David R. Henderson

David R. Henderson is a research fellow with the Hoover Institution and an emeritus professor of economics in the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is author of The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey and co-author, with Charles L. Hooper, of Making Great Decisions in Business and Life(Chicago Park Press). His latest book is The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (Liberty Fund, 2008). He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, the Jim Lehrer Newshour, CNN, MSNBC, RT, Fox Business Channel, and C-SPAN. He has had over 100 articles published in Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Red Herring, Barron’s, National Review, Reason, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Hill, and the Christian Science Monitor. He has also testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. He blogs at http://econlog.econlib.org

Why Attack Iran?

A Question for Mr. Romney In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said something quite interesting about Iran. One of the editors at the Journal asked him how he would respond upon learning that President Bush had launched an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. He answered: "I would … Continue reading

Veterans Day: In Memoriam

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In … Continue reading

Economists and the
Nobel Peace Prize

Question: Who was the first economist to win a Nobel Prize? Many economists, hearing this question, would know that it’s a trick question, but they would identify the small trick and miss the big one. The small trick is that there was no first economist to win the Nobel Prize in economics because two economists, … Continue reading

How George Bush Changed
My Life

A friend and colleague of mine at the Hoover Institution, Peter Robinson, wrote a book a few years ago titled How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. In this excellent book, Peter tells of how his time as a speechwriter for Reagan changed his life in a good way. Peter, by the way, was the author … Continue reading

War and the Constitution

Author’s note: Sept. 17 was the 220th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution. To commemorate that day, California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) held a public forum with a panel of four speakers: David Anderson, a history professor at CSUMB; Michelle Welsh, a lawyer and member of the ACLU; John Arquilla, a professor … Continue reading

9/11, Six Years Later

Introduction It has been six years since the horrid attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Throughout that time, George W. Bush has been president of the United States and, especially given the emphasis he has put on 9/11, it’s fair to judge him on how well he’s done on policies aimed at responding to 9/11. I … Continue reading

Myths and Truths About Iran

On Sunday, Aug. 19, the Peace Coalition of Monterey County held a public meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Monterey, Calif. The main topic of discussion was Iran. My local chapter of Libertarians for Peace is a member of the Coalition, and so I had volunteered to speak at the event, to tell what … Continue reading

Remembering Hiroshima

Editor’s note: The following is an encore presentation of David R. Henderson’s column of July 31, 2006. Sometimes, something happens that is so awful that we find ourselves rationalizing it, talking as if it had to happen, to make ourselves feel better about the horrible event. For many people, I believe, President Truman’s dropping the … Continue reading

The Meaning of July 4th,
Part Three

In my previous two articles on July 4th (1, 2), I said that the meaning of that holiday was gradually being lost. But on July 4th of this year, I participated in our local Monterey parade and found that some of it either hadn’t been lost or was being rediscovered. My friend Lawrence Samuels, an … Continue reading

The Meaning of July 4th,
Part Two

Last year at this time, I wrote that we are, bit by bit, losing the meaning of July 4th. This holiday used to celebrate a Declaration of Independence from a tyrannical British government that had tried to subjugate Americans. But here’s a little test to see how much of that meaning we’ve kept. Ask yourself … Continue reading