Liberty

Gmu Economists Conflict on Hayek and the Discovery of Efficient Laws, I Think

2 Comments / Economics, Law, Liberty / By

Michael Giberson Two recent papers by George Mason University economists* appear to conflict on the question of whether competition in the legal arena should be expected to yield more efficient laws. I say “appear to conflict” because I have only just glanced through both papers and they both appear rich, dense, and worthy of careful …

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Hernando Desoto, Property Rights, and Egypt

1 Comment / Economics, Liberty / By

Lynne Kiesling Yesterday the Wall Street Journal featured an essay from Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto, focusing on the socio-economic roots of the current protests against the authoritarian Mubarak government. De Soto’s work on the debilitating consequences of the lack of property rights for individual prosperity and economic growth is outstanding, and he has been …

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U.S. Military Aid Funds Tear Gas Used to Repress Peaceful Protestors in Egypt

2 Comments / Liberty, Technology / By

Lynne Kiesling I am watching and following the events in Egypt with great interest. Of course as a technologist-of-sorts who studies complexity I am interested in the role of social media in enabling such a distributed movement to coalesce. Unlike what happened in Iran in June 2009, this uprising seems likely to have a longer-lasting …

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Understanding Libertarian Morality: “Regulations Trigger a Sense of Resistance in Me”

6 Comments / Liberty, Regulation / By

Michael Giberson In the February 2011 issue of Reason Ronald Bailey explains some interesting work in political and moral psychology on libertarian morality. The research – by Jon Haidt at the University of Virginia, Ravi Iyer and Jesse Graham at the University of Southern California and Spassena Koleva and Peter Ditto at the University of California …

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State of the Union Watching Advice: Don’t.

6 Comments / Liberty, Politics / By

Michael Giberson From ushistory.org on Thomas Jefferson: “Jefferson also found the State of the Union address to be too magisterial when delivered in person. He performed one and afterwards delivered them, as required by the constitution, only in writing.” (link to usconstitution.net added.) Jefferson was right, the pomp and ceremony surrounding the State of the …

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It’s Lysander Spooner’s Birthday Too!

Liberty / By

Lynne Kiesling Another important birthday today, Lysander Spooner! “… An American individualist anarchist, libertarian, political philosopher, Deist, abolitionist, supporter of the labor movement, legal theorist, and entrepreneur of the nineteenth century.” He famously founded a mail delivery company to compete with the monopoly U.S. Postal Service, and government legal challenges to his company drove it …

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The Tsa’s Wholesale Violation of Our Civil Rights, Including Economic Liberty

9 Comments / Economics, Liberty, Transportation / By

Lynne Kiesling I have been a too-silent opponent of the Patriot Act’s authorization of invasive surveillance in the name of national security. One of the consequences of that authorization has been the growth of the Department of Homeland Security and, under it, the formation and growth of the TSA. Those of us who travel frequently …

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