The following is an edited version of my recent post on a libertarian discussion list. I’ve often noted how Hoppe’s writings on libertarian ethics stress the importance of the “prior-later” distinction and the problems with the “latecomer” ethic. A few thoughts on this, which occurred to me while daydreaming earlier today. Much of it is redundant with what has been said before.

Here is the problem, according to Steven Landsburg:

In his new NBER working paper Martin Feldstein writes that “Reducing the large current account deficit will require both a higher rate of national saving and a more competitive dollar.”

I love it: “a more competitive dollar”

Robert Blumen and other Austrians came to the same conclusion but would probably describe it differently.”Why is the Dollar so High?”

NBER Working Paper No. W13114

Contact: MARTIN S. FELDSTEIN

Production functions aren’t given. They have to be discovered. This is what entrepreneurship is about; the superiority of Austrian over neoclassical economics lies in seeing this fact.

That’s Chris Dillow, commenting on his blog on the Times piece posted earlier by Mark Thornton.

William Anderson today talks about America’s pockets of socialism and how they collapse when tested. Meanwhile, in the prison called North Korea, there is massive flooding and disaster in an unimaginable scale, as socialist structures are washed away in the tide of history.

A little clarification of the confusion surrounding the recent massive central bank intervention in the markets might be in order.

Yes, multi-billion cash injections have been taking place: no, this does not mean a return to the 1920s — not yet, anyway — since the bulk of these extra funds have already been withdrawn in the subsequent money operations undertaken as the original loans (strictly, repurchase agreements) have expired.

Coasian ethics have come to roost in Ohio, or roast as the case may be (roasted soybeans in this instance).

The Columbus Dispatch reported that an Ohio Court of Claims judge has sided with the state department of transportation in a suit brought forth by a farmer who claimed that his soybean crop was stunted by high-mast lighting along a state highway.

If you have boarded an airplane recently, you know something about how the state lives in a strange, alternative universe in which good sense, normal courtesies, and sound judgment play no role. No aspect of life is perfect, but the sectors the state manages are wacky and topsy-turvy.

With the collapse in the price of sub-prime mortgage backed securities and credit derivatives, the credit boom has moved into the crisis phase. This is the place in the cycle where it becomes clear to the market the investments made possible by unfunded credit were mal-investments and they are re-priced.