Envy Unleashed at the New York Times
In a front page editorial (Sunday June 5), thinly disguised as its lead news story, The New York Times has unknowingly provided a case study in envy and ignorance.
Molinari’s Grave
Just got back from a week in Paris, where inter alia I visited the gravesite of Gustave de Molinari, the 19th-century originator of free-market anarchism. For anyone planning a visit to Père Lachaise cemetery, Molinari’s grave isn’t on the official maps but I’ve posted directions for finding it here.
Hong Kong shows how to reduce budget deficits
A few days ago, Hong Kong published first quarter GDP growth , with growth being a impressive 6% (although it is somewhat less impressive if one adjusts for a worsening terms of trade) higher than in just about all other rich countries something which might be related to Hong Kong being the freest economy in the world.
New York Times Story on Gold
Todays’ New York Times Magazine contains a story Believing (and Believing and Believing) in Bullion. The writer, Stephen Metcalf, does a good job of letting the subjects of his story present their views, and the choices he made for who to talk to were reasonably good. Gary North, one of the subjects, is a frequent contributor to Lew Rockwell.com. The main problem with a story like this is that gold is not a story about gold bugs.
Oddly enough: State-controlled information not always reliable
Fed Debates Pricking Housing Bubble?
During the late 90s, Greenspan claimed that stock market bubbles could not be identified while they were going on, only in retrospect, after they had burst. And in a twisted rendition of the efficient markets theory, Greenspan stated that any attempts by the Fed to manage asset prices would substitute the judgements of government planners for the informed decisions of millions of investors who had rationally and efficiently bid the stock prices up to ridiculous levels. The New York Times, for example, says “Mr.
Target: Private Enterprise
The Supreme Court overturned the guilty verdict against Arthur Andersen Company, writes William Anderson, but it came too late to save the firm.
Salerno Readings for June 6-10
A Constitution of Contradictory Rights
Defeats in French and Dutch referenda have put the proposed EU Constitution in serious trouble. However, in the resulting political tumult, amazingly little is being said about the Constitution itself. That is unfortunate, since that is the source of the most essential problem--promising what cannot be delivered. In some ways, the EU Constitution parallels America’s, defending rights such as freedom of religion and freedom of expression.
We’ll cut you open in our own good time
In the category of “health is way too important to leave to the government,” the Guardian reports: “The number of patients waiting for an NHS operation in England has increased by nearly 6,000, the government admitted today. A total of 827,300 patients were on the waiting list at the end of April - up by 5,700 since the end of March.”
