Professor Hans Hoppe, in his outstanding new introduction to the reissue of The Ethics of Liberty, hits the nail on the head. He contrasts Murray Rothbard with Robert Nozick, a much more famous figure among academic philosophers and political theorists. Although both writers embrace libertarianism (Nozick much less ardently or consistently than Rothbard), their styles of thinking differ entirely. Nozick, according to Hoppe, is impressionistic and given to flights of fancy.

Death panels? Of course there will be death panels when the deal is done. Not in iterations one or two, when legal alternatives exists. But in the end, under total state control, death panels will exist — they must exist.

It’s not a joke. 

i should tell the story about my job interview with the fed here in kansas city. they asked me about optimal monetary policy, and hilarity quickly ensued.

[Making Economic Sense • Murray N. Rothbard • Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1995 • 439 pages]

[This paper is the first of a two-part series. The concluding article is “Reducing the Cost of IP Law“]

Floyd Norris’s recent “New York Times” article on the greenback is hands down the worst economics article I have ever read. It is jam-packed full of false history. It uses the falsehoods to justify monstrous crimes.

Great new law review article by Walter Block and Huebert, Defending Corporations, Cumberland Law Review 39:2 (2009): 363-85.

Over on the LRC blog, there were some posts about the jailing of tax protestors; the following was my comment:

David,