Can Judges Save Us From Statism?
Randy Barnett is among the world’s leading libertarian academics and lawyers, writes J.H. Huebert, but his most recent book is dangerous.
The Myth of the “Holdout Problem”
Though not strictly Austrian in analysis, this new article from Bruce Benson in the Independent Review is worth reading for its strong attack on the fallacy put forth by Richard Epstein and others that we must have eminent domain, especially to build roads, because of the “holdout problem.” He also makes the case for private provision of roads.
Hate Crime—Intentional Action and Motivations
On a private list I posted the following:
A Sobering Email
Interesting that the most successful email virus in years plays off people’s fears of the government. This Sober variant announces that it is from the FBI.gov or the CIA.gov. (public affairs), and claims that the government has logged your IP surfing illegal websites. It then demands that you fill out the attached form, which is really the virus.
Some are signed with the following:
There Is No Such Thing as a Fair Tax
Writes Laurence Vance: the FairTax Plan—a proposal to replace the current system of federal taxes with a national sales tax is a disaster waiting to happen.
Was Spock an Austro-libertarian?
Are the Vulcan race, as popularized by Commander Spock of Star Trek fame, really future Austro-libertarians in disguise? Jack Maturin says the clues are there.
Step away from that turkey!
The Washington Post reports that the government of Massachusetts is threatening the grocery chain Whole Foods with criminal penalties for the unspeakable crime of...considering opening on Thanksgiving.
Mises.org and the Future of Podcasting
Episode 30 of the This Week in Tech Podcast, “Live from the Podcast Expo” features a panel of techo journalists talking about podcasting and its impact on the distribution of content.
One of the points was that the firms who did the best job locking down their software and preventing piracy have all failed, while those that were more lax about copying ended up with more users and did better.
Blackhawk Bernanke down on M3
Please, forgive the shameless self-promotion, but, in an expanded response to a friendly enquiry, I put together a list of the ulterior motives which might explain why the Fed has suddenly decided to stop publishing M3 data next March.
If nothing else, the piece seems to have been taken up as a navigational warning of the looming economic icebergs which the Arch Counterfeiter and his political masters on the bridge of the USS Titanic will have to try to avoid next year.
What Is the Free Market?
Murray Rothbard defines the phrase free market: “a summary term for an array of exchanges that take place in society. Each exchange is undertaken as a voluntary agreement between two people or between groups of people represented by agents.”
