25
Oct
2016
Potpourri
==> The latest Contra Krugman details just how awesome the Contra Cruise was. And we talk about Krugman for a bit, too.
==> I have not explored this, but the SAFE network’s proponents claim it is better than blockchain technology.
==> The widely read von Pepe sends along two pieces from Larry White (here and here).
==> Mario Rizzo (my dissertation chair) tells the FT that the Austrians don’t fit into their box of “heterodox.”
==> Both E21 and the WSJ have pieces condemning central banks.
==> This election is so bad that Christian anarchy is now respectable.
If you look at the archive of the author of the Christian anarchy article, it’s between two articles titled “Legalize Heroin.”
She’s not fooling around.
Any way to read the Rizzo article w/o a FT subscription?
Just google the title.
If anyone was interested enough to read my comment here…
http://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2016/07/monetary-calculation.html#comment-1714577
… seems that the SAFE concept is a similar idea but a bit larger and further developed (I never bothered writing any code, just waved my hands vigorously). In principle, the technology is not a whole lot different, but Bitcoin is narrowly an accounting system, while SAFE is an accounting system PLUS a service platform. In theory you could bolt a service platform onto Bitcoin, except there’s inertia involved in a mature system so the current players will be resistent to the changes.
So why marry up an accounting system with a service platform? Well, in the modern world an increasing percentage of the economy is moving towards services, and making it easy to provide services is a nice thing, also making it easy to get paid providing services means there’s incentive to provide those services.
Here’s the second point: the currency is BACKED by something, i.e. services. You need Safecoin if you want to buy the services on the SAFE network. That means as more services join the network, the value grows, so therefore the incentive of providing a service on the network grows (mind you, same with any network, nothing magical about SAFE in that respect).
I’m not offering an appraisal of the technical implementation (haven’t had time to get into it that deep) but the theory is strong. As the economist says, “It should work in principle”.
Wow, 23 Austrian sessions at SEA?
Inflation
I think the only session “you guys” are holding that I’ll attend is yours to be honest. Whenever I’m at a conference – particularly SEA since there’s always a higher concentration there – I always feel a little bad about not showing up more to these panels with people I vaguely know online but the programs are so packed that there’s too huge an opportunity cost to it. There’s literally labor, education, or econometrics related panels in every single slot and you’ve gotta chose something.
OK no judgment… And our panel will actually interest you (but I guess it has the topics already so you know that).
Oh it definitely looks interesting – that’s why I’m going!