Category Archives: Economics

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)

Breaking the Habit

January 11, 2007 – 12:53 pm

“You shouldn’t be allowed to sign yourself out of rehab,” the girl is saying, fair hair flying, finger pointing. “People just f*ck off when it gets too hard. You’ll never kick it that way.”
It’s Friday morning, time for “Moot” in a very unusual Queensland school. “Moot” - redolent of the genteel mock court cases engaged [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Personal liberty | Comments (72)

Guest post by Ron Kitching: Educate the Babblers

January 10, 2007 – 4:59 pm

Ron Kitching, Australian libertarian legend, has been a bit concerned about the quality of debate around these parts. To that end, he’s assembled a convenient classical liberal reading list for everyone to be going on with. He’s so far been reluctant to comment - despite having a password - so I suggested he put together [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Literature | Comments (41)

Some (Australian) Libertarian History

January 6, 2007 – 4:25 pm

Today I had the excellent fortune to meet Ron Kitching (left), life member of the Mont Pelerin Society and sponsor of Hayek’s month-long lecture tour to Australia in 1976. Ron is a Rockhampton local, with a lifetime’s experience in the mining industry, where he was a distinguished exploration drilling contractor. He still consults to the [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in History | Comments (149)

Opting out of Welfare

December 27, 2006 – 9:55 pm

I’m not usually a huge fan of internet humour, but this piece has been doing the rounds of the interwebs for a while; this version actually came to me via Liberal Democratic Party treasurer David Leyonhjelm, who (apart from sending the funny) also let me know that Peter Saunders (CIS) has recently suggested that the [...]

By skepticlawyer | Also posted in Politics, Public Policy | Comments (130)