We wrote UCLA oral history for permission to continue to host this transcript of interviews with F.A. Hayek, rebuilt for us because the version on their site is ridiculously huge, but sadly they have refused to give us permission to host it, so it must be taken down.
[This article was first published in the Fall 2009 issue of The Intercollegiate Review.]
It is a cliché that if we do not study the past we are condemned to repeat it. Almost equally certain, however, is that if there are lessons to be learned from an historical episode, the political class will draw all the wrong ones — and often deliberately so.
It is striking that the major resurgence of Scholastic ideas came out of Austria in the late 19th century, a country that had avoided a revolutionary political or theological upheaval. If we look at Menger’s own teachers, we find successors to the Scholastic tradition.
NPR had a story today about a bill introduced by Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan. The Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years Act (HAPPY Act) would allow taxpayers to deduct up to $3,500 a year for pet care expenses. It turns out that the bill (H.R. 3501) was actually introduced on July 31.
There is a fascinating paper published in 1884 by James C. Carter, The Proposed Codification of Our Common Law: A Paper Prepared at the Request of The Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York, Appointed to Oppose the Measure. This paper was an attack on David Dudley Field’s attempt to (legislatively) codify New York’s common law. Carter opposed replacing case law with centralized legislation.
