Economics of the Stateless Society
Some new material in this one, even for you veterans of Mises U videos…
Seattle Green Groups Say Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax Is a Joke
Specifically, they reject “standup economist” Yoram Bauman’s drive for a revenue-neutral carbon tax in Washington State. Although the story doesn’t mention it, I am pretty sure they think I’m funnier, too.
It Takes a Village to Point Out Krugman’s Problem
Ah, see everybody? Look at how much better this post was, since Waldek stepped up to the plate. One man can make a difference.
But seriously, click this link. What would Krugman say? I’m thinking he would go with, “Oh please, another ‘gotcha.’ Don’t these guys have anything better to do?”
Krugman Bask
[UPDATE: To clarify, the one I have in mind isn’t a chart with just a single line, which you see in Bush vs. Obama years. Rather, the chart has two different series on it, one representing spending in the Bush recovery and the other in the Obama recovery. So you can see, quarter by quarter, that the relevant metric of government spending grew faster under Bush than under Obama.]
I must be losing my touch. I just spent 20 minutes looking for an old Krugman blog post but can’t find it.
I can distinctly remember Krugman writing at least one (and possibly several) posts, circa 2010 – 2013, showing some measure of government spending and how it had grown much more by that point in the George W. Bush years than it had in the Obama recovery. (It might have been something like total government consumption and investment expenditures as a share of potential GDP or some such tomfoolery.)
Krugman’s rhetorical purpose was to slam everybody talking about the “big spending” Obama, to show that actually by this point after the recession bottomed out, George W. Bush’s Administration was spending a lot more because of all the austerity under Obama.
Can anybody find such a post? I have found a few that make similar points verbally, but I know I saw one where Krugman had a chart, and I can’t find it now…
Who Killed Jesus?
I was talking with my son about this (we had just read about Pontius Pilate infamously 
“washing his hands” of the affair) and thought it might be interesting to pass along…
==> At the most direct level, the Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross (plus the one who speared Him) killed Jesus.
==> But the soldiers were of course “just following orders,” which had been issued by Pontius Pilate. There’s a legitimate sense in which we don’t really walk around horrified at the Roman soldiers who killed Jesus, just as we matter-of-factly talk about how many people Hitler or Stalin “killed.” And yet, they actually weren’t shooting people personally. (I don’t want to derail this post, but I just note that this is a big dispute over strategy when it comes to libertarian activism–some people think focusing on police should be paramount, whereas others think that’s small potatoes.)
==> As the picture (and link above) indicate, Pilate didn’t want to give the order to execute Jesus. He knew Jesus wasn’t guilty of anything worthy of death. But, he was afraid the Jewish crowds would riot, thereby jeopardizing his position (and generally just being a pain to deal with).
==> So were the Jewish people chanting, “Crucify him!” and asking Pilate to free Barabbas to blame? This after all is the basis for certain strands of anti-Semitism. (Note this verse in particular.)
==> Well no, because crowds are fickle. The mob was singing hosannas to Jesus just earlier that week when He entered Jerusalem. The chief priests and their cronies were the ones who deliberately riled the crowd up against Jesus.
==> Note that the person historically considered to have been the worst individual in this whole affair was Judas. And yet, Judas in a certain sense was far less responsible than anybody described above. But of course, it was the fact that he had been a close friend and then betrayed Jesus–and for mere money–that placed Judas at the bottom of Dante’s Inferno.
(If you don’t remember Judas’ fate in Dante’s vision, it’s pretty awful.)
==> Is it completely Judas’ fault? Well, Satan entered his heart and tempted him to betray the Lord.
==> Oh, so the whole thing is really Satan’s fault? Well no, God is in charge of everything that happens. Satan can only attack humans with the express permission of God. Jesus asked on the cross of His father, “My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me?”
==> OK, so the whole thing happened because God designed it that way from the beginning of time? Well, He also wanted us to have free will, and He is a just God. So faced with the choice of sending everyone to hell or having His Son die for us, God chose to sacrifice His only Son.
==> Thus, our sins ultimately killed Jesus, and we have no basis for wagging our fingers at anybody who participated in those events.
==> The core doctrine of Christianity is either horrifying or gorgeous, depending on your perspective: God takes the greatest crime in history, when humans try to murder their loving Creator, turns the other cheek, and transforms it into our salvation that reconciles us to Him.
Atheist Libertarians Like Homesteading, Except for God (Redux)
I came across this interesting passage (Jeremiah 27:5):
“With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it, and I give it to anyone I please.”
What’s very interesting is that some of the same people:
(1) Consider themselves staunch libertarians.
(2) Think it is obvious that “pro-choice” is the correct libertarian position, because it’s a woman’s body to do with as she pleases, and therefore abortion isn’t murder, whether or not we consider the fetus a human being.
(3) Think the God of the Old Testament is a murderer and that no self-respecting libertarian could possibly respect such a Being, putting aside the question of whether He exists or is a fairy tale.
I am merely going to point out that (2) and (3) above are mutually inconsistent.
Stigler Bask
Can anyone find a non-gated version of this article?
Stigler 1955, “The Nature and Role of Originality in Scientific Progress,” Economica, New Series, Vol. 22, No. 88, pp. 293-302
Note, I am not asking to break IP laws.
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