The State’s Moral Hazard, The States Immoral Mandate, and The Solution To Both
Rafe Champion on The Austrian/Keynesian Marriage from The Coordination Problem. …the problem of regime uncertainty which the Keynesians address by saying you will get all the certainty you need from our helpful interventions. But we have long ago reached the point where most of the interventions are the problem, not the solution. Uncertainty is a…
Laments For Attention On Environmental Economics
On Environmental Economics, the authors take note that Krugman appears to be reading their blog. They then state that the market will fail to protect the environment. Not that the government literally, by reserving powers to itself, FORCES the failure to protect the environment. As soon as something that is useful becomes a scarcity, it…
Time For Violence: Judicial Activism And The New Supreme Court Nominee
The difference between conservatives and socialists, is that conservatives believe that the government was constructed so that the legislature makes laws, and the court overturns those that are unconstitutional. That is the purpose of the court: to guarantee that the laws that are made adhere to the constitution, and to guarantee that the adjudication of…
Citi’s Prince Doesn’t Place Enough Blame On The Government
From Reuters, regarding today’s CITI testimony before congress: Prince’s infamous comment that his bank was “still dancing” even as the subprime crisis worsened came back to haunt him at the commission hearing where he was asked about it. His explanation seemed to boil down to this: it was a race to keep up with competitors…
Violence Is The Source Of Freedom
Prior to an important meeting of prominent advocates of freedom, Mises stated roughly, that: 1) Laissez-faire means ‘let the consumer decide’, it does not mean chaos prevails. I translate this more clearly and accurately as ‘a responsible parent forces her child to make decisions’ so that inter-temporal decision making becomes one of the child’s most…
Hayek’s Renunciation Of Conservatism – A Failure Of His Own
Hayek is somewhat famous for his essay “Why I am not a conservative.” In that essay, he states that conservatism has no solution to offer us. But Hayek, along with Popper, Mises, Parsons, and the more sociological Pareto, Burkheim and Weber, all failed to provide us with that solution. They all tried and failed. Pehaps…
Two Misleading Infographics – One Religion of Secular Humanism
Timeplots posted an infographic on women’s participation in congress, which, all things being equal, has essentially remained flat. However, I take issue with the assumption that participation alone is a measure of somehting valuable, other than than as a vidication of the spread of the religion of secular humanism. Also: The Guardian posted an infographic…
Germany Should Exit The Euro And Return To the Mark
THe NYT Opinion page includes recommends Germany leave the Euro? (Referring to a posting elsewhere.) Yes, it makes sense. Earlier last month I wrote a series of letters and posts recommending Germany pull out of the Euro myself. Mediterranean Europe and Germanic Europe are too different in culture, social structure, and values. Restore the DM.…
Bad Policy In Democracy Is The Outcome Of War And Revolution Is The Outcome Of Bad Policy
The war period has been highly controversial, and unfortunately led to a radical minority taking control of our government, and that minority is creating policy that is against the will of the majority of the people. This is another example of the dangers of war. Countries overreach during war. Empires overreach. Democracies, counter to conventional…
An Understanding Of Greenspan
A more analytical understanding of Greenspan: First, If you read enough of Greenspan, he tried to master the processes by which businesses actually made decisions, to a degree that few economists ever attempt. He was intimately aware of the daily needs and habits of business. He was intimately informed in a way few others seem…
Hallman Criticizes Hoppe
I’ve not run across Andy Hallman before. But he posted a blog entry today that is critical of Hoppe entitled A Libertarian Against Free Immigration. Andy States Neither in this section nor anywhere in the book does Hoppe ever stop to consider that the “millions of third-world immigrants” would be much better off under free…
Women Dominate The Veterinary Field and Not Technology. This Isn’t A Mystery.
On Carpe Diem there is a posting that references a series of articles on the state of women in the employment figures. Primarily as a result of the disappearance of risk capital, which led to a disappearance of risky, high reward careers, which will not come back (possibly ever) unless risk tolerance returns. It’s no…
Schiller Takes A Step Toward Capitalism 3.0
From an article in the NY Times. A Way To Share In The Nation’s Growth Robert Schiller, who I greatly admire, recommends one step toward Capitalism v3.0. Why? Because investment in the productivity of a nation does not privatize wins and socialize losses, as does debt. It is gambling, but gambling by people who know…
Responding To 3 Posts On American Decline – A Letter To Lawrence Lux
Lawrence, Thank you for your work in the public discourse. Your moderate pragmatism is often both interesting to read, and wise. However, a post today entitled “Whos Talking About Sheeps Clothing“, bothered me, not so much for what you said about it, but for the assumptions that are made by you and the others of…
The Threat Of Revolt, The General Strike, And The Myth Of Non-Violence
A tactic used by the vocal left is the threat of violence, or revolt if their needs are not met. The tactic of revolt is ancient. This modern version of revolt is a product of The Myth Of The General Strike. (I am referring to Burnham’s treatment) The contemporary version is the Economic Armageddon and…
A Subtle Redefinition In Opportunity Cost
I am going to redefine Opportunity Cost from the difference between one choice and another, to include the opportunity of expending violence. Because that is the FIRST cost that they pay in every transaction. I’m going to redefine Time preference from the silly Austrian implication that all purchasing decisions are made primarily by price, to…
Preservation Of Status Is A Resistance To Libertarian Solutions
I was listening to a lecture by Roderick Long this morning, entitled “The Moral Standpoint” which is part of the series “Foundations of Libertarian Ethics: A Philosophy Seminar” (Available from Mises.org). In this lecture, Dr Long (who I enjoy and admire, not the least of which because he is very funny and charming in person)…
A Convert: Winterspeak and the Public Purpose Of Banking
Over on Winterspeak, I found another convert. ….a bank should be required to keep all loans it makes on its books until maturity. In under six hundred words he provides a solution to a great deal of the problem. I’ve extended this basic line of reasoning to explain WHY banking should be run this way,…
Climate Data, Trust In Science, Secular Humanism, Truth, and Economics
The crisis over climate data has been met with numerous statements about preserving the “sanctity” or trust in the wisdom of science and scientists. As if our scientists were an improvement over their theological predecessors, or their pragmatic and prostituting peers in politics. But that can hardly be true, if one understands the history of…
Flashlights, Power Grids, Institutions of Calculation, Pride and Human Frailty
The difference between the schools of quantitative and behavioral of economics consists largely in which errors they choose to accept in furthering the utility of their craft. Each of these schools masters a set of conceptual levers with which they seek to solve problems. Or more realistically, the people in the school learn levers, and…
Simplicity Is a Relative Measure, Not A Test Of Truth
A left-leaning blog-squatter on Economist’s View repeatedly makes requests for simplistic reasoning, thereby making his level of understanding, that by which all rhetoric should be judged: a measure which is obviously arbitrary. All expressions are increasingly abstract evolutions of directly experiential concepts, and perceived simplicity in communication is a function of the commonality of experiences…
From The Private Sector: We Don’t Need Stimulus We Need Credit
1) From the private sector: We don’t need stimulus we need credit. Banks simply wont lend. While the process of correcting bank balance sheets is underway, that same process must occur in small and medium sized business before any turnaround can occur. In my largest company’s case, our banks have been failing gradually, and we…
Response To Economists View: One Way To Look At The Bush Years
RE: “One way to look at the Bush years is that job growth was lousy so the Fed (and the government policies) subsidized construction jobs by creating a housing bubble. That jobs program abruptly ended. It is now time for a new jobs program. For the longer run, it is time for a different labor…
Comparing Medical, Technical, Educational, and Political Testing Methodologies
There was a great deal of research and discourse on technology in medicine when computing systems began to enter the operating room in the 1990s. In particular, in the use of anesthesia. The most commonly discussed example was a difference in turning knobs, in which one machine turned right to increase and another turned left…
A Response To Krugman’s Petty Poke At Prestidigitators
Paul Krugman wrote today, poking fun at prestidigitators in the financial sector. As the most public advocate of forcible redistribution, I thought it was appropriate to poke back. The understanding that we obtain from reading the predictions of the financial sector, is limited to what these people are thinking, and how they will act because…
