People often ask me, “How are the Austrians different from the Chicago school economists?”

Currently patents last about 17 years, and copyright about 100 years. Originally both were about 14 years, equal to two 7-year apprentice terms. ((See my post Where did the patent term come from?; also C. Michael White, “Why a Seventeen Year Patent,” 38 J. Pat. Off.

Many people think life without the welfare state would be chaos. In their minds, nobody would help support the less fortunate, and there would be riots in the streets. Little do they know that people found innovative ways of supporting each other before the welfare state existed. One of the most important of these ways was the mutual-aid society.

Anyone in the freedom movement owes a debt to Isabel Paterson. She was brilliant, productive, tenacious, and complicated. Professor Cox’s work is worthy of his subject.

BitCoin, the world’s “first decentralized digital currency”, was devised in 2009. Unlike other virtual monies it does not have a central clearing house run by a single organization. Nor is it pegged to any real-world currency yet it can be used to purchase real-world goods and services however it is also just as fiat as it is not pegged to any solid commodity.

Columbia Law School costs $74,000 a year. But the glut of law grads has led new lawyers to settle for temporary jobs that pay as little as $15 an hour according to the Wall Street Journal.

Vanessa O’Connell writes,

The emptying of cities is not a good trend. It is the city that breeds civilization and civilized life.

As reported by TechCrunch, Microsoft Fighting To Ensure Google Does Not Gain Patent Leverage, Deterrence, Google is bidding for 6,000 Nortel patents. But Microsoft is objecting: