The weekend is behind the door and we are bringing you most interesting articles from last week. let’s get straight into it.
Regluar FMRS speaker and our good friend Leszek Balcerowicz together with Andrzej Rzońca published great analysis of possible impacts of the Syriza victory in recent election in Greece called THE GREEK CRISIS: BE FLEXIBLE ON DEBT, BUT INTRANSIGENT ON REFORMS. Authors advise that Greece must be absolutely determined on structural reforms, as they are essential for the Greece’s economic growth, and they are not painful for the society at large but to some statist vested interests in this country. Besides, giving up on reforms could send a very bad signal to the other problem countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, France) where they are also key to growth. But if necessary Europe should be ready to show some flexibility on further restructuring the official debt (but not on a new bailout or debt forgiveness as Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras is demanding). However, this should be considered only in conjunction with the intransigence on reforms. This potential concession should reward reforms and not economic populism.
In second recommended article, John Fund praised the influence of Foundation for Economic Education, that was in the immediate aftermath of World War II by Leonard Read, a former head of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. The free-market outreach group has distributed millions of copies of classic texts such as Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, Hans Sennholz’s Up from Poverty, and Lawrence Reed’s Are We Rome? and had huge influence on Ronald Reagan. learn more in the article Ronald Reagan’s Free-Market Mentors.
The last piece you should definitely read is the interview with Peter J. Boettke, professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University called The Transformative Rise of Austrian Economics. In the interview Prof. Boettke mentioned our good friend Ben Powell from Texas Tech University, who we cooperate with on the first FMRS event in USA last year and praised his effort in promoting the free market principles and ideas. We cannot agree more!
