At this point most people’s minds are surely made up, on the issue of whether Thomas Piketty is a wonderful scholar versus a con artist. But I still think it’s worth commenting on this debate, because the innocent onlooker would
Archive for May, 2014
What Else Piketty Says — on Inflation, Canada, and Democracy
With all the commentary that has greeted the publication of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, there seems to be little left to say about the book. However, it being a huge book, there’s more in it than has
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The inevitability of Private Healthcare in Canada in one chart
Graph Courtesy of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Don’t forget those Pension liabilities and Debt. Republished from the CBC: Rising debt a massive challenge, Charlene Johnson says Newfoundland and Labrador’s net debt will push close to the $10-billion
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A Third Option on Public Lands
One of the most common fallacies in public policy is known as The Golden Mean, sometimes referred to as the Fallacy of the Middle. Simply put, it is the tendency to think that a policy that falls between two extremes
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The Essence of Keynesian Thinking
Reprinted from Mises.org [This article originally appeared as “Keynesian Thinking” in Newsweek, August 11, 1954.] Arthur F. Burns, now chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, is one of the country’s outstanding statisticians. Yet there is in his implied economic philosophy
The Last Communist City
Reprinted from City Journal Neill Blomkamp’s 2013 science-fiction filmElysium, starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, takes place in Los Angeles, circa 2154. The wealthy have moved into an orbiting luxury satellite—the Elysium of the title—while the wretched majority of humans
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My letter to the NY Times re: UKIP is neither left nor right
Re: Populist Party Gaining Muscle to Push Britain to the Right Dear Sirs: It is about time to end the inaccurate labeling of all political parties as either of the left or of the right. The ultra left is always
Optimism, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Freedom
In the many debates I have engaged in on the relative merits of a free society, the most common charge that is leveled against me is that my arguments are Utopian, that they assume too positive and moral a human
The a Priori Method in Economics – In Defence of Ludwig von Mises
Reprinted from DetlevSchlichter.com I gave a speech on this topic at the Libertarian Alliance in March. A link to the video recording of that speech ishere. The following essay covers similar ground but is not identical with the speech. I
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Is There a Case for Reparations?
Any writer capable of making a reader rethink his firmly-held position is gifted. Words are the projection of meaning, and it’s through words that ideas change, attitudes adjust, emotions are tempered, and we learn. The message doesn’t always have to
The Economic Fantasy of “Star Trek”
Reprinted from FEE.org A friend of mine is an award-winning science-fiction novelist. When we first met, I happened to mention to him that I was working on a science-fantasy novel, just as he was. He bristled. “I write science-fiction, not
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The Weak Defense of Piketty
In response to Chris Giles’ allegations in the FT that Thomas Piketty’s book is replete with outright mistakes and dubious methods of blending the raw source data, Piketty has hit back hard. Bloomberg reports: Piketty, the French economist whose book “Capital
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Changing the Climate Change Narrative
It’s a bit of a film cliche that the bad guys, while possessing armies of flunkies, have no loyalty to their employees and happily sell them out, or even murder them without a second thought. Many a Bond villain has
Piketty’s Garden of Envy
Reprinted from Taki’s Magazine Resentment is the one emotion that can last a lifetime and will never let you down. All other emotions are fleeting and unreliable by comparison. I have tried hating someone for years, but found it impossible:
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Are You Kidding Me? Now Allegations That Piketty Fudged His Wealth Data
Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a moving target. The book contains foundational theoretical problems, a misreading of the empirical literature that blows up his whole case, sloppy and absurd factual errors concerning tax rates and minimum wage hikes, and shocking quotations that
Consistency and Libertarianism
When it comes to reporting on matters of Christianity and the goings-on in the Catholic Church, few are better than George Weigel. Heralded as the next mantle-carrier from cleric and writer Richard John Neuhaus, Weigel keeps his ear to the
The Demise of the Dollar
Reprinted from the Pembroke Daily Observer Over twenty years ago, while walking the streets of Saigon, Vietnam, I came across an elderly drinks seller who surprised me by pulling a sizeable wad of US dollars out from underneath her blouse in
The real cause of European budget indiscipline
From today’s Open Europe news summary: In a comment piece for FAZ, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble reiterates his call for an EU budgetary commissioner with powers to veto national budgets. He also suggests Europe should be a “multi-layered democracy:
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The Impossibility of Owning Sound
A lot of libertarians get confused when it comes to copyright law and the legitimacy of enforcing it. Being fervent evangelists for property and private ownership, they believe that copyright laws somehow protect the property of the copyright holder. Most
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Let’s make money worthless! Then we’ll all be rich!
Re: Currency wars might be starting again From the report: “European Central Bank President Mario Draghi called the euro’s strength a “serious concern” last week, and officials in Australia, Canada and New Zealand have been making noise about weakening their
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