Tyler Cowen has an interesting post up, What determined the playing length of an audio CD? Turns out Sony wanted a smaller diameter CD at first, but soon settled on a 120mm diameter so that the 74 minute version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (the favorite piece of a Sony VP’s wife) could fit on a single CD. Interesting story, but the 74 minute length, and corresponding physical diameter of the CD, is not really arbitrary.
I’ve discussed before the practice of defensive patenting and defensive patent publishing–companies acquire patents or publish their trade secrets to prevent others from suing them for patent infringement (or to prevent them from patenting the same idea).
Mansharamani uses the work of Roger Garrison and other Austrians to great effect. Buy this book in the Mises Store.
With insurance the client pays a small amount of money (the premium) in exchange for a more certain future, in which his wealth will not fluctuate as wildly in different possible scenarios.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, with 1 in 100 people behind bars. The prison population in America equals that of the cities of Los Angeles and Miami combined. This is an egregious form of statism. It’s time we stop ignoring this issue.
It is generally accepted that a government can enslave the citizens — unless it is a democratic government. Mistake!
Back in September, Bob Murphy described the “recovery” like this:
Let’s say you are running and then break a leg. You have to crawl now, but you develop that skill and are able to get from here to there. Are you in recovery from the accident? According to the NBER, yes — so long as you are crawling faster than when you first hit the ground in agony.
