some economic history stuff

I have not been blogging because I have been busy trying to finish up a paper and prepare for class, but here is some recent economic history stuff.

Some podcasts (I listen to podcasts when I am walking Dodger the Doggy):

David Beckworth at Macro Musings interviews Doug Irwin. The interview covers a number of topics related to trade and American economic history: the costs and benefits of trade, the political economy of protectionism, and the gold standard. Irwin also explains why Ha Joon Chang’s analysis of the role of trade policy in development is at best “superficial.” For those of you who are not familiar with his work, Ha Joon Chang is a professor at Cambridge and one of the sources on economic history most admired by people who don’t know anything about economics or history.

Michael Munger talks about slavery and racism at Econtalk.

There are also a lot of podcasts related to economic issues in early America at Liz Covart’s Ben Franklin’s World, e.g., slavery, Shay’ Rebellion, the Stamp Act riots, and financing military expenditures. Most recently I listened to the interview with Abigail Swingen about her book Competing Visions of Empire; in the podcast she puts the American colonies and the development of slavery in America into the broader context of the British Empire.  

Some other stuff:

You can read Jared Rubin’s forthcoming Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West got rich and the Middle East did not at his website.

Richard Sambisavan asks what we can learn from bond prices in early America.

Mark Koyama examines the decline of the Roman economy and questions the usefulness of the peasant mode of production.

Program of the World Congress on Business History

I am still waiting for my copy of Slavery’s Capitalism, but I intend to write about it as soon as I can.

BTW this is Dodger the Doggy