Jane Jacobs, Economist” St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, 27 April 2016.
• “A city cannot be a work of art (revised)” Reyerson University Planning Expo, Toronto, Canada, 12 March 2016. • “Urban planning and the living city” The King’s College, NYC, 21 January 2016.
• “Jane Jacobs on Henry George: progress or poverty” Henry George School, NYC 18 June 2015.
• “A city cannot be a work of art (revised)” Cosmos + Taxis conference, 8 May 2015.
• “Jane Jacobs on Henry George: progress of poverty?” Association of Private Enterprise Education, 14 April 2015. • “What can you learn from a city neighborhood?” fee.org podcast, 16 June 2014.
• Lectures: “How do economists think?,” “Same players, different rules,” & “Government failure is definitely an option,” for the Foundation for Economic Education, 4-7 June 2014.
• Lectures: “What is Austrian Economics?,” “The social roles of profit and loss,) & “Inflation: it’s causes and cures,” for the Foundation for Economic Education, 8-11 June 2014.
• “A city cannot be a work of art,” panel on Urban/Regional Planning, Association of Private Enterprise Education, 15 April 2014. • “The economy of cities” for European Students for Liberty podcast, 25 March 2014.
• “A city cannot be a work of art,” a lecture in honor of Peter Gordon, Univ. of Southern California, 14 March 2014. • “Cities and knowledge,” at St. John’s University, Queens, New York, 21 October 2013.
• “The dynamics of interventionism” at panel on Public Choice, Toronto, Canada sponsored by the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada, January 19, 2013.
• “The economics of Jane Jacobs” at The Legacy of Jane Jacobs in Toronto, Canada sponsored by the Liberal Studies Institute, January 17, 2013.
• High-school Debate lecture on “Do we need a United Nations?” at The Foundation for Economic Education, December 6, 2012. • WDET Detroit public radio with Nick Anderson on the problems of financing public transit, November 29, 2012. • “Breaking windows and shattering macroeconomics” to the Economics Club of Yeshiva University, November 14, 2012. • Guest Lecture for New School on “Jane Jacobs and the New Economy,” October 3, 2012.
• Atlas Liberty Forum, Panel on “Effectively Communicating Sound Economics,” October 4, 2012.
• 2012 MAS Summit for New York City, Panel on “New York City and the New Economy,” October 18, 2012. • “Weak ties, entrepreneurship, and the Great Society,” Tiger Bay Club, Pensacola, Florida, July 20, 2012.
• Recorded segment for FEE.tv on “Don’t tread on others,” June 21, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxPAZANdYQE
• Interviewed for documentary film on Jane Jacobs, June 25, 2012
• “The free market: this time it’s personal,” Smith Center (California State University, East Bay), May30, 2012. • “Why a city cannot be a work of art,” to the staff of the Municipal Art Society of New York, February 29, 2012. • “Democracy and civil society,” Gulf Coast Economics Club, Pensacola, FL 19 October 2011
• “Entrepreneurship and social networks,” Society of Libertarian Entrepreneurs, September 15, 2011.
• “Entrepreneurship in action space,” New York University, Colloquium on Market Institutions & Economic Processes, September 2011; Association of Private Enterprise Education conference Las Vega, NV April 3, 2012.
• “Kinds of interventionism, and their consequences,” Hillsdale College, Praxis, April 2011.
• “Economic development from a Jacobsian perspective,” New York University, Colloquium on Market Institutions & Economic Processes, February 2011; Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, November 14, 2011.
• “The mirage of the efficient city,” New York University, Colloquium on Market Institutions & Processes, October 2009. • “The entrepreneurial perspective” for US Economic Renaissance Conference, CUNY Graduate Center June 2009. • Teach-in: “The Current Financial Crisis,” Purchase College, October 2008 & April 2009.
• “Urbanizing Economics,” Presidential Address to the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, Charleston, SC 19 November 2006. In Review of Austrian Economics (2007).
• “Government planning – a natural disaster” International Policy Network, London, June 2007
• “Urban interventionism” J.B. Say Seminar, Dauphine University, Paris, June 2007.
• “The city as a spontaneous order,” “In cities we trust,” & “Urban interventionism” CAE Paul Cezanne University, Aix, June 2007.
• “Gales of creative destruction: Innovative governance and entrepreneurial development in post-Katrina New Orleans,” PPE Workshop, George Mason University (30 November 2006).
• “The nature of trust and its role in the market process” Colloquium on Market Institutions and Economic Processes, NYU (10 April 2006).
• “Is it rational to trust?” PPE Workshop, George Mason University (6 March 2006).
• “Dynamics of interventionism,” “Spontaneous order and the city,” & “Trust and power” IHS Advanced Seminar July 2006. • “The significance of Jane Jacobs’s work to economics” Center for the Living City, Washington Square Park, NYC (28 June 06) • “Why is social capital important for understanding the market process” Institute of Economic Affairs (staff), 24 October 2005 • “The city as a spontaneous order” Hayek Society (LSE), 27 October 2005
• “Interventionism,” Foundation for Economic Education summer seminars 2005, 06, 07, 08, 09
• “Public Choice,” FEE summer seminars 2005, 06, 07
• “Urban Planning,” FEE seminars 2005, 06, 07, 08, 09
• “Private Cities,” FEE seminars 2006, 07, 08, 09
• “Austrian economics & entrepreneurship” FEE seminar June, July, August 2003
• “The dangers of interventionism” FEE seminar June, July, August 2003 annually to present
• “Competition, monopoly, & antitrust” FEE seminar June, July, August 2003
• “Free-market environmentalism” FEE seminar June, July, August 2003
• “A beautiful movie, lousy economics,” Evening at FEE, September 2002
• “Current research on urban economics and public policy,” FEE/NYU Seminar, June 2002
• “Globalization,” Purchase College Alumni Association, February 2001
• "Dynamics of interventionism," FEE/NYU Austrian Summer Seminar, July 1999
• "Knowledge & norms in Hayek's political economy," St. Lawrence Inst., May 1999
• "The perils of interventionism," Hillsdale College, March 1999
• "Is the state necessary to provide public goods?" Foundation for Econ. Education, August 1998
• "Dynamics of the Mixed Economy," (3 lectures) Mises Institute, May 1998
• "Interventionism," Foundation for Economic Education, August 1997
• "Comment: Regulation as a Process," Hillsdale College, March 1991
SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
• Presented “Social distancing the socially distant” for APEE (Las Vegas) 4 April 2022.
• Scheduled webinar on “What is a city” for The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Malaysia), July 14, 2020. • Presented “Urban Planning for Urban Values” for a conference on Science, Values, & Society, April 30-May 3, 2020. • Panel for Market Urbanism Round Table, May 23, 2020.
• Podcast on “Why can’t a city be a work of art” for the Institute for Liberal Studies (Ottawa), Nov. 15 (spring 2020). • Presented “Jacobs on George” and a presidential panel on “Cooperation” at South. Econ. Assoc. Ft. Lauderdale, Nov. 22-5.
• "The scope and limits of urban policy" for Cosmos + Taxis conference on "Spontaneous Urban Planning at the Intersection of Markets, Democracy and Science" Vancouver, BC. 24 May 2019.
• “Why a great city is messy and what not to do about it” for a panel on “The Future of Cities” at the general meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Gran Canaria, Spain, 2 October 2018.
• “How Do Cities Solve the Problem of Diversity and Cohesion? A Jacobsian Analysis” and “Roundtable on Jane Jacobs” for AESOP Annual Congress, Gothenburg, Sweden, 11 July 2018.
• “The nature and limits of Gary Becker’s theory of discrimination” Cosmos + Taxis conference, Milan, Italy 18 November 2016. • “Entrepreneurship in action space,” Association of Private Enterprise Education, April 2012.
• “Economic development from a Jacobsian perspective,” Association of Private Enterprise Education, April 2011.
• “Vienna to Virginia” Conference on political economy at the Foundation for Economic Education, September 2008, commentator and participant.
• Chair, panel on “Urban and Regional Issues” (Southern Economic Association, 11/99 and 11/01).
• “Urban interventionism and local knowledge” (Assoc. for the History and Tradition of Austrian Economics, Paris, 5/00).
• "Jane Jacobs's critique of urban planning and its relation to the theory of interventionism" (George Mason University 3/98; NYU Colloquium, 4/98; Southern Economic Association 1999).
COLUMNS
• Regular essayist for Libertarianism.org (Cato Institute) “What is the economic Meaning of cost?” (23 January 2019) https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/whats-the-economic-meaning-of-cost?fbclid=IwAR1kIKfoV2_J-Ro SncchvK1uKFLJRMfYeO87FbbQQ7LsEdXb5dH2xXA3LY
• Bi-weekly article & features for FreemanOnline: http://www.thefreemanonline.org/ 2010-2016. For other articles in this publication see http://www.thefreemanonline.org/author/sanford-ikeda/
BLOGS
• “Culture of Congestion” for the New York Sun, December 2007-October 2008
http://www.nysun.com/blogs/culture-of-congestion/
• “ThinkMarkets” for the Colloquium on Market Institutions and Economics Processes, New York University, 2008-2018. http://thinkmarkets.wordpress.com/
• “Market Urbanism” guest-blogger, 2008-present: http://marketurbanism.com/
EXPERT TESTIMONY
• “The state of the New York economy post 9/11,” Testimony before the New York City Council Subcommittee on Revenue and Forecast, 1 April 2002.
ADVISORY COMMITTEES
• Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Cultural Literacy Exam 2006-7
• For What We See: Essays in Honor of Jane Jacobs 2008
OTHER PAPERS
• "Human action in a Buddhist context " (NYU Colloquium, 4/96).
• "Toward a theory of interventionism " (NYU Colloquium, 9/94; Geo. Mason U., 2/96).
• "Roads to collectivism " (NYU Colloquium, 9/93; Southern Ec. Assoc., 11/95).
• "Is market failure the price of ideological success?" (Eastern Econ. Assoc. 3/94).
• "The possibility of an unstable minimal state" (NYU Colloquium, 11/92).
• "The pretence of knowledge and the minimal state" (Atlantic Econ. Assoc., 10/92).
• "Dynamics of the mixed economy." (Eastern Econ. Assoc., 3/92).
• "Market-process analysis in industrial organization: Kirzner, contestability, and Demsetz" (Austrian Econ. Sem. of Wash. D.C., 1990).
• "Monopoly and coordination: a non-equilibrium approach to welfare economics" (Eastern Econ. Assoc., 3/89).
ARTICLES FOR FEE.ORG AS OF MARCH 2017
160) What Are the Chances That a Muslim is a Terrorist? 20 January 2017
https://fee.org/articles/what-are-the-chances-that-a-muslim-is-a-terrorist/
159) On Kaepernick, the Left and the Right Have A Lot in Common. 8 September 2016
https://fee.org/articles/on-kaepernick-the-left-and-the-right-have-a-lot-in-common/
158) How the Housing Market Works. 22 August 2016
https://fee.org/articles/how-the-housing-market-works/
157) Tolerance, Criticism, and Humility are Core Principles of Freedom. 22 July 2016
https://fee.org/articles/tolerance-criticism-and-humility-are-core-principles-of-freedom/
156) Immigration is a Fundamental Right. 25 June 2016
https://fee.org/articles/immigration-is-a-fundamental-human-right/
155) China’s Planned Capitalism Kills Wealth. 14 June 2016
https://fee.org/articles/chinas-planned-capitalism-kills-wealth/
154) Competition and Coordination Are Not the Same Thing. 30 May 2016
https://fee.org/articles/competition-and-cooperation-are-not-the-same-thing/
153) Rhetoric vs. Reality on New York's Minimum Wage
"Fight for Fifteen" has won through sheer alliteration, but reality is starting to creep in.
April 25 2016
152) Why We Need to Make Mistakes
Innovation means trying out new things — and often failing.
April 14 2016
151) House of Cards' Most Unbelievable Moment
Frank Underwood's America is, indeed, a bizarre and disturbing alternate universe.
March 22 2016
150) “Democratic Socialism” Is a Contradiction in Terms
While socialism’s goals may be lofty, its means are inherently at odds with democracy.
March 17 2016
149) The Answer to Expensive Housing: Build More
Restricting the supply of housing makes housing more expensive and lower quality for everyone.
February 23 2016
148) A Date That Should Live in Infamy
Seventy-four years ago, the president ordered the military to imprison 100,000 Americans in racial concentration camps. February 19 2016
147) Mises Was Right: The Hampered Market Is Unsustainable
Don’t mistake the persistence of a country’s government with the viability of the interventionist regimes that come and go. February 18 2016
146) Government Is Krampus, Not Santa
There’s a lump of coal under the Christmas tree, packaged as government largesse.
December 25 2015
145) Who Do Economic Profits Belong To?
Discovering what we don’t know we don’t know creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to earn profits. December 10 2015
144) 3 Mistakes Free Marketers Often Make
To promote the economic way of thinking, we need to stop making these basic mistakes.
November 26 2015
143) Social Justice versus the Left
Despite a shared philosophy, progressive groups must fight for a finite pool of tax dollars.
November 16 2015
142) The Enemy of Affordable Housing
What’s hard to see in the heated, off-the-cuff political debates are the consequences of rent regulations in San Francisco. November 02 2015
141) Big Pharma and the Opposite of Science
Looking beyond greed for the source of high pharmaceutical prices doesn’t make you a bad person.
October 19 2015
140) Humane Transitions to Freedom
The alternative to shock therapy isn’t ideological compromise.
October 01 2015
139) Progressivism Is Illiberal
People like Mayor Bill de Blasio don’t hesitate to use violence to achieve their goals. That’s because aggression lies at the foundation of progressive ideology.
September 16 2015
138) How Not to Help Sweatshop Workers
You hear that H&M buys shirts from a factory in Bangladesh that works its employees long hours under harsh conditions and low pay. What’s the moral thing to do?
September 02 2015
137) Will Robots Put Everyone Out of Work?
Machines might substitute for labor in the short term, but in the long term they complement labor and increase its productivity. August 20 2015
136) How Life Finds a Way in the Regulatory State
While the growth of government around the world is discouraging, and the struggle to break free goes on, the inventiveness of clever,
creative people who find the gaps is a source of hope.
August 04 2015
135) Don't Worship the Free Market
To say that liberty will take care of a problem is not a shut-up argument, and it shouldn’t be used that way. July 23 2015
134) Capitalist Theory Is Better Than Socialist Reality
Are advocates of the free market playing a hypocritical game in the debate with anti-capitalists, or do we have economic theory on our side?
July 09 2015
133) Those Who Shape Us, the Lives We Touch
Earlier this month, my 67-year-old sister, Ginger, died peacefully after a long illness. Her human action changed my life. June 25 2015
132) Visualizing the Trade-Offs between Liberty and Safety
Diagramming the supposed trade-off between safety and liberty may help us see the false dichotomy.
June 11 2015
131) Who Ignores the Principle of Scarcity?
In everyday life, it’s usually impossible to ignore the existence of scarcity. But politicians and progressives have made a cottage industry out of wishing scarcity away.
May 26 2015
130) Blurring the Lines between Products and Services
What matters is producing value
May 14, 2015
Hand-wringing over the loss of manufacturing may have to do with a false distinction between manufacturing and services.
129) The Other Half of the Inflation Story
Credit expansion adds noise to price signals
Apr 30, 2015
Credit expansion is like someone making too many of some puzzle pieces and too few of others, and then trying to force them all together.
128) The Incoherence of the Mixed Economy
Collectivism is at least coherent and consistent
Apr 16, 2015
One thing the free market and collectivism have in common is logical coherence. But what does this mean for the mixed economy?
127) How Does Paris Get Fed?
Answering the central question of economics
Apr 2, 2015
Frédéric Bastiat, the great 19th-century economic journalist, famously asked, “How does Paris get fed?” In a nutshell, I think that’s the central question of economics.
126) Trading with “The Other”
Can mutual benefit overcome racism?
Mar 19, 2015
Imagine our shock when we learned that the landlord didn't want to rent to us because of our race.
125) Adam Smith: Zen Master
East and West converge on the "power of now"
Eastern and Western traditions share a powerful insight: "The present moment is all you ever have." Eckhart Tolle, Ludwig von Mises, and Adam Smith agree.
MARCH 5, 2015
124) Competition in the Marketplace of Libertarian Ideas
Reflections on the International Students for Liberty Conference (ISFLC)
There is no better example of voluntary, peaceful cooperation than what I saw at ISFLC.
FEBRUARY 19, 2015
123) Shut Out: How Land-Use Regulations Hurt the Poor
Economics paints a damning picture of zoning and smart growth
People sometimes support regulations, often with the best of intentions, but these wind up creating outcomes they don't like. Land-use regulations are a prime example.
FEBRUARY 5, 2015
122) Visions of Progress: Henry George vs. Jane Jacobs
Or, Would You Rather Live in Georgetown or Jacobsville?
George disparaged great cities, while Jacobs celebrated them.
JANUARY 22, 2015
121) Am I a Hypocrite?
Avoiding hypocrisy in an unfree world
To what extent can someone be a consistent libertarian and avoid benefiting from an unfree system? There's a line in there somewhere, but as government grows, it's getting harder to see.
JANUARY 8, 2015
120) Black and Blue: How the State Brings Order
We need rule of law, not law and order
Today, the difference between law and order and rule of law is literally a matter of life and death.
DECEMBER 11, 2014
119) Incentives 101
Why good intentions fail and passing a law still won’t get it done
The economic way of thinking requires looking at the incentives, not banning the consequences.
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
118) The Power of No
Being able to say no is what enables us to say yes.
Being able to say no defines the scope of our personal autonomy, while being able to say yes allows us to creatively explore (or not) the freedom that autonomy gives us.
OCTOBER 30, 2014
117) The Rule of Law Is Limited by the Size of Government
The rule of law confers predictability and constrains power. But as government grows, this principle of minimal government is weakened.
OCTOBER 16, 2014
116) Wages and the Free Market, Part 2
Innovation Is the Lifeblood of a Healthy Economy
When it comes to rising living standards, innovation is far more important than efficiency.
OCTOBER 2, 2014
115) Wages and the Free Market, Part 1
Dispelling labor market myths with theory and data
It's popular to claim that efficiency is the enemy of workers. But it's not true.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2014
114) Violence and the Illusion of Certainty
The certainty of our beliefs can cause strife; when combined with political power, the results are often disastrous. SEPTEMBER 4, 2014
113) Plot Holes in Fiction and in Life
People make mistakes. In novels, mistakes can mean that the plot fails. In real life, mistakes open opportunities. AUGUST 21, 2014
112) Dissent Under Socialism
Intolerance for free expression grows with the scope of central planning
JULY 24, 2014
111) Discussion versus Debate
Debate is a zero-sum game: In order for you to win, your opponent has to lose. As a result, debate is deeply anti-intellectual. JULY 10, 2014
110) Heterogeneity: A Capital Idea!
Few mainstream economists give capital theory proper attention, even as they are abuzz about Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century.
JUNE 26, 2014
109) A Lot of Economics in One Lesson
Henry Hazlitt's most famous book might be accessible, but that doesn't mean it's superficial.
JUNE 12, 2014
108) Libertarians As Seen from the “Other Side”
People experience negative outcomes in our economy. We shouldn't be too quick to jump to conclusions about why they happened. MAY 29, 2014
107) Slogans or Science?
Regression toward the meme in the minimum wage debate.
MAY 15, 2014
Slinging memes and slogans back and forth does not constitute debate and brings nobody any closer to understanding.
106) The Bonsai and the Candy Bag
A wedding reception offers evidence of market miracles around us.
MAY 01, 2014
105) Urban Design and Social Complexity
Urban planning always risks draining the life out of what it tries to control.
APRIL 17, 2014
104) Hating Politics, Loving Government
Politics is inseparable from government. Indeed, it is government.
APRIL 03, 2014
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103) Beyond Crony Capitalism
MARCH 20, 2014 by SANDY IKEDA
Too many libertarians fixate on cronyism, to the near exclusion of other forms of interventionism.
102) Um, Scarcity?
MARCH 06, 2014
Scarcity is what gives something economic value. And although we are often tempted to ignore scarcity, it's impossible to escape its consequences.
101) Another Four Falsehoods About the Free Market
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
Conversations about the free market are beset by falsehoods that have entered conventional wisdom. We've covered 14 already. Here are four more.
100) Passing a Law Won’t Get It Done
FEBRUARY 06, 2014 by SANDY IKEDA
Unintended consequences bedevil even the best plans. Passing a law for every outcome you desire only makes it worse.
99) Dystopias Seen, Dystopias Imagined
JANUARY 23, 2014
Why do so many fear a corporate dystopia more than a State-run nightmare world? Several examples of the latter have actually existed, after all.
98) Who Is Really Threatened by Innovation?
JANUARY 09, 2014
Innovation, though it's responsible for our rising standards of living, can be scary. Particularly to those who possess economic or political power under the status quo.
97) Obamacare and Unintended Consequences
DECEMBER 05, 2013
Interventions have unintended consequences, which tend to provoke further interventions. Obamacare is a case in point.
96) Dead Models vs. Living Economics
NOVEMBER 21, 2013
Markets don't function with perfect efficiency, because they're made up of human beings. Conflating perfect competition with free market economics fuels the general backlash against free markets.
95) The Two Faces of the Market
NOVEMBER 08, 2013
Our personal relationships are different from and less complex than impersonal market relationships. Transferring behavior directly from one to the other is a recipe for disaster. Here's why.
94) 7 More Falsehoods About the Free Market
OCTOBER 25, 2013
When it comes to conventional wisdom about the free market, falsehoods abound. We covered some a couple weeks back. Here are seven more.
93) 7 Falsehoods About the Free Market
OCTOBER 11, 2013
Conversations about the free market are beset by falsehoods that have entered conventional wisdom. Here's a sampling of some of the more persistent among them.
92) Thinking Outside the Circle
SEPTEMBER 27, 2013
Thinking of the political spectrum as a circle creates apparent paradoxes. Recognizing that most people differ on methods, not ends, can help resolve them.
91) The Right to Not Sell
SEPTEMBER 13, 2013
The free market enables people to use their property as they see fit. Contrary to popular caricature, that rarely means pursuing money for its own sake, in every event. In fact, the right not to sell, even in the face of immense pressure, is what makes private acts of charity possible.
90) Labels and Ideological Bubbles
AUGUST 30, 2013
Ideological bubbles restrict our intellectual development and make constructive dialogue that much harder. Pay attention to how you describe your intellectual opponents; using terms they would never use themselves is a good sign you've slipped into your own bubble.
89) Bookstore Wars
AUGUST 16, 2013
Efficiency alone isn't enough to meet consumers' desires. Independent booksellers' recent comeback shows how creativity--and competition-- matter.
88) Spillovers: Knowledge, Beer, and Technology
AUGUST 02, 2013
Technology has done wonders to reduce the effects of distance, but the tendency for knowledge and ideas to spill over to other people means proximity still matters.
87) Markets as Cities
JULY 19, 2013
Living cites and successful markets bring intellectually and culturally diverse people together to their mutual advantage, but they also create conditions in which vast amounts of novel information get dispersed very rapidly.
86) Higher Ed: Bubble, Toil, and Trouble
JULY 02, 2013
Interest rates have been making news again. They help underscore the magnitude of the student-loan bubble.
85) Balancing Powers?
JUNE 21, 2013
Economic and political power are different animals; they can't be traded off against each other.
84) The Limits of the Non-Aggression Principle
JUNE 07, 2013
The non-aggression principle relies on a common understanding of the relevant property-rights regime; otherwise, it cannot address complex and subtle rights disputes.
83) The Extraordinary Business of Life
MAY 24, 2013
Economics studies much more than just the part of life devoted to business, and libertarianism isn't a simple pro-business position. But then business itself--dynamic, subversive, liberating--is much more than just one part of life.
82) The Invisible City
MAY 08, 2013
A great city is composed of the networks of relationships between people. It's an invisible kind of order, in a Hayekian sense, that cannot be seen in its entirety.
81) Economics, Not Engineering
APRIL 26, 2013
Nobody can produce a certain outcome simply by legislating it. A world in which they could would be unbearably drab and boring.
80) A Modest Proposal for My Students
APRIL 12, 2013
An experiment with students' grades tests their commitment to redistribution.
79) On Brakes and Mistakes
MARCH 29, 2013
In an era of change and uncertainty, people will fail as they seek out knowledge and better ways to do things. A culture that celebrates spectacular success should at least tolerate spectacular failure.
78) Glimpse Into a Freer Future
MARCH 15, 2013
Beth Cody's Looking Backward: 2012–2162 offers a compelling picture of how a truly free society might work.
77) The New Swedish Model
MARCH 01, 2013
The Swedish model has meant, in recent years, reducing public spending and deficits. To replicate that model in the United States, though, we might have to become Greece first.
76) The Rural Libertarian as a Historical Anomaly
FEBRUARY 15, 2013
Rural America is an anomaly for associating "conservative" with support for limited government, free markets, and voluntary approaches to social issues. The push for more personal liberty and self-responsibility, like social and economic development generally, originates in urban environments.
75) What Would a Free Society Look Like?
FEBRUARY 01, 2013
Nobody knows what a free society would look like, and that's fine; there are strict limits on what we can predict about the future and the outcomes of our actions. It's enough that we can predict that a society built on foundations of non-aggression and free exchange would have no slavery, no large-scale war, and no privileges for elites.
74) Why I Don't Hate the State
JANUARY 18, 2013
If we recognize that our understanding of the world is imperfect, we should refrain from labeling ideas and people as evil, and refrain from indulging in hatred toward those ideas and people we'd like to persuade.
73) Do the Rich Deserve to Be Taxed?
DECEMBER 21, 2012
Simplistic calls to "tax the rich" are often based on, at best, imprecise assumptions. But as government intervention grows, it gets harder and harder to say who earned their money fairly and who simply plundered it.
72) New Problems Need New Solutions
DECEMBER 05, 2012
Free markets allow regular individuals to work together creatively to identify and solve problems, free from physical violence and entrenched privileges; government intervention produces top-down, one-size-fits-none solutions favoring privileged government and private interests.
71) Sandy, Shared Space, and Spontaneous Order
6Nov2012
70) Moving Beyond Free-Market Minimalism
23Oct2012
69) Ending the War on Kidneys
9Oct2012
68) Are We Destroying the Earth?
What people usually mean when they say mankind is destroying the earth is that human action causes a change they don’t like. 18Sep2012
67) TANSTAAFL and Saving: Not the Whole Story
Saving and rising capital accumulation accompany significant economic development, but they are not the source of prosperity. 4Sep2012
66) Coping with Disappointment
The inability or unwillingness of governments to adjust to changing conditions ultimately results in forcing people to do things against their will in the attempt to achieve the impossible.
21Aug2012
65) Whatever Happened to the Division of Labor?
For Adam Smith the division of labor plays a crucial role in the material progress of society, yet it seems to do little of the theoretical heavy lifting in modern treatments of economic development.
7Aug2012
64) “You Didn’t Build That . . .”
Who created the underlying order that politicians and bureaucrats want to control? The answer is–nobody. 24Jul2012
63) Individualism Versus Selfishness-ism
Individualism is a way of seeing and understanding how we live together. It is about how best to promote social cooperation. 10Jul2012
62) Property Rights Aren’t Always the Libertarian Solution
Does the theory of externalities mean the air must be privatized?
26Jun2012
61) On the Canons of Taxation and the Taxation of Cannon
The rule of law by itself is not sufficient to protect individual liberty, so it must be combined with other principles, such as private property and free association.
12Jun2012
60) On “Bourgeois Paternalism”
Last March the noted political scientist James Q. Wilson died at the age of 80. He is probably best known for developing, with George L. Kelling, the “broken-windows thesis” of law enforcement, which is not to be confused with Frédéric Bastiat’s similar-sounding “broken window fallacy.” (I’ve written about the difference here.) Wilson and Kelling’s thesis is [...]
30May2012
59) Prohibition: Bootleggers, Baptists, and Bandits
An important connection existed between the anti-liquor lobby and passage of the income-tax amendment. 29May2012
58) JPMorgan’s Blunder Is No Market Failure
Neither losses from error nor profits from good decisions are grounds in themselves for tighter regulation. 15May2012
57) Cavemen, Money, and Spontaneous Orders
Who invented money? Who invented market prices? Who invented cities? What about language? The answer is: no one. 2May2012
56) Super Bowl versus Education?
Around the time of last February’s Super Bowl, a Facebook friend posted a status update that needed deconstructing. It said: “If we took all the money from Super Bowl ads and spent it on educating our kids, we wouldn’t be America.” While the statement is rather oblique, I think it’s safe to say that she was [...]
26Apr2012
55) Committing to Commitment
It’s often relatively easy to remain committed to particular beliefs or ideologies, while it’s much harder to stay committed to “deeper” normative principles of tolerance and criticism, especially self-criticism.
17Apr2012
54) Weak Ties, Entrepreneurship, and the Great Society
Precisely because economic development depends so heavily on weak ties, it’s important to appreciate the environment in which they can emerge.
3Apr2012
53) Donald Shoup Takes San Francisco
Street parking is zero-priced because those streets, and the curbs and sidewalks that abut them, are not privately owned. 20Mar2012
52) On “Bourgeois Paternalism”
When it emerges from freedom, a living community stands a better chance of thriving and sustaining itself. 6Mar2012
51) Collectivism as Apartism
Perhaps the secret of the classical liberalism that undergirds the free society is that it doesn’t ask us to agree on a endless laundry list of priorities in order to belong to the Great Society.
21Feb2012
50) Super Bowl versus Education?
It appears that spending on government education in one year was 324 times the amount companies spent on Super Bowl advertising over 20 years.
7Feb2012
49) Two Kinds of Government Failure
One emphasizes incentive problems, the other knowledge problems.
24Jan2012
48) Commerce and Artistic Freedom
The dynamic merchant class gave birth to artistic freedom a thousand years ago, and today commerce continues to open new opportunities for creative expression to budding artists.
10Jan2012
47) Hayek and the Presumption of Goodwill
In a world of heated ideological differences and partisan political conflict, it’s tempting to paint our opponents as stupid and evil. We need to get past that. We need to keep learning.
13Dec2011
46) Facebook and Familiar Strangers
The genesis and development of early cities, the foundation of the Great Society, depended as much on the freedom to break old, strong ties as on the freedom to form of new, weak ones.
29Nov2011
45) Leaking Left and Right
When what you’re seeking through politics is simply “more,” there’s no principled way to say when enough is enough. 15Nov2011
44) Don’t Tread On Others
I realize there’s an historical reason for “Don’t Tread On Me.” But many today, both defenders and detractors of libertarianism, believe it captures the essence of the philosophy.
1Nov2011
43) No Bad Apple?
It’s a little surprising that Occupy Wall Street protesters haven’t condemned Steve Jobs, one of the leading members of the “1 percent.” 18Oct2011
42) Know Thine Enemy, Know Thyself
I think Jane Jacobs might have been there amongst the Wall Street protesters, but I believe she would have known exactly what the source of the problem is.
4Oct2011
41) Macroeconomics Needs SMUT
The value of anything, including labor and what it produces, is never disembodied: It is must be valuable to someone for something. 20Sep2011
40) Where To Begin?
Choosing the right unit of analysis is more than an academic exercise. It’s a matter of poverty and prosperity, even of death and life. 6Sep2011
39) Government, So Five Years Ago!
It’s not reasonable to expect government programs to be efficient or innovative.
23Aug2011
38) Why Caveat Emptor?
The beauty of the free market is that it lets us choose, not perfectly but better than any of the alternatives, how much we expose ourselves to uncertainty.
9Aug2011 | Sandy Ikeda | 3 comments | Continued
37) The Breezes of Creative Destruction
As dramatic as the news of Borders’s closing has been, in the larger scheme of things economic change happens fairly slowly, at least compared to changes caused by governments.
26Jul2011
36) The Market: This Time It’s Personal
Freedom of movement, in physical and social space, is the essence of the free society.
12Jul2011
35) The Virtue of Market Inefficiency
A living economy needs to create inefficiencies, and lots of them, to set the stage for greater efficiency and ongoing innovation. 28Jun2011
34) Preservation at the Expense of Liberty
Using political power to preserve any cherished way of life — trying to stay the uncertain dynamic that washes through social institutions, norms, and conventions — is not only futile but ultimately destructive of liberty.
14Jun2011
33) But There ARE Free Lunches!
Creative discovery, what Israel Kirzner calls “entrepreneurship,” creates value where none existed before. 31May2011
32) The Psychological Consequences of Rent Control
When people get used to depending on government for something as central to their lives as housing, it shapes their expectations about other areas of at least equal concern, such as jobs and health care.
17May2011
31) When Destruction Can Be Creative
Can destruction ever promote economic development in a way that would be better than if the situation had remained status quo ante? 3May2011
30) Closing Social Distance
The free market, in the large and the small, not only closes social distance, it also helps form connections that we could never have imagined.
19Apr2011
29) Who Should Rebuild Japan’s Cities?
No one person or group of experts needs to or should rebuild Japan if the goal is to reestablish settlements that are genuine engines of economic growth and incubators of ideas.
5Apr2011
28) Nature Itches
If you want to live closer to nature, be prepared to die closer to nature.
22Mar2011
27) Democracy and Civil Society
Having the right formal institutions in place is important, but these won’t be effective without the informal rules that undergird a civil society.
8Mar2011
26) Governing the Traffic Commons
In the past dozen years or so I’ve come to appreciate more and more the nonmarket foundations of the market process. 22Feb2011
25) The Limits of Social Media
Fundamentally, you can’t Tweet free trade any more than you can Tweet a revolution.
8Feb2011
24) The Permanence of Politics
The question I’d like to touch on here is whether, with limited government or even no government at all, politics would become unimportant.
25Jan2011
23) A Matter of Life and Death
Israel Kirzner once made the rather startling statement that the most important lesson he learned from Mises, one of the greatest economic theorists of his age, had nothing directly to do with economic theory at all.
11Jan2011
22) Education: Investment Versus Spending
Artificially lowering the price of education is bound to create surpluses of increasingly disappointed graduates in the years ahead. 14Dec2010
21) The Bourne Pronouncement
War is indeed the health of the State, all States, and ipso facto the enemy of individual freedom.
30Nov2010
20) Thinking Twice about Doublethink
Admitting error and correcting course based on that admission is the real “third rail” of politics.
16Nov2010
19) Exercise Your Right to Vote!
Some might argue that the right to vote entails the obligation to vote, perhaps because they heard somewhere that every right entails an obligation.
2Nov2010
18) The Urban Origins of Liberty
The city gave us the chance to think about freedom, as well as the means to articulate its philosophy and, in the dense social networks
of cities, to spread the idea.
26Oct2010
17) Weak Ties, Entrepreneurship, and the Great Society
Precisely because economic development depends so heavily on weak ties, it’s important to appreciate the environment in which they can emerge.
12Oct2010
16) Gordon Gekko on Greed
When profits and losses redound to those responsible for making the decisions that produce them, market participants tend to grow more responsible and make better decisions.
28Sep2010
15) Classical Liberalism, Individualism, and Park51
Painting all Muslims or Islamic organizations with collective guilt goes against the essence of the individualist principles of classical liberalism.
14Sep2010
14) The Demand Curve for Sprawl Slopes Downward
Other things equal, the cheaper you make something the more of it people will want to buy, and that includes low-density development.
17Aug2010
13) Addressing Local Knowledge
Friedrich Hayek argued that “local knowledge” or “particular knowledge of time and place,” such as rules of thumb or skills learned by doing, is more important than the kind of knowledge that can be written down and objectively conveyed. 3Aug2010
12) Of Maps and Modernism
The unhelpful emphasis on the geometry of straight, parallel lines in the case of the non-New York maps reflects, I believe, an attitude fundamentally at odds with a vigorous, dynamic city.
13Jul2010
11) Urban Mass Transit Out of Suburban Sprawl
The great subway systems of the world were not originally intended to carry people from one part of the city to another but rather to enable the working poor and middle class to move out of the central city.
22Jun2010
10) Give Up on “Giving Back”
I usually cringe when I hear someone who got rich from business say he feels an obligation to “give back to society.” 8Jun2010
9) On Being Critical
Self-criticism is the sine qua non of one pillar of a free society: radical tolerance.
18May2010
8) Interventionism, Immigration, and Nationalism
I was born and raised in Arizona, so I’ve been following with particular interest that state’s recently passed immigration legislation as well as the ensuing public uproar.
4May2010
7) Are “Charter Cities” a Solution?
What makes a charter city attractive is the prospect of rapidly instituting rules consistent with economic development in an area that might otherwise take decades to do so, offering almost overnight the chance of a better life for the citizens of a impoverished country. 20Apr2010
6) Failure versus Error
There are two kinds of error, and one of them is consistent with success.
6Apr2010
5) Is There a “Libertarian Architecture”?
I sometimes ask myself that question when thinking about what a purely libertarian culture would look like.
23Mar2010
4) The Fruits of Imperfection
Beneath the nationalism and medal counts that seemed to dominate the Winter Olympic Games just ended lies a deeper lesson: the importance of imperfection.
9Mar2010
3) Nothing Lasts, Nothing Is Finished, Nothing Is Perfect
Sound economics emphasizes how the open-endedness of real time introduces imperfections into the social world but also offers opportunities for entrepreneurial discovery.
16Feb2010
2) The Other Broken Window
Both the broken-window fallacy and the broken-window hypothesis offer solid arguments against some forms of harmful intervention. 2Feb2010
1) Haiti and the Broken-Window Fallacy
In the days following the tragedy we are now witnessing in Haiti, I was wondering how long it would take before someone in the media would commit the broken-window fallacy.
19Jan2010
ARTICLES FOR THE FREEMAN
• “Why good intentions fail” in The Freeman (Spring 2015)
• “The power of no” in The Freeman (December 2014)
• “Wages and the free market” in The Freeman (November 2014)
• “Plot holes in fiction and in life” in The Freeman (October 2014)
• “Dissent under socialism” in The Freeman (September 2014)
• “Libertarians as seen from the ‘other side’” in The Freeman (July/August 2014)
• “Urban design and social complexity” in The Freeman (June 2014)
• “Hating politics, loving government” in The Freeman (May 2014)
• “Passing a law won’t get it done” in The Freeman (April 2014)
• “Dystopias seen, dystopias imagined” in The Freeman (March 2014)
• “Dead models versus living economics” in The Freeman (January/February 2014)
• “Falsehoods about the free market” in The Freeman (December 2013)
• “Labels and ideological bubbles” in The Freeman (October 2013)
• “The limits of the non-agression principle” in The Freeman (September 2013)
• “This Time It’s Personal: The Other Side of the Impersonal Market” in The Freeman (July/August 2013) • “The invisible city” in The Freeman (June 2013)
• “On brakes and mistakes” in The Freeman (May 2013)
• “The new Swedish model” in The Freeman (April 2013)
• “Do the rich deserve to be taxed?” in The Freeman (December 2012)
• “The virtue of market inefficiency” in The Freeman (November 2012)
• “On bourgeois paternalism” in The Freeman (June 2012)
• “Super Bowl versus education” in The Freeman (May 2012)
• “A double whammy for Austrian Economics” in The Freeman (September 2009)
• “Dynamics of disinterventionism” in The Freeman (May 2009)