Robert Samuelsson Finally Gets It
In a previous post I discussed how Robert Samuelsson absurdly tried to attribute the tech stock and housing bubbles to lack of inflation rather than existence of inflation.
Now he seems to have realized how “excess liquidity” (the source of both the tech stock and housing bubbles) was the result of the policies of the Fed and other central banks.
Can Governments Function Like Markets? Austrian Insights into Public-Choice Theory
LBJ Would Be Proud
of Bush’s $3 trillion budget for FY 2008, but why is the “conservative” Heritage Foundation praising the president for—are you ready—reining in entitlement costs? Concludes Brian Riedl:
Copyrights and Dancing
Yet another example of how copyrights and IP amount to partial enslavement: ‘Electric Slide’ on slippery DMCA slope:
David Mamet on Central Planning of Culture
A fascinating interview with playwright/screenwriter/director David Mamet by Charlie Rose (jump to 29:00) features his comments on economics and Hollywood (jump to 36:00). The interview is about his book Bambi Vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business.
Long live Frank Chodorov
What can I say to persuade you to click on this link and have a look? This has to be the finest book from one of the great American thinkers and writers of the 20th century, a man who has been tragically neglected and forgotten: Frank Chodorov. Every essay in this book, called Out of Step, which is also available in print, is a gem, from its defense of the peddler to his celebration of the American tradition of isolationism.
Wii, destroying lives
Wii is wrecking children’s lives! And before that, it was video games, and before that TV, and before that radio, then movies, then cars, and if you go back far enough you can find Victorians railing against the outrage that kids were wasting all their time reading that new innovation, mass-produced novels.
The Beginning of the Ron Paul Season
George Will writes a commentary on the prospect of a presidential bid by Ron Paul, and here is a commentary on Will that attacks Will’s insinuation that Paul is a eccentric out of touch with the glorious modern world of the Leviathan state.
Public Goods and Bads
Here is an interesting paper by Christopher Coyne and Steve Davies. It counters the argument that empire produces public goods by pointing to the many public bads of empire.