Nathaniel Branden died today. He was for many years the leading follower of Ayn Rand and lectured widely on her philosophy of Objectivism. He and Rand split in 1968, and after that his main work was in the psychology of self-esteem. He was by all accounts a dynamic and effective lecturer. For a brief time, Murray Rothbard and his followers in the Circle Bastiat met with Rand and her group, and through these meetings Rothbard came to know Branden.
Senator Ted Stevens once explained that the Internet is a “series of tubes” and “not a big truck.” Steven’s comments made me a little sad, since I worried we’d never again hear such idiocy from a senior government official. Had we reached peak stupid on Capitol Hill?
There was a ray of hope a few years back when Congressman Hank Johnson shared, in Committee, his fears that if too many people move to Guam it might “tip over and capsize.”
Johnson is a well-known fool, though, so I was cautious yet. Maybe we just got lucky. Maybe stupid really was over.
Lew Rockwell writes:
The Judge discusses his brave, important, and beautifully written new book Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty.
BTW, the book is available in our store.
Here at Mises.org, we don’t often follow the ins and outs of elections, since no single election tells us much of anything about the direction in which the country is headed. And this certainly remains true for the election of 2014.
It was made clear today that the recently elected minority government constellation of social democrats (progressive liberals) and environmentalists, under the social democratic party leader Stefan Lofven, resigns. They became the shortest reign in the history of the Swedish democratic state.
According to the World Bank, total expenditures for health care goods and services averages about 6-7% of GDP around the globe. There are about a dozen recognizable countries that spend more than 10% of GDP on health care, but far and away the biggest spender is the US with 17.9% and rising--more than 5% more than any other country and up from 13.5% just 15 years ago!
I’m happy to report that Nicolai Foss and I have received the 2014 SDAE/FEE Prize for the best book in Austrian economics published during the last three years for Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment: A New Approach to the Firm (Cambridge University Press, 2012).
In aggregate American have done some minor repairs on their balance sheets. However, looking below the aggregates we find American getting less mortgage debt but even more consumer credit and credit card debt. Consumer debt peaked at almost $2.7 trillion during the Housing Bubble. This dropped back to about $2.5 trillion during the recession. However, since that lull in consumer borrowing consumer debt has expanded to $3.15 trillion. This represents a 25% increase since the recession and an all time high. Will American continue to borrow and spend this holiday season?
