Good, Classic Economics Articles: available on-line

Hispanic Pundit posted this list of economics articles that everyone should read (the helpful comments are his, not mine; the snide, bracketed comment about Krugman is mine):

• Roofs or Ceilings? The Current Housing Problem by Milton Friedman and George Stigler. This is Friedman’s classic argument against rent controls, it was originally published in 1946 by the Foundation for Economic Education.
• The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits by Milton Friedman. This article was published in The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970.
• Selected Essays on Political Economy by Frédéric Bastiat. The difference between a good and a bad economist is a good economist is someone who sees both, the seen and the unseen, of everything. Bastiat was definitely a good economist.
• Economic Growth by Paul M. Romer. Few goals are as important to the well being of society as economic growth.
• The Use of Knowledge in Society by F.A. Hayek. Few people explain how a market economy functions as well as Hayek.
• I, Pencil My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read. This article demonstrates ‘the invisible hand of capitalism’ better than any other article I have read.
• A Marvel of Cooperation: How Order Emerges without a Conscious Planner by Russell Roberts. This is a great article that ties alot of the above articles into one.
• Free Trade by Alan S. Blinder. In a time where 93% of Democrats vote against free trade, it is important to be reminded why all economists, whether liberal or conservative, are for free trade, and liberal economist Alan Blinder is here to set the record straight.
• Protectionism by Jagdish Bhagwati. Along the same lines, it is important to be reminded about the dangers of protectionism, in whatever form it may manifest itself.
• In Praise of Cheap Labor - - Bad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all By Paul Krugman [yes, he once was a very good economist]. ‘Sweatshops’ often get a bad wrap, and there is nobody more qualified to put them in their rightful perspective than the liberal icon Paul Krugman himself.

One could do well to structure an economics course around these articles.