Archive for September, 2008
Barack Obama, window breaker extraordinaire
Monday, September 29th, 2008Barack Obama and all of his Democratic supporters have already exposed themselves as true economic ignoramuses. It isn't getting any better. The veritable hero among knaves in the mainstream media, John Stossel, writes: Wow. Five million new jobs. All that work building windmills and creating biofuels are the "green jobs" that ...
Democratic voters are stupid, evil, or ignorant
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Being a big-shot blagger is a stressful and demanding hobby. Similar to the evolution of rules, bylaws, punishments, and social mores in a customary-law society, our positions, assertions, and predictions are under constant judgment and scrutiny by the global community of readers and other blaggers, leading to the success of ...
Bailout-related question of the day
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Who said this, and in what year? First right answer wins you a free beer (if no one guesses the year, the closest one wins). No cheating! Public opinion is perfectly right to see the end of the boom and the crisis as a consequence of the policy of the banks. ...
Quote of the day
Sunday, September 28th, 2008"If a loose monetary policy and rapid asset price inflation were the route to economic prosperity, Argentina would be the richest country in the world by now." —Albert Edwards, Co-Head, Global Cross Asset Strategy Societe Generale From safehaven.com, via disinter.
Interest rates in market anarchism
Sunday, September 28th, 2008I was quite fascinated by this post by Corktageous. It contains some good rebuttals of the anarcho-socialist/mutualist philosophies. You can read it and make of it what you will, but my purpose in this post is to ponder a little bit about interest rates, a topic that was brought up ...
The bailout is even worse than we know
Saturday, September 27th, 2008I liked two rants that I found via this Chris Floyd post. The first is by Arthur Silber, whom Floyd is fond of quoting, and with good reason: ...the consequences we are now seeing are irrevocable and unavoidable. The bad debts must be accounted for and written off. A problem of ...
Learning monetary theory from Rothbard
Saturday, September 27th, 2008Murray Rothbard was a much better writer on economics than Mises, though all of his economic ideas came more or less straight from Mises. Maybe I enjoy his writing style so much more because he was an American English speaker and was about two generations younger than Mises. Here is ...
Mob-rule is the answer
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Yeah, 'cause that worked real great in ancient Athens.
The Republocrats are ALL against us
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Brad at WendyMcElroy.com is right on the money: If the bailout accomplishes nothing else, it may expose the charade of the "two-party" system to a few more eyes. The Democrats' excuse for supporting so much atrocious Bush legislation (Patriot Act, use of force, Military Commissions Act, warrantless wiretapping, etc.) has traditionally been ...
Cops mistake hypoglycemia for drunkenness, beat man into coma
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Detroit resident Ernest Giglen was beaten by police officers who mistook his hypoglycemia as drunkenness, which led to his entering a hypoglycemic coma. I haven't heard of any police officers beating a diabetic man during a hypoglycemic shock before, preventing him from getting to the hospital quickly and making his ...
Learning monetary theory from Mises
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008As brilliant as I sound on most matters that I write about, my grasp of monetary theory—the financial markets, banking, lending, credit, securities, how the fiat money system skews them all—is, to be honest, embarrassingly weak. The deficit is largely in my understanding of financial jargon. I experienced a similar, ...
Ownership key to saving fisheries
Monday, September 22nd, 2008Writes Radley Balko: "The BBC somewhat surprisingly publishes the answer to the continuing tragedy of the commons that is the world’s fisheries: property rights!
Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony
Sunday, September 21st, 2008I recently went to a concert that opened with Beethoven's 7th symphony. It was the whole reason I went, and it surpassed even my expectations. It has long been my second- or third-favorite symphony of all time, behind his 5th and perhaps Dvořák's Symphony From the New World. Interestingly, the ...
Authoritarian law engenders conflict, discourages voluntary interaction
Friday, September 19th, 2008From chapter 3 of Bruce Benson's The Enterprise of Law, "The Rise of Authoritarian Law": When government becomes involved in the enterprise of law, both the rules of conduct and the institutions for enforcement are likely to change. The primary functions of governments are to act as a mechanism to take ...
“Libertarian paternalism” is idiotic
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008This concept of "libertarian paternalism" is possibly the stupidest thing I've heard since some self-described libertarians suggested that Rudy Giuliani had a libertarian molecule in his body. It is so stupid because it is a metaphysical impossibility. Tim Harford of the Financial Times seems to be largely amenable to the ...
Agents of the State are better than everyone else
Monday, September 15th, 2008An LRC reader writes in disgust to Lew Rockwell: Please don't use my name because, as you know, i am a news reporter for [a certain TV station], and it could get me in trouble. I am outraged at what I have seen about the horrific train wreck that killed about 20 ...
Libertarian lyrics 2
Sunday, September 14th, 2008All we have to see is that I don't belong to you and you don't belong to me. —George Michael, "Freedom"
The MSM are clueless
Sunday, September 14th, 2008I'm glad that this week I perused Taki's Magazine for the first time in months, since I found this excellent commentary on the Fannie and Freddie government takeover. One amusing aspect of the New York Times’s coverage of the government takeovers of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is that throughout ...
Thoughts on libertarianism and voting
Sunday, September 14th, 2008The anarchist argument against voting in democratic elections is that participating in the immoral system of determining right and wrong that is democracy (mob-rule) gives your tacit consent to the outcome of such elections; by voting, you demonstrate that you agree that mob-rule is a valid and just way of ...
Welcome Red and Black Readers!
Friday, September 12th, 2008Welcome esteemed readers of the Red and Black. Undoubtedly, some of you may have stumbled here from an article that was published today in the school paper. If you're interested - though the school actually almost produced my article word for word, for which I thank them - you can ...
It’s published
Friday, September 12th, 2008My last entry was published. You can see the entry here. It's only 9:44 in the morning, and I've already been told I'm an idiot.
Why I Don’t Vote
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008Following yesterday's article in my University's paper, another writer wrote a follow up article which essentially praises both Presidential candidates. I'll admit, I didn't read the whole thing since the first few sentences seemed to be filled with glowing praise of politicians, and I'd rather not waste my time. Instead, I ...
Voting
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008My University's paper today had an opinions article in which the author announces his distaste for both of the political parties candidates. However, he still shows us his faith in Democracy - otherwise known as Mob Rule - when he states: I am a firm believer that by not voting, a ...
Vote with your feet, not your mind
Thursday, September 4th, 2008In an astonishing departure from the norm, James Ostrowski blagged about something unrelated to Buffalo, NY, his father's career in Buffalo, NY, or his own amazing prescience in making political predictions. He's frustrated that the Democrats look as though they're about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory once ...
Women, children, and old people
Thursday, September 4th, 2008Ryan McMaken makes some good points about the politicization of the Olympics, not that anyone cares now that college football season is here, but he makes some awfully stupid statements along the way. Comparing the bad human-rights record of this year's host nation, China, to past instances of murderous governments ...
Customary law must be widely accepted and evolves for the better
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008After my long essay about customary "law" and the market of preferences, decency, and reputations in internet content providers, Tim Swanson posted a comment recommending The Enterprise of Law by the economist Bruce L. Benson. This book is about customary vs. governmental law and the market for law-enforcement services in ...