Copyrights on NPR
The discussions over IP awakened a memory of an old NPR segment. The summary of “Copyrighted Music and Phones“:
Hayek on Patents and Copyrights
From Individualism and Economic Order (ironically under copyright), Chicago, 1948, pp. 113-14.
Inflation-Targeting -- More Monetary Manipulation and Unending Inflation
The monetary central planners never stop thinking of new gimmics to manipulate the money supply, price inflation and interest rates.
Ben Bernanke has long been an advocate of what is called “Inflation-Targeting.” The Fed would explicitly set a desired rate of price inflation and manipulate the money supply to hit the target.
Hayek, IP, and Knowledge
I am hesitant to compliment Tucker’s A Book that Changes Everything, given that he generously over-praises me in it, but I can’t help it–it’s really a great piece–just perfect. And he has a tantalizing suggestion in it: “As I’ve thought more about their book, it seems that it might suggest a revision in classical-liberal theory. We have traditionally thought that cooperation and competition were the two pillars of social order; a third could be added: emulation.
False Hopes for Tax Relief and Fiscal Stimulus
Obama’s tax cut does not shift resources into the private sector, as a true tax cut would. What Obama is proposing is deferred taxation. He wants to spend now and tax later. The Obama deficits will increase the interest payments by the federal government, draw money in capital markets away from private investment, and ultimately result in higher future tax rates.
Faith in Free Markets – According to Mr. Bernanke
While speaking in London recently, Bernanke cautioned that the proposed funds for the economic stimulus plan — supported by the robbing of American citizens— are “unlikely to promote a lasting recovery unless they are accompanied by strong measures to further stabilize and strengthen the financial system.” This means he is priming for a request for more government funds in exchange for government equity positions in the banks.
Nixon!
Call this film fiction if you want, but something tells me that there is more truth here than official histories admit. Mostly what this film teaches is something about the nature of power. Oliver Stone’s greatest gift is his refusal to treat the American system as something supernaturally protected from the corruption that has been endemic to all regimes in the history of the world. For daring to reject the civic religion, he is routinely castigated as a Marxist lunatic.
Enemies of Capitalism
New Rule: neomercantilists, neoconservatives, and statists are no longer allowed to call themselves “free marketers.” People who call themselves free marketers such as Bush, Paulson, Greenspan, and Bernanke are the primary threat capitalism faces. These false prophets of capitalism are the greatest friends that proponents of socialism have.
Copyright is Very Sticky!
Often we opponents of socialistic, legislatively-created, utilitarian-based, property-redistributing, artificial, arbitrary, inconsistent, irrational, innovation-hampering, monopolistic, anti-competitive, and wealth-destroying intellectual property laws are accused of hypocrisy when we “copyright” our articles and books.
And You Thought Krugman Was Bad
He was, and is, but he is not alone. Writing in Time magazine (January 19 issue, online here), Jeffrey Sachs, in an article called “The Case for Bigger Government,” makes the case for, what else--bigger government.
