The Lockean (and Rothbardian) theory of initial acquisition of property involves the necessity of mixing one’s labor with an object in the external environment. Once labor has been applied to a thing, it can legitimately become one’s private property. The immediate question that arises is, how much labor is necessary in order to make a thing one’s own? Suppose I pick up a stone thinking of throwing it an my foe; is the stone thereby mine? But isn’t the stone unchanged? With what have I mixed my labor?

How fashionable it is to love nature.

Down with industry, development, internal-combustion engines, clear cutting, strip malls, and private ownership. Capitalists do nothing but ravage the beauty of mother earth. The hand of man only strangles and kills.

If you agree with the above, you will love the fires that have driven half a million people from their homes in California, and destroyed 1,200 houses. President Bush is dumping your money in the form of aid on these suffering souls, and the flames rage on.

In a a blog post, Pete Boettke presents some interesting and innocuous ruminations about paradigm shifts and progress in science and, then, suddenly, after a few paragraphs, makes a startling categorical claim: “Amateur economists, individuals without advanced degrees, or those not teaching in research universities, who spend their time writing in blogs or in journals not listed by SSCI cannot pull off the desired paradigm shift.

[This article is excerpted from chapter 13 of The Betrayal of the American Right, now available in the bookstore.]

Our town council, who loves taxes like my cat loves cream is talking about a sales tax increase: a frequent subject of their deliberations. Only a miniscule addition they say. Pennies. Who’ll miss a 5 penny penalty on a 5 dollar purchase. We should line up to give our political servants this minor increase. Infinitestimal, a painless gift to the city. Insignificant, I think? If that’s so what can they do with the proceeds: paint new stripes on the courthouse parking lot? Then it occurs to me. It aint the money - it’s the principle.

Four years after the conflagration of 2003, we in southern California once again are enjoying the sight of pink skies not caused by the sun, the aroma of burning chaparral, and the sting of smoke getting in our eyes. One can only wonder: what is the role of government in this?

Here we go again with real competition being portrayed as anticompetitive. The front page of the San Jose Mercury News reads, “FTC declines to probe Intel” because the head of the FTC is not moving forward with requests by Intel competitor AMD and lawmakers to look into illegal practices by Intel. In addition, South Korea and the European Commission have accused Intel of antitrust violations.” Fortunately, Deborah Majoras, the FTC’s chairwoman, has rejected the requests to formally investigate Intel.

The latest translations of Hoppe’s works include: Reflexiones Sobre El Estado Y La Guerra (Reflections on State and War); and El Futuro del Liberalismo - Exhortación por un Nuevo Radicalismo (

THE FREEMAN Letters to the Editor Thanks to Milton Friedman’s brilliance, charisma and diplomacy he became an ardent spokesman for many free market reforms in this country. And now Ivan Pongracic, Jr. (The Great Depression According to Milton Friedman, September 2007) gives him credit for convincing Fed officials that the Fed itself was responsible for precipitating the crash and the 1929-1933 monetary contractions that followed. But the contractions were only the spark that brought the boom to an end; the seeds of the depression itself were sown in the preceding boom.