The Moral Foundations of Capitalism

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was taken to signal the moral and intellectual triumph of capitalism, as well as the political triumph of the West. Twenty years later, capitalism’s critics have been energized by a financial crisis and by a lack of consensus about the role of government in the economy. This colloquium will examine capitalism’s record as a producer of wealth and human happiness. We’ll also look at the private virtues which flourish under free markets (such as those of Montesquieu’s doux commerce), and at communitarian objections to capitalism.

Capitalism and Welfare	Peter T. Leeson	George Mason Economics
Why here, Why then?	Peter J. Boettke	George Mason Economics
Entrepreneurial vs. Crony Capitalism	Peter T. Leeson
La doux commerce	C. Bradley Thompson	Clemson Political Science
Capitalism and Community	Peter J. Boettke
Heroic Individualism	C. Bradley Thompson

Peter Boettke is a director of the Buchanan Center for Political Economy at George Mason University, and the author or co-author of many books, including the classic Economic Way of Thinking. Peter Leeson is the author of many articles and The Invisible Hook, a study of how pirates governed themselves. C. Bradley Thompson is the author of John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty and the director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism.