All of these lectures can be modified to be anywhere from 40 to 60 minutes
in length. Many of them are available in one form or another online
should you desire a preview.
Capitalism and the Family
In this lecture, I provide a history of the family as a social institution and
argue that capitalism/classical liberalism and the wealth that it created were
fundamental in transforming the family from an economic institution that was
not good for women and kids to the predominantly emotion/affection-based
institution we have today. The talk focuses on how markets liberated
women and changed childhood for the better. It also includes brief
discussions of divorce and same-sex marriage.
Classical Liberalism's Progressive Heritage
In this talk, I argue that modern libertarians need to stop thinking of
themselves as "right wing" and begin to recognize their legitimate claim to the
label of "progressives." Classical liberals were the progressives of
their day and I provide evidence from the 19th century by looking at their
views on race, gender, and foreign policy. After a brief discussion of
why the Progressives of the early 20th century were not so progressive, I
make the case for how markets have served the cause of human progress,
especially for the poor. The talk concludes with some thoughts about how
libertarians ended up on the right and how this all links to bleeding heart
libertarianism.
Constitutional Law
and Same-Sex Marriage
Understanding the historic Obergefell decision in 2015 overturning state bans on same-sex marriage requires knowledge
of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on several issues: the right to marry, sexual liberties, and
equal protection. This lecture explores those three lines of legal thinking and
shows how they all came together in the majority opinion in Obergefell. The focus is on the role of
unenumerated rights and how the Courts approach to them has varied over the
years, but seems to be much more positive recently, particularly in decisions
from Anthony Kennedy. The talk concludes with a discussion of the role of the
Ninth Amendment.
Do We Really Need a Central Bank?
Too many libertarians have views of the history and problems of central banking
that are bound up in historical myths or, even worse, conspiracy theory
stories. This talk offers a history of the American banking system and
creation of the Federal Reserve System that avoids those pitfalls and places it
in the context of other Progressive Era legislation. Many of the very
real problems of the 19th century American banking system were due to other
forms of regulation even though there was no central bank. The lecture then
looks at the terrible record of the Fed and finishes by discussing what an
alternative competitive currency (or "free banking") system would look like.
House of Cards: Politics without Romance
The Netflix series House of Cards provides a variety of
examples of the misbehavior of politicians. The show, particularly the first
season, can be used as a launching pad for exploring "public choice economics"
and its economic analysis of politics. This talk is primarily an introdution to
public choice, covering the ideas of politics as exchange, rent-seeking,
concentrated benefits and dispersed costs, and the failure of good intentions.
Inequality, Mobility, and Being Poor
in America
The conventional narrative that the last generation has seen the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer while the middle class gets hollowed out has
serious flaws. In this talk, I look at the data on income mobility, the
absolute incomes of the poor, the ability of both poor and rich to purchase
various consumption items, as well as the movement of the middle class upward
to higher wealth. I argue that the data strongly suggest that life for the
average American has never been better and that the opportunity for those who
start out poor to move up the income ladder is still strong. I conclude with a
brief discussion of the role of health care, housing, and education in this
argument.
The Great Depression: Myths and Realities
This lecture is a broad overview of the Great Depression that focuses on
answering three questions: What caused it to start? What caused it
to get so bad so quickly? What caused it to be so lengthy? The
answers to all three involve critically assessing various myths of the Great
Depression, including the claim that it was caused by laissez-faire capitalism,
that Hoover worsened it by doing nothing, that the New Deal saved us from
disaster, and that World War II ended the depression.
The Great Recession: A Failure of Government not Markets
The boom and bust of the last decade is often blamed on "unregulated
capitalism," "greed run amok" and/or "irrational investors." With those
presumed causes, it's no surprised that the cure is often seen as more
government regulation. In this talk, I argue that the Great Recession is
a classic example of an unsustainable boom initiated by misguided government
policies, by both the Federal Reserve System and Congress. Once we see
how government caused the crisis, it becomes clearer why more government is not
the cure. The talk concludes with a critique of stimulus spending and
other activist proposals to speed recovery.
The US Constitution
and Economic Rights
The US Constitution does not say a lot about economic rights, but a closer
look at the history of constitutional jurisprudence can help us see how the
Supreme Court has treated these issues over the years. This lecture looks at
the importance of constitutional rules, then explores the places where economic
rights are discussed, then takes a detailed look at the evolution of the Court's
thinking about property rights and regulation. It includes discussions of the
infamous Lochner case as well as the
issues raised by Kelo in more recent
years.
Three Economic Myths
We live in a time of many economic myths, but three big ones are that the
standard of living keeps falling, that the rich are getting richer and the poor
poorer, and that women make 77 cents for every dollar that men do. Each
of these myths, like all myths, has a kernel of truth but the way they are
commonly understood is mistaken. In this talk, I break down each of these
myths by looking at a variety of data that suggest the truth is far more
complicated.
Walmart to the Rescue: The Role of the Private Sector in
Hurricane Katrina Recovery
The failures of the federal government in rescuing New Orleans and the Gulf
Coast from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina are broadly understood. What
is far less understood is exactly where the resources for recovery came
from. Local community organizations and houses of worship played a big
role, but big box stores, especially everyone's favorite villain Walmart, were
central to the survival of many parts of the Gulf Coast in the immediate
aftermath of the storm. In this lecture, I detail Walmart's heroic
contribution to that effort and offer an analysis of why the private sector
will outperform government in disaster recovery.
Contact information:
Steven Horwitz
Charles A. Dana Professor and Chair
Department of Economics
Hepburn Hall
St. Lawrence University
Canton, NY 13617
Tel (315) 229 5731
Fax (315) 229 5819
Email: shorwitz@stlawu.edu
Web: http://myslu.stlawu.edu/~shorwitz