After flirting for months without ever committing to anything, former Speaker Newt Gingrich has announced that he won’t be running for President:
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Two days after hinting he wanted to try for the White House, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decided he would not run for president, his spokesman said Saturday.
Rick Tyler said […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
John Berthoud was one of the unseen faces in Washington fighting the good fight for fiscal conservatism and lower takes. Since 1997, he headed the National Taxpayers Union, one of the premier lobbying groups in Washington that seeks to advance an agenda of lower taxes and lower spending.
Late last week, Mr. Berthoud died at his […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
I’ve been critical of the campaign before, but this was a nicely executed fund-raising drive and a nicely-executed publicity campaign all at the same time:
Dr. Paul was campaigning in New Hampshire with his wife Carol and their family when our $1,000,000 goal was reached last night. As the time drew near, they watched on a […]
From The Liberty Papers
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
A video explaining one of the grossly underappreciated facts of history. Hunter gatherer societies were hugely violent, the rate of violent death being some 20 times even that of the 20th century. Long but well worth it.
Help out an economics professor. Try a 150 word essay on “When Did Life for the Poor Get Better?” suitable for 5 year olds. After that we’ll work on the simpler version for journalists.
Similarly simple wisdom: boosting renewable energy would be better achieved not by subsidy but by dismantling regulation.
A bold claim: socialism works. The caveat? Only when you know their names.
Naomi Klein gets very confused on this point, on when and whether socialism works, Megan McArdle tries to put her straight.
Health insurance is one of the big things being argued over in this American election season. The only problem is that everyone seems to be starting from the wrong number.
And finally, we might have found the cause of the credit crunch. Does anyone know how much of the City has upgraded to Excel 2007? (And wouldn’t that be a product liability suit to enjoy?)
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Many people, particularly those of a free-market bent, regard the Chancellor’s guarantee as folly, because it creates ‘moral hazard’ – in other words, banks will be prepared to act even more riskily in the hope of picking up marginal business, knowing that if it all goes wrong, they and their customers will not lose out. Recently on this blog I argued the opposite, saying that the prospect of Northern Rock losing its reputation and its business over a single weekend must make others wary of skating on too thin ice, guarantees notwithstanding.
Now I’m not so sure. The shareholders of Northern Rock have been told they won’t get a dividend, of course, but the directors are still in line for healthy bonuses, based on the jet-fuelled growth of the bank over the last year. Now that definitely is moral hazard. Not just in banking, but in other sectors too, the rational strategy for managers seems to be to take whatever risks you need to make your business go like a rocket, and retire on your performance-related bonus just before the whole thing explodes.
I have long believed that company law gives too much power to managers and too little to shareholders. Unless there are really stiff penalties on managers who mess things up, we could see still more of these crises in the future.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Three men were standing side-by-side using the urinal.
The first man finished, zipped up and started washing and literally scrubbing his hands … clear up to his elbows … He used about 20 paper towels before he finished. He turned to the other two men and commented: “I graduated from Oxford and they taught us to be clean.”
The second man finished, zipped up and quickly wet the tips of his fingers, grabbed one paper towel and commented: “I graduated from Cambridge and they taught us to be environmentally conscious.”
The third man zipped up and as he was walking out the door had a smirk on his face and said: “I don’t know about you guys, but where I went to university, they taught us not to piss on our hands.”
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
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The Adam Smith Institute’s project to erect a giant statue of Adam Smith in Edinburgh is nearing completion. The plan is that the statue will be unvieled in May of 2008 with Lady Thatcher and Gordon Brown among the guests. It will be the first major public statue of Adam Smith in the world and is a long overdue recognition of his achievements.
The statue will stand outside St Giles Cathedral on the High Street, known as the Royal Mile. From this commanding site, Adam will stare down the hill towards the Hollyroad and Scottish Parliament. Quite what the great man would have made of that particular architectural horror we can only speculate at. The Edinburgh Evening News carried a piece about the statue this week, including an interview with our very own Dr Eamonn Butler. If you’re interesed in finding out some more information, take a look at our most recent leaflet. |
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
An alternative title might be: interesting ways to manipulate Google.
We here at the ASI (and myself individually) have been most chuffed to find ourselves mentioned in a listing of the top 100 economics blogs around the world. Another 100 more academic blogs have been similarly interested to be on a list published yesterday looking at their field. Both of these listings were created by Currency Trading (no link for reasons that might become obvious) and of course, the immediate reaction to being on such a list is to mention it and link back to it.
The actual results, the rankings they’ve done, seem entirely reasonable, based on such things as traffic, technorati rankings and so on. However, there is the smallest fly in the ointment. The site’s raison d’etre is to encourage individuals to day trade foreign exchange. This is certainly legal, both as something to do and as something to promote, but there is the merest whiff of the boiler room tactics about it.
My take on the story is this. That Currency Trading has created such list knowing that people mentioned will link back to them. This raises the Google profile of their site (the more incoming links you have, the more reliable Google thinks your site is) and thus increases the likelihood that their site will pop up in a search. The creation of such listings is thus a very good way to promote your services across the web.
Fortunately, there is a good way of bringing such excellent lists (well, we’re number three, of course it’s a good list!) to the attention of your readers without promoting forex trading: the no follow tag.
So, the list of the world’s top 100 economics blogs.
From Adam Smith Institute
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Burma is a good example of 'gun control', i.e. a state of affairs where firearms are a legal monopoly of the government forces. One side has good intentions and the other side has loaded rifles, and the result (so far) has been the same as it was in 1988 - or even back in 1962 when the late General Ne Win first set up his socialist administration. However, being a cold hearted man whose mind…
From Samizdata.net
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
Whoops, looks like this spiffy-looking gadget has not achieved a trouble-free start but it may be too early to scoff. Even so, even a gadget nut like yours truly is sticking to his Blackberry (yes, I am semi-permanently attached to it) for the time being. Does any reader own an iPhone and have any views about whether it is worth the money? For people with the sort of money to burn on one of these…
From Samizdata.net
Tags: Libertarian, Politics, Liberty, Freedom
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