I’ve posted recently about Net Neutrality–see Net Neutrality Developments and A Libertarian Take on Net Neutrality. There’s an interesting discussion about this and related issues on the EconTalk podcast, between host Russ Roberts and Yochai Benkler of Harvard.
Technology is not to blame for over-fishing; competition is not to blame for over-fishing; lovers of fish are not to blame for over-fishing; the culprit is the conditions created by communal ownership—the burden is the fishing chase!
IRS Special Agent in Charge Paul Camacho has been meeting with nightclub owners in Las Vegas and has told them they must monitor the spending activities of their customers who pay cash. A customer spending $10,000 a year in cash with need to fill out a Cash Transaction Report (CTR).
That’s right, $10,000 per year. So, a customer who drops in 10 times a year and drops $1,000 each trip, a CTR needs to be filled out.
The theory goes that the SEC slammed Goldman hard in order to push the case of R. Allen Stanford – who ran a $7 billion Ponzi scheme – out of the headlines. The SEC delayed investigating Stanford for 13 years.
Apparently Bernanke is not able to rule the Federal Reserve System with as tight of an iron fist as Greenspan did. Some soundness of thought is creeping in between his fingers.
From the New York Times:
A lone dissenter on the Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee warned Friday that the central bank’s monetary strategy could backfire and touch off a new boom-and-bust cycle.
Take a look at the GAO’s report on losses due to piracy. It concludes that all of the studies you have heard cited a zillion times are completely made up.
Three commonly cited estimates of U.S. industry losses due to counterfeiting have been sourced to U.S. agencies, but cannot be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology.
Paul A. Cantor received his BA (1966) and PhD (1971) in English from Harvard University. He has taught at Harvard in both the English and the Government Departments. He is currently Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English at the University of Virginia.
1. What is a Professor of English doing involved with Austrian economics?
As Lew Rockwell mentions in his article today, the wonderful new Instituto Mises Brasil sponsored the first-ever conference on Austrian economics this week. Hundreds were there, with most of them under 25. It was a thrill and an honor to speak and take part.
There’s been a good deal of debate recently in libertarian circles about the word capitalism. Is it compatible with libertarianism? A synonym for it? Should we use it? For example:
