[From Property, Freedom and Society: Essays in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe.]

Paul Krugman has concentrated his fire recently on those “thumping their chests” over the falling dollar. He has particular scorn for those recommending a return to the gold standard. In Krugman’s view, a simple look at the historical facts will show that it was a superstitious fetish for the yellow metal that prolonged the Great Depression.

In my last article on these pages, I offered criticism of a New York Times article that had praised the Lincoln administration’s property violations in pursuit of military objectives. Today I want to focus on a regular Wall Street Journal columnist who praises the Obama administration’s plans to violate property rights in pursuit of socializing medical care.

From The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2009:

Elinor Ostrom has demonstrated how common property can be successfully managed by user associations. Oliver Williamson has developed a theory where business firms serve as structures for conflict resolution. Over the last three decades these seminal contributions have advanced economic governance research from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention.

Peter Klein writes:

In my post An Open Letter to Leftist Opponents of Intellectual Property: On IP and the Support of the State, I noted that both conservative and libertarian IP advocates, and leftist IP opponents, all accept the idea that IP is a type of property right. The leftists oppose IP for this reason–because they are opposed to private property rights; and the libertarians favor IP because they are proponets of property rights.

I just finished repairing grout in my master bathroom. As a home repair hack, I typically remove excess caulk and sealant with my bare fingers — it’s messy, but quick and easy.

OK. So far, so good.

Then, while washing my hands, I read this warning on the back label, “This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer.”

Seeing the capital “S,” I decided that state does not refer to everyday residents of California, but instead refers to the occupying apparatus of coercion and compulsion.

Here’s my most in-depth discussion of the Depression of 1920, which reversed itself in the face of dramatic government budget cuts and a Federal Reserve that did not use its money creation powers. The article is a more formal version of my presentation at the Mises Circle in Colorado Springs back in April:

On October 9, 2009, the announcement was made that President Barack Obama is to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Below are some preliminary observations.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama is further confirmation, along with 2007’s award to Al Gore, that the prize has degenerated into politically motivated rubbish. The great and noble concept of peace has again been perverted.