Category Archives: Economics

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)

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)