Tullock (2005, p. 160) notes that the perceived robust relationship between democracy and economic progress is due mostly to assumption, rather than analysis. Taking up Tullock's challenge to consider the relationship between economic progress and other political forms, we re-assess the...

This paper presents a case study of the emergence of currency from a barter economy, a process discussed theoretically by Menger (1892). In particular, we use this case study to attempt to adjudicate between chartalist and emergent theories of currency formation. Using the records of an online...

This paper explores the effects of debt erosion on the market process. Debt erosion is the attempt by government to lower the real value of its debt through the creation of unexpected inflation. In addition to the costs recognized by most economists, debt erosion through unexpected inflation can...

In this paper, I examine the problem of space debris detritus from spacecraft launches that remains in orbit using the tools of economics. The difficulties posed by space debris resemble those typically associated with public goods and common pool resources. Thus it is not surprising that a...

This paper is an introduction to contemporary discussions within monetary theory and policy. The paper focuses on comparing proposals for monetary policy rules. It first lays out an argument for why monetary policy?defined here broadly to mean adjusting the money supply in an attempt to...

I develop a theory of sovereign entrepreneurship, which is a special kind of political entrepreneurship. Sovereignty is rooted in self-enforced exchange of political property rights. Sovereign entrepreneurship is the creative employment of political property rights to advance a plan. Building on...

We argue James M. Buchanan's scholarship provides us an exemplary model for doing liberal political economy. Levy (2014) argues there are irreconcilable tensions within liberalism between rationalism and pluralism. Buchanan navigates these tensions in a way that powered one of the most important...

This is a condensed version of Salter and Tarko (2018), presented at the Austrian Economics in the 21st Century conference in Rosario, Argentina. I argue that current perspectives on banking and financial regulation, including newly popular proposals for macroprudential regulation, cannot...

This paper traces the normative side of James Buchanan's individualist-subjectivist-contractarian position. The literature on anarchy and radical self-governance treats Buchanan's position, and social contract theory more generally, as a rival rather than allied branch of analysis. However, I...

We provide an initial assessment of the Federal Reserve's policy response to the COVID-19 contraction. We briefly review the historical episode and consider the standard textbook treatment of a pandemic on the macroeconomy. We summarize and then evaluate the Fed's monetary and emergency lending...