Steve Horwitz
Of some interest to CP readers might be my new entry on "Economics" at the Encyclopedia of Libertarianism at Cato's libertarianism.org site.
"At the most general level, then, economics is the study of human choice and its consequences, both intended and unintended. In understanding the unintended consequences of choice, and how those choices can be coordinated to produce social benefit, economics continues to rely on the idea of the “invisible hand” found in Adam Smith. Individuals choosing in their own broad self‐interest are led through the institutions of the market to benefit others. For some economists, this is framed in terms of the tendency of markets to reach an optimal equilibrium. For others, it is described more loosely as “coordination,” or as “emergent” or “spontaneous” order. Either way, the core idea remains the same: economics studies how people choose facing scarcity and how social institutions (usually) channel those choices into unintended order. Noticing the existence of that unintended order is the beginning of social science and economics specifically."