Walter Block’s recent thread “I blew my chance to be on the payroll with everyone else!” reminded me of a scene out of the recent Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The context of the scene is as follows. The wizarding world is in a state of unrest as the evil wizard Lord Voldemort has returned and begun a subversive movement of Death Eaters wreaking havok against the innocent.

Molinari’s Utopia of Liberty (1848) -- an early attempt at “libertarian outreach to the left”

(Sorry, that’s as clever a title as I could muster). The rationing of oil. Michael Ruppert, writing in From the Wilderness, tells us that the International Energy Agency has “dusted off plans for rationing to be imposed (with the full authority of government and the UN) in nations which had signed the original UN treaty in 1974 or joined later.”

With regard to Tullock’s “major objection” to the theory, his argument (pp. 3-10) is likewise marred by an apparent unfamiliarity with advanced expositions of the theory. I shall not attempt here to give a point-by-point critique of the author’s main argument that, during a typical Austrian business cycle, “there would be only minor transitional unemployment [and] measured GNP would be higher as a result” (p. 74).

Chevron raised its bid for Unocal to $63.01 per share, compared with CNOOC’s bid worth $65.50. Unocal directors approved the Chevron bid, as Chevron’s bid is favored by the U.S. government and faces less regulatory harassment. Chevron has been lobbying intensely to raise the expense and political risk of CNOOC’s bid.

Today, LibertyGuys criticizes the YMCA:

You would be happy to know that we are organising India’s first ever Austrian Economics Seminar in New Delhi from August 18-21, 2005. The Austrian Economics Seminar derives inspiration from The Mises University, the world’s leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics.

I just got a call from one [name left out for fear of acts of vengeance for having blogged this], from the U.S. State Department. He wanted to consult with me about improving the Iraqi economy. He told me he got my name from [a certain Washington think tank with a libertarian reputation], as an expert in near eastern economic development.