Many people's desire to achieve economic success is often driven by their materialistic longings. This is consistent with a fact that the majority of Americans have a value system called materialism that emphasizes the importance of material possessions and acquisition in their lives. Although materialistic people tend to work harder and have higher incomes than nonmaterialistic people, empirical evidence shows that materialistic people experience lower well-being.

The adage goes that history repeats itself. Today we are witnesses to a global pandemic that has caused a near asphyxiation of economic activity, killed many thousands and made financial markets highly volatile. This year is the ter-centenary of a somewhat similar scenario which may be categorised as two bubbles and a plague. The bubbles were those of the Mississippi System in France and the South Sea Bubble in Great Britain. The plague was that which devastated the population of Marseille and its surrounding areas in the second half of 1720.

Over the past month, one of the things I’ve been doing is writing a piece for the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Libertarianism (edited by Matt Zwolinski) on the relation of Chicago Economics and Libertarianism. Here are some of the things I’ve had a chance to sort out while writing the essay.

The training requirements in state occupational licensing laws that serve as a significant barrier to entry into an occupation have rightly received much attention in the past couple of decades. Yet, the institutions that uphold and extend those mandates - the occupational licensing boards - are also worth scrutinizing.

When we think of the largest employers in a U.S. city, we often think of the biggest single employers: Wal-Mart, for instance, or a Fortune 500 corporation with a local plant or headquarters.