Why do we obey speed limits?

The last few days, I’ve seen so many things on Mises.com that I wanted to blog here, but there’s really way too much: the best thing is to get over there now and get involved in what is turning out to be a wonderful conversation about liberty and economics. In any case, I do want to draw attention to this post and this picture: one of six Mises stickers on this car. Someone ask why he obeys speed limits if he is against government.

Let em burn

When a major wildfire outside Ketchum, Idaho threatened homes insured by AIG Private Client Group, the company sent private firefighters to spray a barrier of fire retardant on the homes most at risk. According to an AIG spokesman, “We’re not only in the business of paying claims, we’re in the business of preventing them.” The U.S.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

Gary Galles writes of this central idea in economics: Once, when my newborn son was barely back from the hospital, I was holding him in my arms with my wife looking on. I asked him, “Can you say marginal rate of substitution?” My wife recognized that as a bit of economics jargon and accused me of trying to turn our son into an economist like me. While it was said as a little joke between the two of us, the longer I teach and write, the more I seriously wish people actually thought in such marginal terms, because many of the times that we confuse ourselves and others are due to our failure to do so.

The New Hubris in Monetary Policy Award

Due to credible competition that has emerged among this year’s candidates for the Hubris in Monetary Policy Award, the Award Committee has announced that it is officially deadlocked. The competition is centered on two candidates. Take, for instance, the submission by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who provided remarkable testimony to the US House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee last month. In it, he argued that the subprime crisis could be blamed, in part, on the Fed’s (and his own) effectiveness. It is not that Fed policies did not contribute to the situation, he said, but that long-term rates, made lower by low inflation expectations, played a greater role.

Pilon on Patents

I blogged elsewhere the “Palmer on Patents” post below a couple years ago. In the post, I mention a minor scandal back in 2003, when some of Cato’s scholars (Doug Bandow and Michael Krauss) came out in favor of restrictions on free trade based on the notion that reimportation of drugs would allow consumers to avoid some of the monopoly price charged due to the US patent system.

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