The Actual Louisiana Purchase Price
The $15 million price tag of the Louisiana Territory has been described as one of the greatest real estate bargains ever. But what did that actually buy?
Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors v. Fiduciary Duty
Asset managers have a fiduciary duty to act in your best interests. Does that include considering ESG factors when investing your money?
Understanding Capitalism Through Cotton
Looking at the development of cotton as a global commodity, explains historian Sven Beckert, helps us understand how capitalism emerged.
The Price of Plenty: Should Food Be Cheap?
The supermarket revolution made food more affordable and accessible than ever. But do the hidden costs of food feed into our illusions of justice and progress?
Meat and the Free Market
Significant political changes in three major global cities fueled experimentation with laissez-faire economics, which had peculiar effects on the meat market.
Should Environmental Policy Commodify Nature?
The White House is calling for the integration of natural capital accounting frameworks into land-use decisions, putting nature on the balance sheet.
Coney Money
Want to make some coin raising rabbits? Get yourself an island. Or not, if you want to protect the existing ecosystem.
Uneven Impacts: The Virtual Water Trade
The virtual water trade reveals significant disparities between water-rich states and their trade partners.
Adam Smith, Revolutionary?
By 1800, Smith—once considered a friend of the poor and an enemy of the privileges of the rich—was already being refashioned into a icon of conservatism.
Economic Grrrowth in the East: Asian Tiger Economies
Can the conditions that produced the fast-growing economies of the Four Tigers—Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan—be replicated?