Belated Recommendation

In addition to my own article, the latest ECON JOURNAL WATCH—4 (Jan 2007): 3-45—has an excellent article by Christopher J. Coyne and Steve Davies, “Empire: Public Goods and Bads,” that I've only recently gotten around to reading. Sadly but unsurprisingly, some academic economists have now jumped on the pro-imperialism bandwagon being trumpeted most conspicuously by historians Niall Ferguson and Victor Davis Hanson. Coyne, an economist, and Davies, a historian, offer a withering and extended critique of this new literature. They particularly single out a paper by Kris James Mitchener and Marc Weidenmier published in the 2005 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY and arguing that President Theodore Roosevelt’s interventions into Latin America provided the public good of increasing stability in bond markets. The Coyne and Davies’s critique is not only compelling and important, but it also demonstrates the powerful potential of libertarian economists and historians combining their efforts. The link is: http://www.econjournalwatch.org.