I’m often asked by people who are interested in the criticisms of intellectual property how authors, for example, would be compensated in a copyright-free society. My answer is sometimes: “I’m not sure. They’d have to figure it out.” I say this not because I have no opinions but because I’m not a consequentialist and do not want to acknowledge that the criticism of IP law is contingent on some kind of view of what would happen in its absence.

The report this morning about June retail has everyone down in the mouth, but it actually can’t be a bad thing that consumers are pulling back. Contrary to the model of an economy without risk, uncertainty, time, or capital, this is exactly what should be happening in light of the downturn.

Following on the heels of the excellent discussions during Secession Week at Let A Thousand Nations Bloom, my new Forbes column discusses secession at the state level. Specifically, a state legislator in Alabama has been looking into what it would take for Greene County–and the entire 7th Congressional District–to secede and form a new state.

[First published in Liberty Magazine, 1990]

Christianity has played a central role in Western civilization and contributed an important influence on the development of classical-liberal thought. Not surprisingly, Christian beliefs about the “end times” are very important for us right now.

Under today’s fiat-money regimes, central banks, as a rule, control short-term interest rates. They do so by setting the interest rates on short-term loans extended to commercial banks (typically with maturities of one day, one week, two weeks, or one month).

Seventeenth-century French kings and their minions did not impose an accelerating burden of absolutism without provoking grave, deep, and continuing opposition. Indeed, there were repeated rebellions by groups of peasants and nobles in France from the 1630s to the 1670s. Generally, the focus of discontent and uprising was rising taxes, as well as the losses of rights and privileges. There were also similar rebellions in Spain in mid-century, and in autocratic Russia throughout the seventeenth century.