top 15 @ mises.org

This was posted to the mises.org/blog:

Best of 2004

Mises.org Updates

The Mises Institute is inviting nominations for the best 15 Daily Articles of 2004, and the best 5 scholarly articles from either the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics (6.3-7.2) or the Journal of Libertarian Studies (17.4-18.3). Send your nominations to contact@mises.org. (We’ll leave out best online books, since the the 2004 list is dominated by Menger, Rothbard, and Mises.)

Now, I realize they’re asking for nominations for the top 15, and not for my top 15 nominations, and yet … that’s how many nominations I come up with:

1. Capital Exports and Free Trade, by J.G. H�lsmann
2. Perils of Outsourcing, by Cecil E. Bohanon and T. Norman Van Cott
3. The American West: A Heritage of Peace, by Ryan McMaken
4. Morality and Economic Law: Toward a Reconciliation, by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
5. What Brought on the French Revolution?, by H.A. Scott Trask
6. Inflation and the French Revolution: The Story of a Monetary Catastrophe, by H.A. Scott Trask
7. Profits Do Not Cause High Prices, by William L. Anderson
8. Fairness with Your Coffee?, by N. Joseph Potts
9. The Mystery of Central Banking, by Robert P. Murphy
10. Ten Recurring Economic Fallacies, 1774-2004, by H.A. Scott Trask
11. What Does Marginality Mean?, by Robert Murphy
12. Markets, Not Unions, Gave us Leisure, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
13. Do Capitalists Have Superior Bargaining Power?, by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
14. The New Deal Debunked (again), by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
15. That Taco Bell Boycott, by Daniel D’Amico

Now obviously, if I had written 15 articles this year (instead of just 3) I’d be forced to overcome my improbable modesty and nominate myself for all 15 spots, but since I can’t hope for such a grand slam, I’ve decided to exclude myself from the running. And just to give the other fellows a fair chance, I’ve also excluded Menger, Mises, and Rothbard from the candidate list.

Notice that certain names appear more than once. Trask and DiLorenzo are committed to writing clear economic history, and Murphy is dedicated to writing clear economics in general.

Both Woods and D’Amico address Catholic “social justice” but their message would be well-targeted to many of the well-intentioned folks I know on the secular Left.

(I think of Potts’s article whenever I pass the “Fair Trade” coffee display at the market down the block. Maybe I’ll go take a picture of that display and see if I can do a little deconstruction of the message on this blog — with Potts’s points in mind.)

Postscript:

Jeffrey Tucker points out that I don’t explain the order of my list. It is in chronological order of publication date. He also wants me to pick just one article for my nomination. (But that’s exactly what I was trying to avoid doing!) I don’t know what criteria others will use, but for me, a “best article” should teach something foundational and important to a new reader. It should appeal to a neophyte, and it should probably correct a misconception — since so much of people’s implicit economic understanding is based in misconceptions. I want the reader to come away thinking That’s so obvious, now! about a claim that first seemed counterintuitive. Based on these criteria, I’d pick Trask’s Ten Recurring Fallacies. (Let me know what you think.)