Remember those old photographs taken during World War II, with Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt, plus selected others, posing as masters of the universe? The victors were meeting to carve up Europe, divide the spoils, plan the future, map out a plan for our lives.
Of course they created a political and economic disaster, which is what happens when mere mortals come to believe themselves to be gods.
C.S. Lewis’ stories of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” books taught Justin Marshall about free society vs. totalitarian rule. Now, he hopes new writers can capture young people’s imaginations, and he’s promoting a contest that would pay a winning writer to do just that.
Nice op-ed (printable version) in the N.Y. Times from Cato’s Timothy Lee, highlighting the damage wrought by software patents.
As I’ve noted previously, there is nothing necessarily unlibertarian about the feds issuing a compulsory license of a patent, since this merely takes back some of the monopoly right it should not have granted in the first place. (See Condemning Patents and Patents, Prescription Drugs, and Price Controls.)
One myth upheld even by many people who has a basically sound outlook on monetary issues is the view that an inverted yield curve (where short term interest rates are higher than long term interest rates) will cause a recession. It is a well known fact that the yield curve tends to invert just before recession, so therefore many people have concluded that the inversion of the yield curve is a causal factor behind the recession.
The following thoughts on the current economic and financial environment formed part of a recent commentary sent to our firm’s clients. Users of the blog may find them of general interest.
In the Austrian description of the trade cycle, the lack of any generalized rise in the price of final consumption goods is never — repeat, never - to be taken as a sign of economic health or as a guide to the long-term viability of the upswing.
Subtitled “Why the Free Market Works and Half-Baked Theories Don’t,” this book released Monday by John R. Lott, Jr. had a different subtitle in the first catalog I saw it in (tonight): “Why the Free Market Works and Freaky Theories Don’t.”
Paleolibertarism: Il pensiero di Hans-Hermann Hoppe , by Piero Vernaglione, was published just a few weeks ago in Italian.
This 116 page book provides a brief description of Hoppe’s entire “system” of thought--property ethics, epistemology, failed economic systems (socialism and democracy), anarcho-capitalism in operation, and strategy (secession).
You know, socialist governments are just so sweet. They pay people to take vacations, and surely no one can complain about that! And just look at the US in this chart: not a single paid vacation day is offered to Americans, which surely accounts for some sort of national pathology.
< /Sarcasm >
This stuff must be driving the elites nuts.
