Block on Radical Libertarianism
Walter Block’s two-part article Radical Libertarianism: Applying Libertarian Principles to Dealing with the Unjust Government, from the Spring 2006 & Fall 2004 Reason Papers is now available online.
Reason Papers #26 Online
Available here.
From CO2 Science: “A 221-Year Temperature History of the Southwest Coast of Greenland”
The following appears here
A 221-Year Temperature History of the Southwest Coast of Greenland
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Reference Vinther, B.M., Andersen, K.K., Jones, P.D., Briffa, K.R. and Cappelen, J. 2006. Extending Greenland temperature records into the late eighteenth century. Journal of Geophysical Research 111: 10.1029/2005JD006810.
What was done
The Futility of Inflation-Targeting
Read my latest LRC article where I describe why targeting of official consumer price inflation, which is official dogma of most mayor central banks and after Ben Bernanke became Fed Chairman unofficial Fed dogma too, even if desirable (an assumption which can be challenged on many legitimate grounds, but which for now was assumed for the sake of the argument)is a futile endeavor since central banks have almost no influence on the consumer price inflation data they know about, while knowing virtually nothing about the consumer pri
They shoot horses, don’t they?
Long among the most reasoning of central bankers (perhaps because they have no direct political role to play) Malcolm Knight and William White at the BIS edge ever closer to an overtly Austrian analysis of the world. The Conclusion section of their latest annual report is well worth reading for its dismissal of the “Keynesian workhorse” of their peers and for its clear disavowal of the policy of pursuing “price stability”. More Roepke than Rothbard, perhaps, it still represents a major advance.
The Freakonomics Approach
My Organizations and Markets post on “puzzles” versus “problems,” in philosophy and economics, is generating some interesting discussion. Mainstream economists, I suggest, are increasingly avoiding the “big questions,” focusing instead on finding and solving cute, clever, but ultimately ephemeral, puzzles.
The Individualist Code
What accounts for the popularity of “The Da Vinci Code”? Part of it, suggests Stephen Cox, is the novelty factor. I’m not suggesting that the New Testament is a handbook of capitalist economics, or a guide to libertarian politics. Jesus said — contrary to the assumptions of all those religious people who have tried to use the government to put themselves in power — “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
Try this Google Fight
“A Patent Success Story”
Patent attorney Dennis Crouch writes on his generally excellent patent law blog Patently-O:
In Praise of Private Philanthropy
With the recent news that Bill Gates will give up stewardship of Microsoft in the next two years to concentrate on his foundation work. And, the news that the second-richest man in the world will give his fortune to the richest man in the world, it is important to recall that things actually get done absent government involvement.
