Do you recall the courtroom classic in which the prosecutor says to the person in the box: “Just yes or no please, have you or have you not stopped beating your wife?” Yes of course means that you were beating her. No means you are still beating her.

Debaters and politicians know that if you can control the terms of the debate, you will have won it. Sometimes the effort by politicians to insinuate their own loaded language into the dialogue becomes ridiculous.

Studia Humana is a new English language journal. It is a multi-disciplinary peer reviewed journal publishing contributions on any aspect of human sciences such as political economy, sociology, political science and philosophy. The editors invite the submission of articles, book reviews, discussions, responses, and notices from professional scientists. It is particularly interested in publishing contributions by new authors who pursue their academic development.

There have been many notable objections to anarchy over the years, not least, the private production of security and justice. Even the great Ludwig von Mises rejected the private production of law outright. There are, nevertheless, innumerable examples of the private production of law; and it is not merely a concept that has been confined to theory, but has existed, and worked, in practice. For the purpose of this article we shall only concern ourselves with one: Brehon, or Early Irish law.

Economists and journalists often point to the danger of external public debts — in contrast to internal debts, which are regarded as less troublesome. Japan is a case in point. Japan has an enormous public-debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 200 percent. It is argued that the high ratio is not a problem, because the Japanese save a lot and government bonds are held mostly by Japanese citizens; it is internal debt.

In 1845, Frédéric Bastiat penned a satirical masterpiece with the long lumbering title of “A PETITION From the Manufacturers of Candles, Tapers, Lanterns, sticks, Street Lamps, Snuffers, and Extinguishers, and from Producers of Tallow, Oil, Resin, Alcohol, and Generally of Everything Connected with Lighting.”

You might have the impression that everyone has switched from beer to red wine, or that everyone has switched from Budweiser to microbrews, homebrew, and high-gravity beers. However, do not count out the good old American cocktail. It is true that beer has lost market share and wine has gained market share, but by far the biggest winner in recent years has been spirits (whiskey, gin, vodka, etc.), particularly high-priced products.

Early reports describe Facebook’s much-ballyhooed IPO as a dud. This seems to support The Economist’s worries about the future of the public company, a theme raised by Michael Jensen in a famous 1990 article.