Category Archives: government

There’s no such thing as nuclear defense.

Not really. Nuclear bombs have one purpose and one purpose only: to take out massive swaths of a civilian population in order to force an offending power into submission. If I walked into your house right now and shot your children, I could call it defensive but we should both know better. Same for nuclear [...]
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thoughts on the economics of oil and the principle of endless recalibration

Mises, among other ideas, popularized the notion that ‘middle of the road policy leads to socialism.’ And what he meant when he said this was, given a basic framework of law and order, the markets function to funnel resources to productive citizens in the most efficient way possible. (The gap in this, of course, is [...]
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Time Preference, Government, and the Process of De-Civilization: From Monarchy to Democracy, by Hans Hermann Hoppe

I just finished reading — you guessed it — Time Preference, Government, and the Process of De-Civilization: From Monarchy to Democracy, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Though I’ve heard many of the ideas in the book before, and even popularized a few of them among friends, this little essay (a mere 49 pages in PDF form), is, [...]
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a parable of inflation in war-time

By Fritz Machlup: A dealer bought a thousand tons of copper. He sold them, as prices rose, with considerable profit. He consumed only half of the profit and saved the other half. He invested again in copper and got several hundred tons. Prices rose and rose. The dealer’s profit was enormous; he could afford to [...]
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the old breed and the costs of war, eugene b sledge

I don’t get easily moved by performances of traumatic events. Even Schindler’s List just didn’t affect me much on an emotional level. But I never fail to feel a certain deep creeping horror when I read the first-hand accounts of men who have engaged in warfare. I just read The Old Breed and the Costs [...]
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Between Pacifism and Jihad, J Daryl Charles

Earlier today, I read Between Pacifism and Jihad, by J. Daryl Charles. It is clear that Charles has done some serious thinking about the history and theory of warfare. He has produced a strong argument, and I agree with him that the use of force is sometimes justified. The link above will direct you to [...]
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how to take down copyright

Here’s how we take down copyright. If you’ve no interest in taking down copyright, these suggestions will of course be useless for you. But if you do, you can contribute in the ways outlined below by giving up anything from ten seconds of your time now and to a lifetime. 1. Whenever someone uses the [...]
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debt = gdp

Though estimating the true value of both the national debt and the GDP (gross domestic product)  is difficult, President Obama has come out and announced the coming of an event that we who watch economic history in the making have seen for some time. President Obama has endorsed a projection which estimates that this is [...]
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alan greenspan supports the gold standard

Yes.  You have that right.  Alan Greenspan supports a return to a gold standard for the United States.  True story.  Even the guy who used to run the Fed knows it’s a bankrupt system.  Interestingly, Ron Paul’s Revolution:  A Manifesto claimed that Alan Greenspan was a closet gold man during his Fed days.  Now it [...]
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paul krugman and i agree — sort of

Paul Krugman has got something right.  Economically, he recognizes the reason that there’s an important ideological split:  between those who think it’s okay for the government to forcibly redistribute property, and those who think that it’s wrong to take what’s not yours.  It’s a division between folks whose rule of thumb is Thou shalt not [...]
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