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Liberty and Power

  • Nov 29, 2006

    The Trail of Tears as a Turning Point

    by Liberty and Power

    The story of the Trail of Tears (1838-1839) continues to command attention and remain relevant because, from a variety of perspectives, its represents a turning point in history.

    Viewed as an event on the world stage, the Trail of Tears supplies one example of the ongoing phenomenon of ethnic cleansing.

    The Trail of Tears was a watershed national event for the United States in two key ways. First, removal signaled a radical departure from previous U.S. policy towards A
  • Nov 29, 2006

    JLS 20.3: What Lies Within?

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    In the newest issue (20.3) of the Journal of Libertarian Studies, Bertrand Lemennicier criticises game-theoretic defenses of the state; Carl Watner defends the effectiveness of organised nonviolent resistance as a response to military invasion; Barry Simpson compares Robert Lewis Dabney and Hans-Hermann Hoppe on the cultural

  • Nov 29, 2006

    Europe's Most Downtrodden Minority

    by Liberty and Power

    As this article makes clear, persecution of the Roma, once known as gypsies, continues apace in the European Union.

    "Subject to entrenched harassment, discrimination, and ghettoisation, the Roma are liberty's losers in the transformation wrought by recent free elections and free markets."

    "The Roma, who can be sub-divided into at least five different groupings, migrated to Europe from the Indian sub-con
  • Nov 28, 2006

    Iraq Nears the "Saigon Moment"

    by Liberty and Power

    Patrick Cockburn asks"Does Anyone in Washington or at Downing Street Know What's Really Happening in Iraq?"

    "[G]oing by official statements, the British government knows no more about what was going on in Iraq in 2006 than it did in 2003. The picture Blair paints of Iraq seldom touches reality at any point. For instance he says Iraqis 'voted [f]or an explicitly non-sectarian government,' but every Iraqi knows that the vote
  • Nov 28, 2006

    Twenty Questions On Mises, Part III: The Stars, Like Prices...

    by Liberty and Power

    Beneath this silly headline, I would like to discuss what seems to me one of the most profound passages I have read so far in Mises' Theory of Money and Credit.

    In chapter 2, section 3, Mises writes,

    The objective exchange value of a given commodity unit may be expressed in units of every other kind of commodity. Nowadays exchange is usually carried on by means of money, and since every commodity has therefore a price expressible in money, the
  • Nov 28, 2006

    Libertarian/Green Alliance on Nuclear Power?

    by Liberty and Power

    I've arrived sort of late for the discussion of the 10 "Green Goals" and how much common ground they afford between Greens and libertarians.

    What's more, the generic—even boilerplate—nature of most of these goals impedes discussion. According to Roderick Long, the interpretations that most libertarians place on the Green Goals are incorrect, because they presuppose coercive means of achieving them. Well, yes, but it appears that the interpretations that (many? most?) Gre
  • Nov 28, 2006

    On Democracy, War and Roderick Long's Argument

    by Liberty and Power

    When I wrote “Democracies are not states, except in a purely legal sense. This is why they do not act like states internationally. Most importantly, democracies do not fight other democracies, nor do they kill large numbers of their own citizens.”
    Roderick replied:
    “Well, democracies do a pretty good job of acting like states in their relations with non-democracies. One reason they don’t attack each other as much is that democracies tend to be more prosperous than non-democracies
  • Nov 27, 2006

    Twenty Questions On Mises, Part II: Spooky Action at a Distance

    by Liberty and Power

    More on Mises, particularly concerning the definition of money, with a detour by way of Aristotle.

    It is downright embarrassing to read the ancients when they speak of money and credit. Aristotle wrote,


    There are two sorts of wealth-getting, as I have said; one is a part of household management, the other is retail trade: the former necessary and honorable, while that which consists in exchange is justly censured; for it is unnatural, and a mode by w
  • Nov 27, 2006

    The Nation on Chuck Hagel, Republicans, and Iraq

    by Liberty and Power

    In the last few weeks, the bloggers at Liberty and Power (see here and here ) have taken note of the Iraq war skepticism of Nebraska conservative Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. Now, the Nation blog has gotten into the act. In an informative piece on Hagel, John Nichols sends a wake-up call to leftists:

  • Nov 27, 2006

    An Unhappy Anniversary

    by Liberty and Power

    According to Gary Younge, since yesterday American troops have been in Iraq longer than they were in the Second World War. I haven't checked his arithmetic but that sounds about right.

    Younge's commentary explains why Bush and Blair will blame anyone but themselves for the consequences of their disastrous war—even its victims.

    "Withdrawal, when it happens, will be welcome. But its nature and th
  • Nov 26, 2006

    Don't Rush to Judgment

    by Liberty and Power

    Tom Parfitt recommends that we don't rush to blame Putin for the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.

    "The idea that Litvinenko was a crusading dissident in the mould of Alexander Solzhenitsyn is risible. People who had never heard of him two weeks ago are now trumpeting his 'courageous, high-profile stand against the Kremlin'. The fact is that Litvinenko was a paid employee of Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch an
  • Nov 26, 2006

    Smug, Self-Satisfied Liberals and "Borat"

    by Liberty and Power

    Keith Halderman has praised the movie"Borat" as an example of perceptive social commentary. Lester Hunt, by contrast, regards it as soothing tonic for the smug liberal:

    In the Borat movie there is nothing, from one end to the other, that is the least bit threatening to the Western liberal point of view. It's all about what what racist, homoph

  • Nov 25, 2006

    Who Will Save London (and the British Taxpayer) from This Folly?

    by Liberty and Power

    Andrew Rawnsley considers the ruinously expensive folly of the London Olympics and suggests a way out of the quagmire.

    "The most priceless moment of Ms Jowell's appearance before MPs was when she got to explaining the 'delivery fee' for the management of the project. What was £100m in August has now inflated to £500m. The cost of cost-control has quintupled! In just three months! This is the mad, mad world of
  • Nov 25, 2006

    Proletarian Blues

    by Liberty and Power

    [cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

    I’ve finally gotten around to reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, a book I’ve seldom seen libertarians mention without a sneer. But in fact it is a mostly excellent book.

    Ehrenreich went “undercover” to document the lives of the workin

  • Nov 24, 2006

    Paul Omerod on Why Hayek's Approach May Succeed Where Friedman's Failed

    by Liberty and Power

    "Milton Friedman was a highly original economic thinker. But even in the one area he was proved correct, his work is likely to be outshone by that of another economist."

    "Friedman was a brilliant polemicist. He had several highly original ideas about how economies work. Most have proved to be wrong, but at least he had them. And in the one area where he was proved correct, he exercised great influence on policymakers. But even in this area, Hayek's insights go much deeper and offer a
  • Nov 24, 2006

    Jonathan Steele on Why Only Iraqis Can Overcome This Catastrophe

    by Liberty and Power

    Jonathan Steele has often struck me as an insightful writer on foreign affairs. His most recent commentary is no exception. He explains that although Iran and Syria want to be seen as a stabilising force in Iraq, in contrast to the failure of the US, there is little they can do.

    "As US influence wanes, neither Tehran nor Damascus can fill the void. Iraq has become a calamity that outsiders can only watch in
  • Nov 24, 2006

    £7,280,000,000 and Counting

    by Liberty and Power

    Simon Jenkins contributes his two cents to the Olympic disaster in the making.

    "The 1948 London Olympics cost £20m at today's prices. Such a sum, or £50m, or even £200m (10 times bigger) should be the upper limit for a festival of sport. If that is considered stingy, then how about half a billion? But £7,280,000,000 and counting? This is getting insane."