The Art of Not Being Governed
If Scott can excoriate most of his fellow historians for confounding “civilization” with “state-making,” he himself can be excoriated for confounding statelessness with lack of government.
The Faults of Fractional-Reserve Banking
In a November 1, 2010, blog post titled “Could the World Go Back to the Gold Standard?,” Martin Wolf, the Financial Times chief economics commentator, comes to the conclusion that “we cannot and will not go back to the gold standard.”
Walking All Over City Hall
Shoe magnate Tony Hsieh (Zappos.com) has made a deal to buy the City Hall building from the city of Las Vegas. Anyone who has visited downtown Vegas has noticed the curious building just off Glitter Gulch but with few windows facing the teaming activity on Freemont Street.
Save the Bluefin Tuna through Property Rights
This tuna episode is just another demonstration of the conflict that arises whenever government regulation tries to solve a problem caused by a lack of property rights. If people owned portions of the oceans.
Playing by the Rules
Andrew Bacevich’s new book, Washington Rules, illuminates the post–World War II Washington foreign-policy consensus and gives a history of its evolution. This is a key piece of history, and it can also provide larger lessons about the operations of the state. In order to be a player in foreign policy in Washington, one must accept the rules, which consist of a “credo that inspires consensus and the trinity in which it finds expression” (p. 16).
America’s Road to Financial Ruin
The strength of Whalen’s book is that his monetary history, like Rothbard’s, is about people, not policies. While Keynesians talk about unknowable constructs like aggregate demand, Whalen’s story turns on the actions of people.
The Irish Subjugation
Before the financial crisis, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain had been able to finance their deficits at artificially low interest rates. They all assumed that their governments would be bailed out by other countries of the eurozone in order to preserve the holy European Union.
Supreme Court Prepares to Chop Down “Clear and Convincing” Standard for Proving Patent Invalidity
Peter Zura, in the 271 Patent Blog, notes, in Supreme Court Prepares to Chop Down “Clear and Convincing” Standard for Proving Patent Invalidity, that the Court has agreed to hear the appeal of the Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd., case. In this case, i4i sued Microsoft for patent infringement and was awarded a $290M judgment, based on Microsoft’s use of XML in Word.
The Sweden Plan
In the midst of a global recession, Sweden has recorded a 6.9% year-on-year increase in GDP last quarter, and unemployment is falling. Unusual facts: the central bank has been raising rates and the government has been cutting taxes for all groups including the very rich.
The Gold Clause Cases and Constitutional Necessity
Thanks to Henry Manne for passing along this fascinating analysis by Gerard N. Magliocca of the Roosevelt Administration’s attempt to outlaw private payments in gold.
This Article presents a case study of how constitutional actors respond when the rule of law and necessity are sharply at odds.
