Of course, the best patent reform would be abolition. But incremental reform would be welcome too–as long as it’s significant, and unambiguously positive. I’ve outlined some ways there could be significant improvement in How to Improve Patent, Copyright, and Trademark Law.

A brief period of Kuhnian “normal science” is now over in macroeconomics — the news comes directly from the top guns in the field (see also here, here, here, and here

A 3.5 hour discussion between myself and Abhi Mallick about last week’s Mises Dailies. Click to stream, right click to download.

Mises Weekly, Episode 2

The following articles are discussed in this episode:

There I stood with eight olive pits in my cheek, talking to the checkout lady at the grocery store as she waved my half-pound container of antipasto over the scanner light. All the while, I hoped she that she wouldn’t notice or ask why I sounded like I had marbles in mouth.

Yesterday, I inadvertently squandered $4000 plus worth of medical resources during a lunch break. That I could do this, gain no benefit, and not even see the bills, is what’s right and wrong with American medical care.

The greatest single life-enhancing step you can take in early summer is to change your lawnmower blade. It’s a thing that gets ever duller with use, and you adjust and adjust to the diminished cutting ability with each mow, until the point that you think it is normal that it takes all your strength to shove the thing across the yard and leave a trail of clippings and unevenly cut grass in your wake.

The trend picked up steam in World War II, when the Italians too were suspected and so had to declare their loyalty. The flag issue became universal during the Cold War when everyone was expected to rally around the nation in its fight against its foreign adversaries.

These were sharp businessmen, the four guys who pointed out that there were three dead trees in my backyard that needed to be cut down lest they attract horrible bugs that would infest my entire property. They would cut them down and remove them for $475.

In cash.

We dickered back and forth and finally settled on $350. In cash.

They attacked the trees like ants on ice cream. In 45 minutes, the trees were gone without a trace.

I paid them. In cash.

What do you do if you are on a long car trip, you have heard all your Renaissance polyphony CDs, it’s too dangerous to answer email at 80 mph, and there is no GPS on the dashboard to keep you entertained? Well, what else but turn on FM radio? Yes, it can be painful, but there are also ways to make it fun.