The Heritage Foundation has recently released a new Index of Economic Freedom. Yet the flaws of this index are so serious that the index cannot be taken seriously. First of all, they often use incorrect facts. They claim for example that Denmark has a 26,5% top income tax rate. The real number is 54%. But even setting aside they do not have their facts correct, the index would still be flawed. Other flaws include:
The latest legislative insanity comes from HR 1677, sponsored by Delegate John Cosgrove (R-78). The latest judicial insanity comes from Bastine: Apparently, pregnant women can’t get divorced in Washington.
EH.Net reviews Anderson and Hill’s The Not So Wild, Wild West: Property Rights on the Frontier (Stanford University Press, 2004).
It is always interesting to see to what lengths pro-Bush supply siders will go to in order to deny the existence of problems in the U.S. Economy. Just take Alan Reynolds’ latest townhall.com article. In it, he attacks those of us who believe in a housing bubble and more specifically Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach.
In response to my blog defending the Ayn Rand Institute against slander, one Objectivist curiously asked me (and others) about how anarcho-capitalism would work. It is refreshing when someone new to the concept of anarcho-capitalism (or propertarianism, or plum-line libertarianism) approaches it with an open mind, as you are doing.
Let me try to succinctly state, then, respond to some concerns Objectivists have.
A fascinating movement that has been swelling for weeks via the blogosphere is the “Not One Damn Dime” campaign. Here is one of a thousand postings of this.
Joel On Software writes about why Computer Science college students should learn microeconomics:
Foreign aid worsens the situation faced by victims of natural disasters, perpetuates misery and suffering for years afterward, and provides governments with additional tools of oppression. The current Tsunami crisis makes it critical to review Murray Rothbard’s “Doing God’s Work in Somalia,” a detailed account of how foreign aid caused further death, destruction, and ultimately a botched military intervention in a poor African nation.
