The Latest from Cafe Hayek <http://cafehayek.com> <http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/CafeHayek> ------------------------------
- Some News <#1241f3a2f2d2cb8c_1> - A Challenge to a Protectionist <#1241f3a2f2d2cb8c_2> - Scientific Consensus <#1241f3a2f2d2cb8c_3> - Happy Birthday, James M. Buchanan <#1241f3a2f2d2cb8c_4> - Health-Care-Debate Humor <#1241f3a2f2d2cb8c_5> - Colorful Markets <#1241f3a2f2d2cb8c_6> Some News <http://cafehayek.com/2009/10/some-news.html> Posted: 03 Oct 2009 02:01 PM PDT Good<http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14563600&fsrc=nwl> . Scary and disgusting <http://thisiscommonsense.com/?p=5566>. <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=t5gqr0oQgvQ:GhmiiWS7vOM:yIl2AUoC8zA> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=t5gqr0oQgvQ:GhmiiWS7vOM:dnMXMwOfBR0> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=t5gqr0oQgvQ:GhmiiWS7vOM:F7zBnMyn0Lo> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=t5gqr0oQgvQ:GhmiiWS7vOM:V_sGLiPBpWU> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=t5gqr0oQgvQ:GhmiiWS7vOM:gIN9vFwOqvQ> A Challenge to a Protectionist<http://cafehayek.com/2009/10/a-challenge-to-a-protectionist.html> Posted: 03 Oct 2009 09:24 AM PDT My friend Ross Kaminsky recently posted a letter of mine at his excellent blog, Rossputin.com <http://rossputin.com/blog/index.php>. The Australian chap who prompted my letter responded at Ross’s blog with this comment<http://rossputin.com/blog/index.php/boudreaux-on-free-trade-and-outsourcing> : Well, hallo again Don, How about another irony… Bearing in mind the self-evident disaster which economic geniuses like you had recently visited upon the American people, isn’t it high time for economics lectures to be delivered into American universities via live videoconferencing links from abroad, Asia for example? Surely, Asian academics couldn’t possibly create a greater economic mess then that which your own bunch of bright sparks had brought about. Keep it up fella… Sincerely, Mark Gendala Melbourne, Australia www.ssotu.com Author of “re-industrialization of America: (R-O-A) P.S. By the way – when you have a minute to spare, please look up the trading definition of “export” Some of my reactions: (1) Judging from his claim to be author of “re-industrialization of America,” he is apparently under the misconception that America is in need of re-industrialization — that America is currently under-industrialized. He’s flat wrong<http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/08/13/harold-meyerson-is-part-of-the-problem/> . *** (2) What evidence is there that open trade is the cause of the recent economic turmoil? None. (Mr. Gendala: if you have such evidence, I’d really appreciate your sharing it with me.) *** (3) Neither I nor any of the economists whom I admire has had much impact on policy — at least not since the administration of Calvin Coolidge. *Some*impact, to be sure (not by me, but by economists far better than me) — for example, slowing the growth of the money supply starting in late 1979; deregulating part of the airline industry; deregulating much of surface transportation; deregulating banking somewhat; freer trade (at least until very recently). But the common interpretation of the last 30 years as being some sort of grand experiment in anything even close to laissez faire economics is absurd. It is The Most Convenient Lie for persons grasping for reasons, however flimsy, to invest government with greater control over our lives and pocketbooks. *** (4) Mr. Gendala apparently believes that I don’t know the meaning of the word “exports.” He’s mistaken — and his mistake stems from the pernicious effect of nation-based economic thinking. Nations do not trade; only individuals trade. Some of this trade happens to be across political boundaries. If those boundaries are ones that separate one country from another, the goods and services traded across those borders get special names: “imports” and “exports.” * But there’s nothing at all significant about these names; these are special names signifying nothing special about the objects to which they are attached — although, because such internationally traded goods and services are blessed with special names, these goods and services are made to *appear * special to uncritical minds. * If I buy a ham from my neighbor, I import that ham into my household. If in exchange for this ham I cut my neighbor’s lawn, I export from my household to his household a service (lawn-mowing). The essence of the matter — the crux of the economics of the matter — is not altered one iota if a political border runs between my neighbor’s house and my house. Nor is it changed if my neighbor is much richer or much poorer than me. * Here’s a challenge to Mr. Gendala: explain how Smith’s trading with fellow American Jones is different than if Smith and Jones trade but live in two different countries. [image: XML Feed]<http://rossputin.com/blog/index.php?tempskin=_rss2&disp=comments&p=3061> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=3iSZQhpVvmg:YBoEl8WT2ao:yIl2AUoC8zA> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=3iSZQhpVvmg:YBoEl8WT2ao:dnMXMwOfBR0> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=3iSZQhpVvmg:YBoEl8WT2ao:F7zBnMyn0Lo> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=3iSZQhpVvmg:YBoEl8WT2ao:V_sGLiPBpWU> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=3iSZQhpVvmg:YBoEl8WT2ao:gIN9vFwOqvQ> Scientific Consensus<http://cafehayek.com/2009/10/scientific-consensus.html> Posted: 03 Oct 2009 07:05 AM PDT Here’s a letter that I sent a few days ago to the *New York Times*: Paul Krugman asserts that, given today’s scientific consensus, anyone who opposes more aggressive government action to stop global warming is either motivated by greed or blinded by ideology (”Cassandras of Climate<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/opinion/28krugman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=cassandras%20of%20climate&st=cse>,” Sept. 29). It’s true that when prominent news outlets report that, for example, “As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect” a perilous change in global temperatures, it seems foolish to some people not to heed calls to solve the problem. Or that when the mainstream media warn that “Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of” a frightening global environmental problem, many sensible people cast aside hesitation about trusting government with more power to avert such a calamity. But I’m not among these sensible people. You see, the quotations above are from a June 24, 1974, report in *Time***<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,944914-1,00.html>about the scientific consensus that global temperatures are dangerously *cooling*. Scientists being wrong in 1974 doesn’t mean that they’re wrong in 2009, of course, but it *does* mean that sensible people can legitimately refuse to join in the current hysteria over predictions of catastrophic global warming. Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H_oCXN94J7Q:iTmbI_kNFHk:yIl2AUoC8zA> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H_oCXN94J7Q:iTmbI_kNFHk:dnMXMwOfBR0> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H_oCXN94J7Q:iTmbI_kNFHk:F7zBnMyn0Lo> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H_oCXN94J7Q:iTmbI_kNFHk:V_sGLiPBpWU> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H_oCXN94J7Q:iTmbI_kNFHk:gIN9vFwOqvQ> Happy Birthday, James M. Buchanan<http://cafehayek.com/2009/10/happy-birthday-james-m-buchanan.html> Posted: 03 Oct 2009 06:10 AM PDT Today Jim Buchanan <http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Buchanan.html>celebrates his 90th birthday. Happy birthday Jim! Winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economics, Jim — professor emeritus at George Mason University — is not just an economist. He’s a deep political philosopher. A pioneer in public-choice economics<http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html>, no scholar in history has done as much as has Jim to provide us with a conceptual framework enabling us to see clearly the logic of politics as it is connected with the logic of markets. To celebrate Jim’s achievements, I will, for the next several days, post some of my favorite quotations from his voluminous writings. <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H1LZKv1-mNs:rb9ugWvlaYg:yIl2AUoC8zA> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H1LZKv1-mNs:rb9ugWvlaYg:dnMXMwOfBR0> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H1LZKv1-mNs:rb9ugWvlaYg:F7zBnMyn0Lo> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H1LZKv1-mNs:rb9ugWvlaYg:V_sGLiPBpWU> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=H1LZKv1-mNs:rb9ugWvlaYg:gIN9vFwOqvQ> Health-Care-Debate Humor<http://cafehayek.com/2009/10/health-care-debate-humor.html> Posted: 03 Oct 2009 05:59 AM PDT This short YouTube video is pretty darn funny<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ9Te1XP8RM> ! (HT Brandon Robison) <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=HL3X4EQtz44:j40kj_eiwUY:yIl2AUoC8zA> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=HL3X4EQtz44:j40kj_eiwUY:dnMXMwOfBR0> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=HL3X4EQtz44:j40kj_eiwUY:F7zBnMyn0Lo> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=HL3X4EQtz44:j40kj_eiwUY:V_sGLiPBpWU> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=HL3X4EQtz44:j40kj_eiwUY:gIN9vFwOqvQ> Colorful Markets <http://cafehayek.com/2009/10/colorful-markets.html> Posted: 03 Oct 2009 05:48 AM PDT Here’s one of the many unsung ways in which private property rights are enforced and protected decentrally — or, put differently, ways in which free-rider problems are mitigated largely through private, individual, localized actions instead of through command-and-control legislation, taxation, or subsidization. <http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/151779> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=CC5sefjdvPI:B1nemXdShvU:yIl2AUoC8zA> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=CC5sefjdvPI:B1nemXdShvU:dnMXMwOfBR0> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=CC5sefjdvPI:B1nemXdShvU:F7zBnMyn0Lo> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=CC5sefjdvPI:B1nemXdShvU:V_sGLiPBpWU> <http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CafeHayek?a=CC5sefjdvPI:B1nemXdShvU:gIN9vFwOqvQ> You are subscribed to email updates from Cafe Hayek<http://cafehayek.com> To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now<http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=RD87GWo2xMyNcdDv2g6ct6FC7Lk> . 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