The Velvet Revolution, a victory of the people, a victory of the individual, took place on November 17, 1989 when a relatively small group of people in Czechoslovakia put events in motion that could not be stopped. They brought an end to communist rule of their lands, and by the end of the year, a dissident — Vaclav Havel — imprisoned many times by the regime would sit in Prague Castle. At the same time, a beloved reformer — Alexander Dubcek — long ago chased from power by the Soviets, and relegated literally to the backwoods of Bratislava, would be chairman of the federal legislature.

Here are all the videos from the Costa Mesa Mises Circle in the order they were presented. Click each link for both mp3 and video versions. 

Jeff Deist: The Case for Optimism

David Gordon: Thinkers Who Challenged the State

Lew Rockwell: Against the State

[This article is excerpted from Conceived in Liberty, chapter 36, “King George’s War.”]

What, in all this time, was happening to Plymouth, the mother colony of all New England? Succinctly, it was rapidly and irretrievably declining. As we have seen, its fur trade had virtually disappeared by 1640. And for the next 20 years, only further decline ensued. By the mid-1640s the town of Plymouth was virtually a ghost town; and economically the colony had become a backwater of Massachusetts Bay.

Covering Plato, Aristotle, Zeno of Citium, Frederic Bastiat, and Franz Oppenheimer, this short lecture (15 minutes), delivered at the Costa Mesa Mises Circle, provides a foundation for understanding the debate over the purpose and intellectual foundation of the state from ancient times to the modern world. 

Available here in mp3. And on Youtube: 

Chuck Hegel is out as Secretary of Defense.

Hagel is the third Sec of Defense since 2011, so his tenure, while short, is not uniquely short. Nevertheless, Hagel was apparently unable to deliver the goods. And what are “the goods” for a Secretary of Defense? Historian Hunt Tooley describes the job this way: 

I have come up with a list of some films I’ve happened upon that I think are of particular interest to Austrians and libertarians. In addition to having some libertarian angle, (and I, by no means, am vouching for ideological purity in any of these films), I also selected for films that are generally high quality (critically acclaimed).

Where available, I have put links to full reviews by my trusted film reviewer, James Berardinelli.

Many economists, including Austrian economists, have argued that the market process is essentially an experimental process. We briefly try to clarify this conceptualization, and then argue that we may understand the firm in much the same light. A basic view of the firm as an experimental entity is derived, drawing on property rights insights.