The peasants are restless,
their money is tight,
There’s blood in the water,
the whole town ain’t right,
Bernanke’s in his helo,
dropping inflation and lies,
The peasants feel better,
as the whole world dies.
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
John Derbyshire who is, admittedly, a conservative, has a mostly positive piece about the Paul phenomenon at National Review Online where he tries to figure out why more conservatives aren’t supporting Ron Paul. In the process, he comes up with the reason that Ron Paul cannot be President:
If Washington, D.C. were the drowsy southern town […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
More on whether smoking cannabis causes schizophrenia. Short answer: no. Good, so there’s no reason we can’t get on with legalizing it then.
What it’s like when the government gets ready for its seaside holidays. Yes, worse than normal, if you can believe that is possible.
Literary novels: just what are they good for?
The true and exciting history of Admiral Byng. His greatest service was perhaps that in being shot on his own quarterdeck he showed that high level political contacts did not stop you from being shot on your own quarterdeck.
Did you know it is possible to have a finite Erdos-Bacon Number? Netsmith was excited to find out that it is, then disappointed in that an inability to either act or add makes his own possession of one unlikely.
And finally, neurosis is only a posh word, no, media studies degrees have not gone that far (yet) and yes, quite.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
As Alan Ebenstein’s new biography shows, Friedman was born in New York in 1912 to poor Jewish immigrant parents, but became the most influential economist of the late twentieth century. As the former Federal Reserve Bank chief Alan Greenspan noted “There are very few people over the generations who have ideas that are sufficiently original to materially alter the direction of civilization. Milton is one of those very few people.”
Friedman is best known for his monetarist policies – insisting that inflation is highly destructive and that only monetary policy can control it – though monetary policy is a heavyweight instrument and cannot be used for short-term economic management. But he is also distinguished for pioneering work on other subjects such as the unintended effects of professional licensing and price regulation, tax policy, and the theory of the consumption function. Through his books Capitalism and Freedom and Free to Choose, both written with his wife Rose, he reached an audience of millions with his chippy, straightforward belief in smaller government and greater personal freedom.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
A tortoise was mugged by two snails. When the police asked what happened, he said: “I don’t know, it all happened so fast.”
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Gordon Brown has been getting a remarkably good press since he took over as Prime Minister a few short weeks ago and his ongoing trip to America is more of the same. The BBC political editor Nick Robinson wrote a piece on his official blog titled ‘Summit Success’ before the summit even started and the Guardian printed a story based almost entirely on a government press release issued on the plane.
The article is headlined “Brown tries to shift Bush talks to trade and Darfur,” and contains the line;
He [Brown] also singled out Mr Bush’s efforts towards achieving a world trade deal and stopping the genocide in Sudan for praise.Which is odd considering that the genocide in Darfur lasted for three and a half years or about half of President Bush’s administration, and the world trade deal is on the edge of collapse - largely due to American refusal to give concessions in agricultural talks.
A new deal on World Trade is important but it will involve sacrifices on the part of the developed powers. These will not only benefit the Developing World but will create a better international trading regime that will ultimately benefit everyone.
Tony Blair, whose stature in Washington was as high as any British leader since Churchill, didn’t manage to persuade either President Bush or Congress or this simple truth. Time will tell if Gordon Brown will manage where Mr Blair failed.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Marek touches upon Richard Layard’s research into happiness and the policy suggestions he derives from such. Given the Noble Lord’s proclivities, this includes greater redistribution through the tax code.
However, it’s possible to take the same results of the research and come up with equally valid but quite different policy recommendations.
At the heart of the analysis is the point that above a certain level more money doesn’t make us happy. Leave aside for the moment the validity of this statement or not and let us assume that it is correct. We’ll also take Layard’s identification of some £12,000 a year as being the cut off point. We’ll even agree that the maximisation of possible happiness should be the purpose of the tax and benefit system.
So, our first point would be that no one earning less than £12,000 should be taxed upon it, as this will clearly make them less happy. Fortunately, the ASI is already recommending this, with a personal tax allowance of this size.
Secondly, as above this point there is no happiness/unhappiness point to be made about taxing the rich at higher rates than those not so much, we should have a flat tax if only for simplicity’s sake. This the ASI also proposes in the same report.
Finally, there should be no redistribution to those making more than £12,000 a year as this will not make them happier. This has not yet been suggested by the ASI, well, until just now.
So, the end of most of the welfare state (as most of it goes to those with more than £12,000 a year), a more than doubling of the personal allowance and a flat tax: go on, it’ll make you happier, Richard Layard says so.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Now I am always quick to say nasty things about the British state and the state's educational system in particular, but this article is really strange (as in 'has little relation to reality' type strange). So waiting for the Dolphin swim at Discovery Cove in Orlando, my daughter Nikki and I were seated with a Brit family - mom, daughter and son. After small talk about the great value of the pound vs the dollar…
From Samizdata.net
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
The plans by the state to extend the period of educational conscription in Britain could well be the issue that helps radicalise future generations in a most useful way, at least if you see the world the way I do. “Here is a Government that has toyed with the idea of lowering the voting age to 16 in order to promote a greater sense of citizenship amongst our young people. Yet it proposes to extend…
From Samizdata.net
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
He wrapped up his Friday broadcast with carefully bracketed video of young Republicans in Washington. His softly presented outrage leads to the inevitable conclusion that he is embracing the libertarian principle of individual, personal action. The only other possible interpretation being that he is a sanctimonious hypocrite. Ending his July 27 broadcast of Bill Moyers Journal, he makes his opinion very clear that unless someone has committed to personally experience the greatest possible cost of…
From Samizdata.net
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
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