Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Michael Munger
“To be free, I must be able to make and keep voluntary agreements. The central problem with the Hobbesian ‘state of nature’ is precisely that each person has ‘too much liberty,’ precisely because no contract, promise, or right to property can be relied on. Such ‘enforcement’ of agreements is not coercive, but is literally required for the liberty to engage in commerce and division of labor. … The need for such order has been recognized since (at least) the Scottish Enlightenment …. What does any of this have to do with Joseph Stiglitz’s book, The Road to Freedom? Almost nothing, it seems, and that’s a big problem. Stiglitz wants to argue — actually, it’s simply an unsupported assertion — that no one who advocates for commerce and markets ever thought about the problem of rules.” (06/19/24)
https://www.aier.org/article/stiglitz-when-good-minds-seek-fools-favor/