As discussed in previous posts, the state grants monopolies (patents and copyright) then penalizes companies for using (“abusing”) them, in contravention of state antitrust law–so that there is a “tension” between these state laws.[1] (And of course the state exempts its own monopoly powers from antitrust regulations, and partially exempts the IP monopolies it hands out to supplicants.) On Techdirt, Mike Masnick points out another example of this “tension”:

Here’s my Division of Labour co-blogger (and fellow Wash U economics PhD) Michael Munger doing his usual kvetching about this or that pointless and expensive invasion of privacy. As there have now been naked pictures of me taken at several airports (San Francisco, most recently), all I can say to poor Mike is that these encroachments on and invasions of our basic liberties are the price we pay for freedom.

Nothing has come of it, but if it was more than one paragraph then it is not a free-trade agreement—it is a managed-trade agreement.

Some of you may remember a British television show from the 1980s, Yes, Prime Minister. It was (and is) a delightfully funny look at all the problems both of bureaucracy and of (especially democratic) government in general. After a twenty-year hiatus, the creative minds behind the original show, writers Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, have reunited to bring Yes, Prime Minister to the stage. I recently had the pleasure of seeing the new play at the Gielgud Theatre in London, and I can say that the liberty-minded will find it quite appealing.

Over at Northwood University’s ‘s blog, “In Defense of Capitalism & Human Progress,” I have posted, “Austrian Economics versus the Mainstream: An Interview with Richard M. Ebeling.”

World Bank president Robert Zoellick has stirred up a hornet’s nest with his recent call for a return to a gold anchor1 in the global financial system.

Some years ago, I was watching and listening to a communist poetry/rap group in a public park and rather enjoying the spirited rhythmic presentation. Hundreds of people were enjoying it too. The message was goofy but harmless in some way, essentially a bunch of tuneful hectoring on how we need to come together and share and be one, etc. At some point, the lead singer said that the best path to utopia was a direct one. We should throw away our cell phones! Well, at that point, the crowds lost interest and drifted away.