Hesiod, Democritus, Xenophon, and Aristotle provided significant insights into economic theory through praxeological deduction. Stoic thought presents a coherent notion of natural law. Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Pao Chingyen, and Ssu-ma Chíien, Taoists in Ancient China, provide insight into the spontaneous order of the market and the effects of government intervention.

It is vitally important to view action as purposeful behavior as this view leads to the exposure of fundamental elements of social cooperation governing all of human existence. The role of the individual in society, the importance of private property, peaceful and secure coexistence, and the search for maximum capacity all extend from the moment of action. Our current political organization impedes the path toward perfect execution of our innate capacity, ability, and potentiality as well as lessens the impact of the actuality and intensity of achievement and progress.

Here is my piece on this Ron Paul idea in the Christian Science Monitor:

Since it was introduced in February, Representative Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” bill (H.R. 1207) has gained 282 congressional cosponsors. If adopted, the bill would allow the Government Accountability Office to review, not only the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, but its recent monetary policy deliberations and transactions.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke opposes the plan, saying it would undermine the Fed’s hallowed independence.

The recently-published Hoppe festschrift, Property, Freedom, and Society: Essays in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, contains a cornucopia of articles of interesting to Austrians and libertarians. A fascinating one is Chapter 14, Joe Salerno’s “The Sociology of the Development of Austrian Economics,” which is based on a speech presented at the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s First Annual Austrian Scholars Conference, Auburn University, Alabama, January 26-27, 1996, on a panel entitled “The Future of the Austrian School.”

In Copyright is very sticky!, I noted how it’s hard to get rid of copyright. There is a somewhat similar aspect to modern property law.

In my contribution What Libertarianism Is in the Hoppe Festschrift, Property, Freedom and Society, I included a very long footnote (23) critiquing the mutualist “occupancy” view of property rights and, specifically, Kevin Carson’s contention that this is compatible with libertarianism. A edited excerpt from the article on this issue is provided below.

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Congresswoman Maxine Waters on what she’d like to do with the oil industry:

Political wisdom, dearly bought by the bitter experience of generations, is often lost through the gradual change in the meaning of the words which express its maxims.