Aside from the error identified by Shostak this morning, another error concerning financial markets is that they are systematically irrational - the very opposite error of the EMH.

Declan McCullagh writes of the growing sense that Google will become the target of antitrust intervention. For the primer on why such attacks are unnecessary and destructive, see Armentano’s little book on antitrust.

Zheng Xiaoyu, China’s former FDA chief, was executed recently for taking bribes and allowing lethally tainted pharmaceuticals to be sold to his countrymen. Thus far, ten fatalities have been identified in the imbroglio. Zheng makes it eleven.

If you missed it, the creator of Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), a popular social networking website, was sued three years ago by a company he had previously worked at.

The lawsuit lists a number of allegations, including the fact that Zuckerberg “took the original idea” and appropriated it for his own gain.

When we discovered a solid stash of this book, the excitement in our offices was palpable. Hayek wrote it in 1952, several history before Mises wrote his final methodological treatise. It was unavailable for many years, and remains long sought after — rightly so.

In fact, Mises adored this book as a wonderful examination of the dramatic change in the way we think of sciences. In particular, the change that occurred in the last 100 years had a huge impact on economics.

Benjamin Tucker’s journal Liberty was the foremost organ of 19th-century American individualist anarchism, and a major influence on Murray Rothbard and modern libertarianism; contributors to Liberty included such prominent free-market luminaries as Lysander Spooner, Auberon Herbert, and Vilfredo Pareto. (For background, see articles by Wendy McElroy and Carl Watner.)

As Medical Patents Surge, So Do Lawsuits reports that

Thank goodness for the patent system leading to such innovation!

Seventy-odd years ago, Patrick Barrington penned a humorous debunking of Keynesian mythology (presumably while the General Theory was still being given its final polish).

Today, at the tail end of one of the most spectacular and widespread credit expansions ever experienced, attitudes are a little different, though human fallibilities remain the same. From the Depression:

‘And what do you mean to be?’

The kind old Bishop said

As he took the boy on his ample knee

And patted his curly head.

I have written before for the blog about the emerging “sovereign wealth funds” (see: 1 2 3 4 5 6).