The most spectacular episode of Harry Truman’s presidency will never be forgotten but will be forever linked to his name: the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and of Nagasaki three days later. Probably around two hundred thousand persons were killed in the attacks and through radiation poisoning; the vast majority were civilians, including several thousand Korean workers.
[This article is excerpted from The Rise and Fall of Society (1959). An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Keith Hocker, is available for download.]
[From The Rise and Fall of Society]
It is not incumbent on a diagnostician to prescribe a remedy, and it would be quackery for him to do so when he has misgivings as to its curative value. It may be that the struggle between Society and the State is inevitable; it may be in the nature of things for the struggle to continue until mutual destruction clears the ground for the emergence of a new Society, to which a new political establishment attaches itself to effect a new doom.
“Cool” or “sexy” probably aren’t the first words that jump to mind when Austrian Economics is mentioned. In fact, Bob Murphy’s hilarious caricature of the middle-aged libertarian still living in his parents’ basement pretty much sums up public perception. That is changing; Pacey and Jack Ash of rock band Fly-by Radio are leading the way in making personal and economic freedom cool.
Many finance ministers and officials of central banks around the world are fed up with the U.S.’s inflationary policies, and QE2 seems to have turned quiet anger into open rage. The issue isn’t the inflation so much as the complete lack of coordination. The U.S. is trying to devalue the dollar on international exchange to boost exports, and to heck with everyone and everything else.
For the first time since 1981, first-time home buyers make up a majority of those who have recently bought a home.
A wonderful Wall Street Journal profile of Blaise Agüera y Arcas, the architect behind the most advanced features of Bing Maps, explains how he is working toward features that allow users to upload high-resolution images inside of buildings to match with seamless maps to create integrated virtual realities – a dramatic step beyond Google Maps. Google has inspired him of course but he knows that he must do better.
Gonzalo Lira on zero hedge has published an article Gonzalo Lira On The Identity Of The False Religion Behind The Mask Of Economic “Science” about the generally poor record of macro-economic forecasting. Lira’s view is that macro-economic forecasting is a false religion masquerading as a science. Along the way he takes a few shots at the Austrian school.
