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NEW 3/04/2012: ED CRANE AND THE CATO INSTITUTE VS. THE KOCHTOPUS! [More...]

Brad DeLong pieces together the amazing story of the Koch lawsuit for control of Cato. As noted in Libertarianism in One Lesson; The Second Lesson : "We should look to examples of private organizations such as the Libertarian Party USA as role models..." [more...]

NEW 3/04/2012: Why bother with microfoundations? [More...]

Our modern "microfounded" macro models are no more useful than aggregate-only models because the available microfoundations are crap. If you put garbage in, you may or may not get garbage out, but why bother putting the garbage in in the first place? [more...]

NEW 3/04/2012: Slavery By Another Name (excerpt) [More...]

An excerpt from the PBS documentary "Slavery By Another Name", an example of what for-profit private prison management has been in the past. [more...]

NEW 3/03/2012: Mike Huben's Criticisms

Developed over roughly 40 years of networked debate with libertarians. [more...]

NEW 3/03/2012: Libertarianism in One Lesson; The Third Lesson

Still attempting to try to catch up with David Bergland's arithmetic, where 1 lesson = 16 chapters in 99 pages. [more...]

NEW 3/03/2012: Libertarianism in One Lesson

Mike Huben's guide to becoming a libertarian. If you've argued with libertarians, you'll understand them well enough to ROTFL. :-) for the humor-impaired.[more...]

NEW 3/03/2012: Libertarianism in One Lesson; The Second Lesson

Why is there a second lesson when the title says one lesson? Libertarianism is so double-plus-good.... :-) for the humor-impaired. [more...]

NEW 3/03/2012: Middle Class

There is no libertarian theory of the formation of the middle class. The middle class is conspicuously the result of government programs in education, commerce, taxation, housing policy, agricultural policy and other efforts. [more...]

Republicans Sink Bill to Prevent Abuse in Teen Behavior Schools [More...]

This is an unregulated, private, capitalist industry that grossly violates human rights. But libertarians want to identify government as the problem, not the free market. [more...]

Children

Much libertarian theory ignores the fact that we start out as children. Many libertarians feel that government has no role in protecting or supporting children.[more...]

Organized Crime

Organized crime is a capitalist endeavor. Remove government constraint, and corporations and organized crime will merge. Claims that government is organized crime miss the critical difference: government is where we place coercive power so that it may be publicly managed for public purposes, while organized crime is private management of coercive power for selfish purposes. While prohibitions create black markets and organized crime, even libertarians want prohibitions against force and fraud and thus would create problems. [more...]

Rent Control

Rent Control is frequently used as a libertarian example of economics opposing liberalism. It only works that way if you put on your ideological blinders.[more...]

The Infamous Example of Rent Control in Introductory Economics [More...]

Peter Dorman points out two major omissions from the usual introductory economics rent control story, which transforms it into a morality story rather than anything scientific. [more...]

Ron Paul Wants to Abolish the CIA; His Largest Donor Builds Toys for It [More...]

Billionaire Peter Thiel, who has contributed millions to Ron Paul's Super Pac, describes himself as an opponent of democracy. He is a seriously creepy right-wing nutjob. [more...]

Libertarianism Is Undemocratic

Take Nozick, for example: in Anarchy, State and Utopia he does not use the word democracy, and uses the word democratic in only four places late in the book when discussing how there are market alternatives. In the Ayn Rand Lexicon, Rand is openly disdainful of democracy. David Boaz, in Libertarianism: A Primer page 14, states "Libertarians, as the name implies, believe that the most important value is liberty, not democracy." Some libertarians such as R. J. Rummel conflate libertarianism with democracy. [more...]

Budgeting and Macro Policy: A Primer [More...]

Brad DeLong's clear overview of macroeconomics applied to budgeting and policy. Explains what's well understood and what's not well understood. Debunks a few myths. Explains short run vs. medium run vs. long run issues. Short, readable and relevant! [more...]