In reaction to the growing public anger at the TSA and its “freedom fondles,” some pundits are rushing to the bureaucracy’s defense. An illustrative example is Marc Thiessen’s call for Americans to give thanks to the “men and women of the TSA who give up time with their families during the holidays to keep us safe from terror.”
I know nothing about the National Inflation Association, which made this video as a promotional, but this video is extremely compelling and effective.
“Two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner” — a clever metaphorical descriptor of pure democracy sometimes attributed to that wellspring of clever metaphorical descriptors Benjamin Franklin. Other founding fathers were less clever and less metaphorical on democracy than Mr. Franklin, but just as damning nonetheless:
“A simple democracy … is one of the greatest of evils.” — Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence
On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the prosperity we all enjoy. In a couple of my econ 100 classes on Tuesday, we spent a bit of time talking about how land-use restrictions affect both housing prices and the environment. An important point of departure between economics and an extreme form of ecocentric environmentalism that I have called “environmysticism” is that environmysticism holds preservation of nature as a moral end in itself while economics is the analysis of human action.
In light of Bernanke’s plans to purchase $600 billion of longer-term government debt, many academic economists are beginning to worry: Could the Federal Reserve itself become insolvent? In this article I’ll explain these fears and I’ll argue that the Fed, with its printing press, cannot really go bankrupt the way other corporations can.
I observed in “Legislation and Law in a Free Society” various problems with using legislation to “make” law. For one thing, it requires a legislature, which requires a state. For another, it conceives of law as being “made” by human will rather than natural principles “found” by people seeking justice. One problem with IP law–mainly patent and copyright, but also trade secret and trademark, to varying degrees–is that it requires modern state legislation. It cannot be created without it.
There’s an old joke about a man who, as he enters a psychiatrist’s office, stops, extends his arms forward, and claps three times. He then turns to the right, repeats the clapping, and continues to the right until he has come all the way around.
The psychiatrist asks him, “What are you doing?”
He replies, “This will keep elephants away.”
The psychiatrist tells him that they are in the middle of the city and on the 20th floor and that he can assure him that there are no elephants within at least 10 miles.
Ralph Raico reviews This Perfect Day, a science fiction ”dystopian” novel by Ira Levin. Read what he has to say about the great book on super-computers and global government.
