This past Saturday I had a very enjoyable interview with Scott Horton, where we talked about all sorts of things that would probably interest fans of Mises.org. You might check his website for other interesting interviews.
In their recently published paper, “The Curley Effect: The Economics of Shaping the Electorate” (Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Vol. 21(1), April 2005, pp. 1-19), Harvard economists Glaeser and Shleifer argue that democratic leaders can mix incendiary rhetoric and the redistributive powers of the state to encourage political opponents to emigrate, thereby shaping the electorate to their favor and allowing them to remain in office despite economic stagnation.
Kimberly A. Strassel dismantles NY attorney general/gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer’s case against ex-New York Stock Exchange chairman Dick Grasso(WSJ $). It turns out that interviews with the NYSE board members refute Spitzer’s contentions that Grasso manipulated the board to pay him too much money.
“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” Hosea 8:7
On Societal Ascendance and Collapse An Austrian Challange to Jared Diamonds Explications
by John Brätland (US Department of the Interior)
Dues to threats of copyright infringement lawsuits, this bakery now refuses to customize birthday cakes with the kids’ beloved images, e.g. if a kid wants a Nemo cake, too bad. After all, how dare that little hooligan punk kid want to “steal” the “property” of Disney et al.? What right does he have to have an orange fish on his cake? The Bill of Rights does not say anything at all about a right-to-put-an-orange-Nemo-resembling-fish-on-a-birthday-cake. Does it?
