Potpourri
==> Commenter Keshav pointed to this 2013 Steve Landsburg post in which he anticipated the spirit of my recent FEE article. I definitely knew that Landsburg was the first person I had read making the point about minimum wage burdening a small group (employers) to achieve a social goal (helping unskilled workers) instead of society as a whole, but I had forgotten that he used analogies too. Good thing I don’t believe in intellectual property!
==> Rand Paul taps Mark Spitznagel to advise him.
==> Stephen Colbert apparently took over a local access cable show in Michigan. (I’m still open to the possibility that the whole thing was invented, but the guy at the link got over his initial incredulity.) At the 21:50 mark he brings on a local Michigander making a name for himself in the competitive world of music, Marshall Mathers. It is extremely clever, and Eminem does a good job playing the role.
==> A Forbes writer is happy about George Gilder’s new monograph on gold (which criticizes Milton Friedman along the way).
==> People love or hate his past activism, but I think Adam Kokesh’s new idea is great, assuming he assembles a good team of trainers. There are thousands of young people who recognize that the current system is broken but they don’t see any practical options.
Here’s a prior episode of Only in Monroe, the show where Colbert did his Eminem interview. In a prior segment he interviewed the regular hosts of the show. It’s legit.
Sounds like a lot of fun, and probably a great experience getting out and doing something with your hands.
However, I don’t think it’s a practical option in the bigger picture. The Amish have been running their low-tech anti-government protest for a long time, and it hasn’t worked. Full respect for those who want to do it, but I happen to like techology (and yes, low-tech is still worth knowing, doing things the simple way has advantages).
Bob,
What do you think of Gilder’s ideas on gold?
Senyor
Lewis on Friedman: “For people of my generation and younger, he was a historical figure, influential but sadly flawed, much like Keynes himself.”
Lewis appears to be your standard breathless writer sort, but that’s a shortsighted way to describe the man who was more instrumental than just about anyone else in ending the draft. Yes, Friedman was no friend to goldbugs (or are we on the cusp of becoming Bitcoinbugs now that asteroid mining is right around the generational corner?), but comparing him to Keynes is terrible.
Speaking of breathless, it’s nice to see Kokesh is still Kokeshing after running headlong into the meat grinder of the justice system. I know we’re all supposed to wear bowties and opine about the myriad ways in which monetarists are incoherent doodyheads, but seeing someone who’s willing to try just about anything to popularize right liberalism is pretty cool.