Politics View All →
Turbulent Priests and the Rule of Man
In 1170, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was cut to pieces by four supporters of King Henry II after they overheard the king cursing the archbishop’s name. “Will no one,” legend records the king as saying, “rid me of this turbulent priest?” History suggests that this was not an order from Henry, but merely [...]
Read More →Operation Fast and Furious, the War on Drugs, and Gun Control
Last year, the public became aware of a program by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) known as Operation Fast and Furious (F&F). Most controversially, as a part of the program, the ATF knowingly allowed suspected arms traffickers to transport thousands of guns to Mexican drug gangs. In December 2010, the program [...]
Read More →Constitutionalism: Ron Paul vs. Rick Santorum
So, in case you missed it, Rick Santorum declared recently that he understands our Founding documents better than Ron Paul. Ron Paul, Santorum says, has a “French” understanding of Liberty, more committed to radical individualism than the “rights with social responsibilities” enshrined in our Constitution. I thought that was a bit of an “interesting” take, so I [...]
Read More →The President Does Not Have the Constitutional Authority to Kill You
There’s treachery afoot. It is cloaked in the flag, pushed by people sworn to uphold the Constitution, and it cuts across the political divide, but there it is just the same. On December 1, 2011, Obama Administration lawyers declared to the press that American citizens are legitimate targets in the Administration’s “War on Terror” and [...]
Read More →DoD Cuts: It’s About Time
A great deal of stress and anxiety has been caused recently among defense hawks insisting on sparing the military from the automatic spending cuts demanded by budget sequestration. They insist such measures will lead to a crippled American defense. The numbers clearly show this isn’t the case and their fears could be alleviated by taking [...]
Read More →Unemployment in Michigan
With the recent primary in Michigan, the Obama administration and the media have inundated the public with accounts of how the car bailouts and other government interventions have promoted both Michigan and the United States. In responding to this account, various free-market sources have explained the shortcomings of the car bailouts, showing them to be unnecessary, harmful, [...]
Read More →Five Reasons Advocates of Limited Government Should Oppose Mitt Romney
With Mitt Romney’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire as well as strong polling both in coming states and nationally, the likelihood of him achieving the Republican nomination has soared. Gaining support across a wide spectrum of voters, Romney has most curiously achieved large backing from proponents of the Tea Party, as evinced by strong [...]
Read More →On Arizona House Bill 2822
Representatives Pancrazi, Farley, Saldate, Tovar, Ableser, Alston, Crandell, Jones, McCune, Davis and Pratt have decided that Arizona needs a new organization which they would like to call the Joint Legislative Study Committee on Farm-to-School Programs. It will be the purposes of this organization, they propose, to engage in all of the following four activities: Evaluate [...]
Read More →Economics View All →
On Lombard Street – Part II
‘Political economists say that capital sets towards the most profitable trades, and that it rapidly leaves the less profitable and non-paying trades. But in ordinary countries this is a slow process, and some persons who want to have an ocular demonstration of abstract truths have been inclined to doubt it because they could not see [...]
Read More →On Lombard Street – Part I
‘But I maintain that the Money Market is as concrete and real as anything else; that it can be described in plain words; that it is the writer’s fault if what he says is not clear.’ ‘The briefest and truest way of describing Lombard Street is to say that it is by far the greatest [...]
Read More →Capping Taxes or Capping Revenue?
Alex Estorick, an intern at ConservativeHome, has commented on top end marginal tax rates and an old New Zealand Labour party proposal to cap the amount of income tax any given individual was expected to pay. It was difficult not to notice a slight mismatch between the rationale for supporting such a policy and that [...]
Read More →On Corporate Financing
Annette Poulson has written a survey of literature on how corporations choose to finance. The following are some comments on that essay. We are all familiar with the variety of motivations for taking on personal debt whether it be to facilitate consumption (credit cards) or to leverage cash flow for investment (home loans) but for [...]
Read More →We Can All Be Austrians Now
In his article What is Austrian Economics, Matt Yglesias recognizes the growing strength of Austrian economics on the political environment as exemplified by Ron Paul’s recent 2nd place finish in New Hampshire. After providing a brief history of Austrian economics and recounting some feuds between libertarian economists, he criticizes aspects of Austrian economic theory, condemning it as extreme, outlandish, [...]
Read More →A Primer On Money – Part I
What is money? People encounter so many different measures of money supply, with esoteric designations like M0, MB, M1, M2, M3, and MZM, that difficulty inevitably arises when trying to understand just what exactly constitutes this ubiquitous, yet ill-defined facet of life. When considering such a question as ‘what makes something what it is,’ functional [...]
Read More →Money and Morality
All these evils caused by the depreciation of the money in circulation are most afflicting; but there is another evil, far more deadly, that this depreciation has engendered and which will spread more and more: that is, the moral depravity of the population and abandon of every principle of equity. Truly, the discredit of the [...]
Read More →Reflections, Reviews View All →
Iterating a Concept of Sets
If you: A) Recognized the (admittedly belaboured) pun in the title and B) Then opened the article to read it Then this article is likely beneath you. If however, you were just interested in an article about sets, then this very well may prove both interesting and helpful! And so, maybe you too, like me, [...]
Read More →Of Friends and Foils
I’m looking after a dog at the moment. He’s a rather fine West Highland White called Woolly. Though I’m not sure he knows he is, since he doesn’t come when he’s called. He has an expressive, almost human face and big bushy white eyebrows. He is fed twice a day and walked twice a day. [...]
Read More →Particular Insights
- The FT interviews Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury:
http://t.co/t9aiHvvLfE - John Kay on institutions and the rule of law: http://
http://t.co/to0xd3yzr6 - Jodi Kantor on Obama at Chicago: http://
http://t.co/4FhGiYBLnz - Tabatha Southey on the TSA:
http://t.co/CNOBQ9YLXi - John Rubino on Higher Education:
http://t.co/xVZ2QP3Rs0
- The FT interviews Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury:
