I, justino

"Dictatorship over consumers’ choices, then, can only atrophy morality rather than promote it...."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:26:32 PDT

“Dictatorship over consumers’ choices, then, can only atrophy morality rather than promote it. There is but one way that morality can spread from the enlightened to the unenlightened—and that is by rational persuasion. If A convinces B through the use of reason that his moral values are correct and B’s are wrong, then B will change and adopt the moral course of his own free will. To say that this method is a slower procedure is beside the point. The point is that morality can spread only through peaceful persuasion and that the use of force can only erode and impair morality.”

- Ten Ethical Objections to the Market Economy - Murray N. Rothbard - Mises Daily

What’s Really Wrong with Entitlements-Q&A (by...

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 08:50:16 PDT

What’s Really Wrong with Entitlements-Q&A (by AynRandInstitute)

"It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from..."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 07:24:50 PDT

““It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.””

- Liberty For All » Blog Archive » The business of government

"We don’t live in a free market, but rather in a corporatist economy where government favors may..."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 05:56:37 PDT

“We don’t live in a free market, but rather in a corporatist economy where government favors may convert activities that would serve the general interest into activities inimical to it. That’s why one cannot give a priori approval to Bain. A final judgment must await close examination of its activities in light of government corporatist intervention.”

- Romney and Bain Capital by Sheldon Richman

"Nobody is pointing this out. I understand why Democrats prefer Obama over Bush. Under Obama, they..."

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:21:29 PDT

“Nobody is pointing this out. I understand why Democrats prefer Obama over Bush. Under Obama, they get even more nationalization of industry, socialization of medicine, and deficit spending for social programs. But I don’t see why they’re so threatened by Bush. Under Bush, they got most of what they want.”

- “Return to Bush’s Policies”? We Already Have Them | Capitalism Magazine

"At the same time there is increasing evidence that a failure to respect and protect property rights..."

Thu, 31 May 2012 10:28:14 PDT

“At the same time there is increasing evidence that a failure to respect and protect property rights undermines environmental stewardship, particularly on private land. This is important in a country like the United States in which a majority of land is privately owned. This problem is most evidence in the context of endangered species. A majority of those species listed as endangered or threatened rely upon private land for some or all of their habitat. If these species are not saved on private land, they may not be saved at all.”

- Business - Megan McArdle - How Property Rights Could Help Save the Environment - The Atlantic

"As we have already seen, Mises, the great defender of the gold standard and 100-percent-reserve free..."

Thu, 31 May 2012 09:00:34 PDT

“As we have already seen, Mises, the great defender of the gold standard and 100-percent-reserve free banking, in the 1960s collided head-on with theorists who, led by Friedman, supported flexible exchange rates. Mises decried the behaviour of his disciple Machlup, when the latter abandoned the defense of fixed exchange rates. Now, fifty years later and on account of the euro, history is also repeating itself. On that occasion, the advocates of monetary nationalism and exchange-rate instability won, with consequences we are all familiar with. This time around let us hope that the lesson has been learned and that Mises’s views will prevail. The world needs it and he deserves it.”

- In defence of the euro: an Austrian perspective » The Cobden Centre

"In my conversation with Ms. Warren she told me that one of the reasons she’s been pushing..."

Thu, 31 May 2012 07:25:16 PDT

“

In my conversation with Ms. Warren she told me that one of the reasons she’s been pushing reinstating Glass-Steagall — even if it wouldn’t have prevented the financial crisis — is that it is an easy issue for the public to understand and “you can build public attention behind.”

She added that she considers Glass-Steagall more of a symbol of what needs to happen to regulations than the specifics related to the act itself.

”

- Reinstating an Old Rule Is Not a Cure for Crisis - NYTimes.com

"Contrary to Obama’s message, wealth creation is not just the obsession of rich investors; it..."

Thu, 31 May 2012 05:56:21 PDT

“Contrary to Obama’s message, wealth creation is not just the obsession of rich investors; it is the key to prosperity. Precisely because of the discipline imposed by the possibility of failure, individuals concerned only about their own profits create more jobs accidentally than central planners who “take into account everybody” can hope to create on purpose.”

- Wealth Creation Is Not the Enemy - Reason.com

"Giving undue financial advantage to one special interest over another is not the only negative..."

Thu, 31 May 2012 04:21:15 PDT

“Giving undue financial advantage to one special interest over another is not the only negative effect of the building codes. The codes also work to suppress the creativity of engineers and architects by applying an immutable, one-size-fits-all straight jacket to their designs. Not only does this negatively affect the potential greatness and novelty of building designs, but it also hampers the introduction of safer buildings because thinking outside of the box is discouraged.”

- Central Planners and Pagodas

"The FDIC’s deposit insurance will always serve as another incentive for banks to expand credit and..."

Tue, 29 May 2012 08:53:01 PDT

“The FDIC’s deposit insurance will always serve as another incentive for banks to expand credit and take riskier positions. The solution isn’t for the bureaucrats in charge to come up with new operating rules and “be more conservative in our risk management and assumptions,” it is to finally do away with the implied socialization of losses. The fact that taxpayer funds were put at risk to aid the speculative errors of a politically favored industry is demonstrative of the insidious nature of state intrusion into the market.”

- Barry Ritholtz Mistaken on FDIC

"Desire is infinte, so there’s no limit to consumption.” (utilitarian fallacy) False: the desire for..."

Tue, 29 May 2012 07:21:35 PDT

““Desire is infinte, so there’s no limit to consumption.” (utilitarian fallacy) False: the desire for consumption is limited both by cultural values and by time. Even though the Christian monastic tradition has left our culture the idea that consuming less is “renouncing,” and that therefore, consuming more would be the spontaneous result of our “natural” desires, the truth is that studies on the behavior of lottery winners show that a sudden increase in wealth doesn’t produce a conspicuous change in the quantity of consumption or a general in consumption patterns. Curiously, lottery winners wind up contributing a significant part of their winnings to charitable institutions.”

- Five argumentative fallacies and one methodological fallacy without which degrowth cannot stand

Yaron Answers: Fractional Reserve Banking (by AynRandInstitute)

Tue, 29 May 2012 05:59:00 PDT

Yaron Answers: Fractional Reserve Banking (by AynRandInstitute)

TEDxSydney - David Chalmers - The Extended Mind (by TEDxTalks)

Tue, 29 May 2012 04:26:57 PDT

TEDxSydney - David Chalmers - The Extended Mind (by TEDxTalks)

"We know that capitalism encourages individuals to produce and exchange for mutual benefit, allowing..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:30:09 PDT

“We know that capitalism encourages individuals to produce and exchange for mutual benefit, allowing individuals to maximize their potential, producing a more prosperous society. But while its benefits for liberty and prosperity are well understood, the argument for the free enterprise system as a conduit of virtue seems quite underappreciated in modern scholarship.”

- Values and Social Capitalism | Values & Capitalism

"The very idea of depicting the debate as austerity vs growth is wrong. This implies that the..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 08:53:53 PDT

“The very idea of depicting the debate as austerity vs growth is wrong. This implies that the solution is the opposite of austerity — a monetary or fiscal stimulus to close down the nominal GDP gap. Even if a short-term fiscal or monetary stimulus can temporarily boost growth, that isn’t the way towards a proper restructuring of the economy.”

- Austerity or bust | Adam Smith Institute

"Intervention is not conservative and it is not consistent with “America’s founding principles,” nor..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 07:28:49 PDT

“Intervention is not conservative and it is not consistent with “America’s founding principles,” nor is intervention conducive to a “strong national defense,” in its true sense. For the United States, the 20th Century marked the rise of foreign intervention, and it was ushered in by progressives, notably Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, neither of whom was very conservative. Consider also that Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson – all progressives – were proponents of foreign military involvement. By and large, the foreign policy of the U.S. during its first century was far more humble, mirroring the advice from the likes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.”

- Refuting Heritage on Foreign Policy. – Tenth Amendment Center

"Our findings add to the already significant body of economic literature that suggests that..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 05:45:32 PDT

“Our findings add to the already significant body of economic literature that suggests that small-government countries grow more quickly after accounting for other characteristics. It also shows that there appears to be little correlation between government size as a proportion of GDP and some key outcomes in health and education. The implication is that in the medium term, constraining the size of the state is good for growth, and can also provide social outcomes that are at least as good as those in big-government countries.”

- Tim Knox and Ryan Bourne: To Get Growth, Shrink the State - WSJ.com

"We could go one step further and argue that even if it turns out that some smaller banks, in an..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 04:15:53 PDT

“We could go one step further and argue that even if it turns out that some smaller banks, in an ultra-competitive environment, make riskier investments, it would actually be, in a sense, a positive in the long-run. By necessity, these banks control a much smaller share of the market. Bad entrepreneurial decisions lead to losses. This is a market process which rewards good entrepreneurs and punishes bad ones; not only that, but it communicates good information regarding the real risk of the relevant assets. In other words, it might prevent similar decisions from being made in the future. In a market where competition is suppressed and banks are larger, bad decisions can lead to much more disastrous results.”

- Hellmann, et. al., (2000) | Economic Thought

"In a free society, the only way to get something you want is through service to others. When you..."

Sun, 27 May 2012 10:29:02 PDT

“In a free society, the only way to get something you want is through service to others. When you exchange a product or service with someone, that person gains from the exchange since they get what they value more. Sometimes people make a mistake and do something that makes them worse off, but under a free enterprise system they made the choice of their free will.”

- Introduction to Economics