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Wall Street Journal Defends the Predator State

I explain here. The intro: In my last article on these pages, I offered criticism of a New York Times article that had praised the Lincoln administration’s property violations in pursuit of military objectives. Today I want to focus on a regular Wall Street Journal columnist who praises the Obama administration’s plans to violate property […]

I Stand Corrected: Tyler Cowen Does Support the Warfare State

A while back I had a tantrum because there were back-to-back posts in which both contributors to the ostensibly libertarian, free market blog “Marginal Revolution” supported the bank bailout and government health care. (Of course Tyler and Alex’s posts were nuanced; I’m not saying they quoted Chairman Mao. But follow the links if you don’t […]

Scott Sumner on Climate: So Close, Yet So Far Away

Scott you’re killing me, man. Folks, I was so thrilled that I could unambiguously endorse Scott Sumner’s latest blog post, where he talks about climate change rather than printing money. (In fact I was working on a joke in which the Fed creates trillions of carbon-eating dollar bills in order to simultaneously fix the economy […]

Potpourri

* A blog touting capitalism that was (according to an email I got from the author) inspired by my book. * David Frum is astounded: “People think of gold not as a metal, but as an alternative form of money.” (HT2 Bob Roddis) * As if in response, EPJ reports with delight: “I never thought […]

Charlie Rose Interviews Charlie Rose

I was hoping for one more trick, but even so the below is pretty funny. (HT2 Gene Callahan.) I just love what these crazy kids can do nowadays with the intertubes.

PPI Down in September

The BLS reports that the seasonally adjusted PPI for Finished Goods declined 0.6% in September. (The non-seasonally adjusted PPI for All Commodities was also down 0.3%, according to FRED. I can’t find the one-month non-seasonally adjusted information in the BLS press releases anymore; I honestly think they removed it.) Incidentally, if you are curious why […]

Goldbuggery?

MercedesRules passes along this article discussing central bank machinations to suppress not only the gold price, but the “gold basis.” I have not delved into this stuff enough to tell if this is legit or crankish, but I do know that the author–Antal Fekete–has many fans. This paragraph is striking (if true): Reports are circulating […]

SuperFreak: Are You Rooting for Hitler or Stalin?

*** Brad DeLong has the infamous Chapter 5 of the forthcoming Superfreakonomics available in PDF if you want to see what all the fuss is about. *** This blogosphincter war is just getting absurd. In my short, illustrious career as blogger, I cannot recall ever having read so many personal emails being introduced as evidence […]