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Recent Posts
- Obamacare’s A Success: What Does That Mean? April 17, 2014
- Censusgate 2014: The ACA, The Administration, and Enrollment Numbers April 15, 2014
- Paul Krugman, the Affordable Care Act, and “Huge Successes” April 14, 2014
- A Libertarian Approach to Anti-Smoking Letter in the NYT April 12, 2014
- What I’m Reading April 5, 2014
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Recent Comments
- on Atlas Shrugged Part II: Hank Rearden Confuses his Principles
- on Krugman Gets a Visit from the Confidence Fairy
- A Libertarian Approach to Anti-Smoking Letter in the NYT | Hamsterdam Economics on New York Raises Age for Tobacco Purchases to 21
- Jon Finegold on Patrick Kennedy Misses the Mark on Marijuana Legalization
- More on Myerson: Food for Thought on Sovereign Wealth Funds | Hamsterdam Economics on Myerson’s Five Economic Reforms Fall Short
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Blogroll
Category Archives: Philosophy
A Hard-Line Libertarian in a Classical Liberal’s Clothes
Yesterday, Richard Epstein published an article entitled “My Rand Paul Problem,” with a tagline that read “why classical liberalism is superior to hard-core libertarianism.” The thrust of the article is more or less as follows. The renewed attention to Paul … Continue reading
Thomas Pynchon’s New Novel, Anarcho-Capitalism, and Insurance Companies
For those readers who are unaware, Thomas Pynchon–author of V., The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity’s Rainbow, Vineland, Mason & Dixon, Against the Day, Inherent Vice, and, most recently, Bleeding Edge–is by far one of my favorite authors. In fact, he probably takes second place at the moment, … Continue reading
The New York Times has published an editorial today echoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s accusation that House Republicans represent an anarchist movement within the United States government. Until now, the only House Republicans pushing for a government shutdown and …
Bob Murphy posts on “The Intellectual Bankruptcy of (Mainstream) Macroeconomics” and it is well worth reading. The post will no doubt be controversial to some, but I think that taken with a grain of salt it does a good job …
Utilitarianism favors activist government mainly because it is constructed to ignore a whole class of reasons for hastening slowly. Although this sounds like a flippant remark, the following analysis in Anthony de Jasay’s The State is original, nuanced, and, in my opinion, …
In Misunderstanding Financial Crises: Why We Don’t See Them Coming, Yale economist Gary Gorton discusses “the Quiet Period” of the American economy from 1934 to 2007: The Quiet Period shows that properly designed bank regulations can prevent financial crises for a …
Although de Jasay is often associated with libertarian strands of political philosophy, it should be noted that the context of each of the following quotes is descriptive, and not prescriptive. In other words, the author is describing what he perceives a situation to …
Can We Ever “Prefer” the State of Nature?
Last night, I posted a quote from The State (Anthony de Jasay) arguing that states exist, in relation to one another, in a situation that bears a strong resemblance to a Hobbesian “state of nature.” Despite this–the fact that there is no … Continue reading
States Exist in a State of Nature
Persons are in states, have been there for many generations, and would have no practical means of getting out if they wanted to. States are in the state of nature; many of them have known something approaching the security offered by the … Continue reading
Money Makes You a Payable Slave
As I was doing some Christmas shopping on Newbury Street–Boston’s major commercial area–this morning, I noticed some interesting graffiti: Money makes you a payable slave Although this sounds profound, in its sort of sidewalk philosophy way, it demonstrates … Continue reading