Category Archives: Economics

Tyler Cowen’s ‘libertarian heresies’

May 10, 2008 – 9:03 pm

Tyler Cowen gave last night’s keynote address at the Institute for Humane Studies Fellows’ Research Colloquium, and in it he revealed a selection of five ‘libertarian heresies’. Three of them particularly struck me.
First, he made a cogent case for the idea that we (in the developed world, at least) are freer now than we were [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Law | Comments (15)

So, what does ‘progressive fusionism’ look like?

May 8, 2008 – 4:33 am

This piece had its origins in a pair of posts written by Don Arthur over at Club Troppo, and followed up by Andrew Norton, Andrew Leigh, Will Wilkinson and Backroom Girl. The idea that libertarians and ‘progressives’ could hammer out some of their differences and reach a compromise far more workable than that between [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Law, Philosophy, Politics | Comments (14)

Opes investors fail at first hurdle

May 3, 2008 – 11:40 am

I know that some people have lost a lot of money through the collapse of Opes Prime, so it seems a bit ghoulish to be fascinated by it - but there you have it, I can’t help myself - I’m fascinated. There are so many interesting equitable and property law questions raised by it (tracing, [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Equity, Insolvency law, Law | Comments (11)

Seinfeld makes it to court

May 3, 2008 – 10:09 am

I’ve written previously on how Alice in Wonderland has made it into many Court judgments. Well, now Jerry and Elaine have made it into a judgment too!
In Parish Oil Co Inc v Dillon Companies Inc, the US Court of Appeals in Colorado mentioned Seinfeld in an anti-trust case:
Indeed, the plaintiffs’ reading would apparently render unlawful [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Law | Comments (0)

Cause and effect

April 27, 2008 – 10:35 pm

I haven’t been too impressed with ethanol fuels for a while. My concern back then was “that if governments make emotional knee-jerk reactions, the cure may be as bad as the disease it is designed to alleviate.”
In that context, the current food crisis is a salutory reminder of the nature of cause and effect.  Food riots [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Environment, Politics, Society | Comments (0)

Desperately Seeking Smith

September 5, 2007 – 3:28 am

It was Sinclair Davidson who told me - the other night, on Facebook - that Adam Smith is buried in Edinburgh. The instructions Sinkers gave me (via the Adam Smith Institute) for finding his grave were wonderfully poetic but not especially clear:
The Smith monument will be in line of sight of the recent statue of [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in History | Comments (12)

Illiberalism

June 29, 2007 – 1:03 pm

I was very surprised to read that US Judge Richard Posner advocates secret trials for terrorists. Obviously, attendees at the Australian Bar Association were surprised too. I don’t agree with Posner’s view: it is vital that trials take place in public, with due process. I had always thought Posner was a libertarian at heart. He [...]

By Legal Eagle | Also posted in Law, Terrorism | Comments (5)

Budgetitis

May 8, 2007 – 10:45 pm

No, not coming off hiatus, but curious as to what readers think of Cossie’s spend-up. It strikes me that raising thresholds is a good thing, and he’s dipped his toe into the water on vouchers and teachers’ performance pay… but my there’s a lot of pork, too.
And is it enough to save Howard’s bacon come [...]

By skepticlawyer | Comments (150)

Environmental innovation

February 11, 2007 – 12:29 pm

Regular Catallaxy commenter JC has a guest post up over at Club Troppo on innovative technological responses to environmental concerns - and among other things he flags one of Graeme Bird’s favourite planning ideas - the abolition of height restrictions on inner-city residential accommodation. He’s started a very lively thread among Troppodillians, so I thought [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Science | Comments (116)

Hayek on Amazon

January 28, 2007 – 3:22 pm

Since we’re shameless promoters of all things Hayek around these parts, and we’ve all no doubt contributed to improving Amazon’s share price over the years, I decided to sign us up as an Amazon affiliate.
Those of you who’ve been sold on our Hayek advocacy - or who simply aspire to know more than Hevvie Kevvie [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Philosophy | Comments (21)