IP and Global Government
Stephan Kinsella has cast doubt on the legitimacy of intellectual property (PDF).
La revolución comienza....con Verizon?!?
I received the following interesting pamphlet along with my monthly Verizon bill (which they were kind enough not to pad with bogus charges for once). Is the Boston Talk Party forthcoming? FEDERAL EXCISE TAX ON COMMUNICATIONS — ”Tax on Talk”
Insufferable O’Reilly
Cap’n Arbyte has a wonderful post on Bill O’Reilly’s ghastly and embarrassing demand to know who precisely sets the price of gasoline.
Recycling: What a Waste!
School kids across the country will again be taught a chief doctrine in the civic religion: recycle, not only because you fear the police but also because you love the planet. Jim Fedako, however, explains that if recycling were really efficient and not wasteful, people would not have to be browbeaten, and trash companies wouldn’t have to undertake this charade that they are helping preserve the planet by picking up sorted garbage. Reusing and reducing are viable market activities.The Top Intellectuals?
Via Marginal Revolution, I see that Foreign Policy and the UK Prospect are asking readers to vote on the top five living intellectuals.
These Items Back in Stock
Spitzer Central Plan for Stock Research Backfires
The $1.4 billion Wall Street research settlement, devised by New York politician Eliot Spitzer, compels investment banks to pay their “independent” rivals to publish competing investment research reports. This is necessary, Spitzer argued, to give investors access to research that is not tainted by conflict of interest. Banking conflicts, he said, make Wall Street analysts overly bullish on stocks.
The Attempted Militarization of the Jetsons
A lesser known episode of “The Jetsons” speaks directly to our current plight, writes Jeffrey Tucker.
Mises in Defense of Edgeworth
This newly published essay by Mises reveals that he regarded Edgeworth, not Marshall, to be the leading British economist of the late 19th century. Mises’s judgment in this matter, writes Joseph Salerno, is utterly unorthodox.
The Logisitics of Private vs Public
From the Washington Post:
In Brookhaven, Miss., for example, where Wal-Mart operates a vast distribution center, the company had 45 trucks full of goods loaded and ready for delivery before Katrina made landfall. To keep operating near capacity, Wal-Mart secured a special line at a nearby gas station to ensure that its employees could make it to work.
