I am spending some weeks back in Seddon-Kingsville area of Melbourne housesitting for friends. (Well, cat-serving really, but house-sitting sounds more dignified; though it is possible it may have included some famous literary cats.) It is very nice to be back in an area where everything is in walking distance. The contrast with having moved [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Australia, Public Policy
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Tagged Anglosphere, ARC, Bangalore, canberra, corruption, Hong Kong, Katherine Betts, Kingsville, melbourne, People and place, permit raj, positional goods, Ronald Coase, Seddon, Seeing Like A State, Sir John Betjeman, The Blitz, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, theory of the firm, transaction costs, urban planning, Yarraville
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… An announcement. Starting this Friday (give or take time-zone issues thanks to the blog in question being located in the US, me being in the UK, and skepticlawyer being located in Australia), I’ll be writing once a week for Thoughts on Liberty. You’ll be pleased to know I won’t be leaving here, and that [...]
Historically, taxing land (rents) and trade have been the dominant income sources of rulerships not reliant on labour service (not to be confused with taxes on labour income, which have a different dynamic).* Trade was a particularly attractive source of income because it often involved taxing outsiders. But trade was also mobile–too much tax for [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Middle east, Public Policy, Taxation
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Tagged Abbasid Caliphate, Alexander the Great, British East India Company, Caliphate, Carthaginian Empire, china, Chinese Civil War, Crusades, David Friedman, Diadochi, Eastern Roman Empire, Fatimid Caliphate, Genghis Khan, Ghaznavids, Graeco-Roman Empire, Han dynasty, Hellenistic kingdoms, history of trade, hyperinflation, Ilkhanate, India, Iran, islam, jihadi, Jin dynasty, Jurchin, Mongol Empire, Napoleon, Opium Wars, Ottoman Empire, Parthian Empire, Qing dynasty, Roman Empire, Sassanids, Seljuq Empire, Shia, Silk Road, silver, Sino-Japanese War, Song dynasty, Spanish silver peso, Sui dynasty, Sultanate of Rum, Sunni, Taiping Rebellion, Tang dynasty, Thomas the Apostle, Warlord Era, Western Roman Empire
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“Law-abiding” citizens have “nothing to fear” from the British intelligence services, the foreign secretary says. William Hague said reports that the UK’s eavesdropping centre GCHQ had circumvented the law to gather data on British citizens were “nonsense”. But he refused to confirm or deny claims GCHQ has had access to a US spy programme called [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Also posted in Britain, Defence, Funnies, Human/Civil rights, Internet, Music, Personal liberty, Politics, Privacy, Public Policy, Technology, Terrorism
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Tagged GCHQ, integral, intelligence services, pet shop boys, prism, spying, william hague
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First, the societies that did not have it: 1. Ancient Israel: And Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee [...]
‘We must do something, here is something, let’s do that thing’ is one of the most seductive wrong routes those in power can take in the wake of an act of terror. Initially praised for his unwillingness to be drawn into the usual epidemic of jerking knees that breaks out whenever awful stuff happens in [...]
By skepticlawyer
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Also posted in Britain, England, Human/Civil rights, Personal liberty, Religion
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Tagged Communications Data Bill, Drummer Lee Rigby, Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, islamism, segregation, Theresa May, Woolwich
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[A long time ago, I promised various skeptical friends that I would write a post on the idea of 'privilege', something about which I have had grave doubts for some time. Unfortunately life and work got in the way, and the post remained unwritten. However, I then made the same undertaking to various classical liberal [...]
The head of the US tax agency has quit after it emerged his staff singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny, President Barack Obama has announced. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had asked for and accepted the resignation of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Acting Commissioner Steve Miller, he said. “I will do everything in my power [...]
By DeusExMacintosh
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Also posted in Funnies, Politics, Taxation
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Tagged 501(c)4, barack obama, charity, internal revenue service, IRS, Political donations, social welfare organizations, steve miller, superPACs, US democratic party, US politics, US republican party, US tea party
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The notion that “easy money” created asset booms is levelled (famously by Austrian school economists such as von Mises and Hayek) against the 1920s boom and by a range of commentators about the Great Moderation boom. In both cases, the Fed (dominated by Benjamin Strong as New York Fed Governor up to 1928 and by Alan Greenspan as Fed Chair 1987-2006) is held to be to [...]
By Lorenzo
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Also posted in Economics, History, Public Policy, Technology
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Tagged Alan Greenspan, asset markets, Austrian business cycle, Austrian school, Bank of France, Benjamin Strong, bimetallism, bubble economy, china, ECB, expectations, FDR, Frederich Hayek, George L Harrison, GFC, gold standard, Great Depression, Great Moderation, Great Recession, housing booms, India, lost decades, milton friedman, monetary policy, natural interest rate, NIRA, permanent income effect, railway manias, Roger W. Garrison, silver standard, theory of the unsustainable boom, Time and Money, US Federal Reserve, von Mises, world war one
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The singer of Grammy-nominated US heavy metal band As I Lay Dying has pleaded not guilty to plotting the murder of his estranged wife. Prosecutors said Tim Lambesis, 32, handed $1,000 (£650) in cash to an undercover policeman with instructions on how to kill his wife Meggan. The judge set bail at $3m (£1.9m) for [...]
