Mencken wrote that the sine qua non of all good criticism should be its ability to stand alone as a piece of art regardless of the qualities inherent in the object of the criticism. Cantor, Cox, and the other critics whose essays appear in Literature and the Economics of Liberty attain this goal.
Legal or not, destruction is animal-like behavior. It's one thing when it is done by wild pigs. But when identical forms of destruction are sponsored by the state, we are talking about a form of brutality that is purely man-made.
Anyone who has worked in middle management has likely, at one time or another, had their big boss pass out some dopey management books that especially touched the hamster-brained sociopath (as Scott Adams would say) who was in charge of operations.
The economy is now a networked economy. Some people even say that in this networked world centralized managerial hierarchies are obsolete; in the future, they will be replaced by decentralized, disaggregated, peer-to-peer communities.
Julian Assange cracked the government's veil of benignity and brought into question the state's tactics. So the state must destroy him.
If Scott can excoriate most of his fellow historians for confounding "civilization" with "state-making," he himself can be excoriated for confounding statelessness with lack of government.
If the entrepreneur aims at the highest possible profit, he performs a service to society in managing an enterprise. Whoever hinders him from doing this acts against the interests of society and imperils the satisfaction of consumer needs.
What are the results of the patent system itself? The results are distorted research, protectionism, wealth transfers, and enrichment of the patent bar. Large companies, such as IBM, amass giant patent portfolios.
The Mises Wiki provides an exciting outlet for young Austrian scholarship. A wiki encyclopedia can grow beyond what it was originally intended to be, its growth limited only by the vision of its community. The future is here, and you are invited to take part in its unfolding.
The key to avoiding "busts" is to avoid the credit expansion and "booms" that cause them. Booms are not periods of prosperity but of the squandering of wealth. The longer they last, the worse is the devastation that follows.
