Like a submarine patent, the intellectual-property issue has lurked beneath the surface of libertarianism for decades. IP was for a long time largely assumed by most libertarians to be legitimate, a type of property right. This is because of the influence of Ayn Rand, one of the most influential of all modern libertarians, who was strongly pro-IP.

See the google translation here.

This post from the New York Times Economix Blog is making the rounds (HT: David Skarbek, Steve Horwitz). It’s a really interesting story that discusses how life has changed for Bangladeshi women who have the opportunity to work in the garment industry. Are wages low? By Western standards, yes. However, the opportunities provided by Bangladeshi “sweatshops” have opened other doors. In particular, women are acquiring more education.

In this sweeping but brief history of Classical liberalism, historian Ralph Raico recounts how this ideology has for centuries formed the only true intellectual opposition to despots and socialists over the past 500 years.

The news of how a little-noticed provision in the health-care bill will affect coin buyers and sellers – among many others – has finally made the news.

[This article is excerpted from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith.
An MP3 audio file of this article, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available for download.]

The goal of the liberals — properly defined — has been to fight what Macaulay called “the all-devouring state” — the nightmare that haunted Burke no less than Tocqueville and Herbert Spencer.