Political Theory

The growth of government power in American history has been by creating emergencies that then necessitate a ratcheting up of centralized power and war. Crisis & Leviathan by Higgs is a prime resource for this topic.

In the works of Jacobs, the order present in a well-functioning urban area emerges as the result of human action but not human design. It arises from a myriad of individuals each pursuing their own interest and carrying out their own plans, within a framework of rules that encourages peaceful cooperation over violent aggression.

Several times recently, Gene Callahan has found himself engaged, directly or indirectly, in discussions about exactly what implications follow from the existence of human action, the foundation of economic science. The effort to draw out those implications is called praxeology.

The journalist's skill as an observer can only take him so far, if he is observing with the wrong theory in mind. As Thomas Friedman's "Theory of Everything" shows, without the distinction between power and market—the very core of the libertarian idea—a theory of everything can easily turn into a theory of nothing. 

State efforts to reduce inequality and poverty have been, at best, ineffective. Everywhere we turn, writes Art Carden, the prophets of doom are telling us that the market economy sows the seeds of its own destruction by generating unequal distributions of income.

With growing government outlays and the Fed's reckless monetary policies, it is mission impossible to have an effective cut in taxes, argues Frank Shostak. That the intention is to grow rather than shrink the size of the government was demonstrated by President Bush's signing the increase in the Federal debt limit from $6.4 trillion to $7.384 trillion on the day he signed into law the tax cuts.

Spending is based on what government "taxes" but also on what government borrows and inflates. It's quite simple. If government spends it, we can't spend or save or invest, and that's bad. As Murray Rothbard explained, deficit spending leads either to inflation or to crowding out private capital investment. Either horn of the dilemma reduces wealth.

In a free market, what a person is is determined by how well a person does. But it's different in state-controlled professions. You can be a great doctor but without the license to practice, you are guilty of a serious crime. The same is true in aviation and law. It is not enough to be good at what you do. You must jump through hoops held by politicians and bureaucrats.

"There can be no such thing as a nation flourishing alone in commerce: she can only participate; and the destruction of it in any part must necessarily affect all." Thomas Paine.

This book frightens me. The authors do not confine themselves to a justification of the American invasion of Iraq,