Serenity (2005) “Half of history is hiding the truth.” This western in space portrays a well imagined future in which humans have scattered across hundreds of planets and moons. The Alliance rules a flourishing civilization which fought successfully to defeat the secession of outlying settlements on the wild frontier. Serenity is a ship with a
Stephan Kinsella has cast doubt on the legitimacy of intellectual property (PDF). Today, Slashdot describes moves by the U.S. to establish a global intellectual-property plan . Murray Rothbard argued that (real) property rights were universal but should be locally enforced . Do these creepy global initiatives (like the “Global Intellectual
Pete Boettke, Chris Coyne and Peter T. Leeson have a new blog: The Austrian Economists . The great name is inspired by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk’s 1891 essay of that title for the American Academy of Political and Social Science summarizing the significance of Austrian economics. What the world needs now... Is more Austrian economists blogging! As a
Mishaps in Space: Failures and Foul-Ups : The trials and tribulations of exploration at the high frontier are many. In compiling their book, Harland and Lorenz encountered a feeling “of growing surprise that anything works at all!” For example, following a string of failures—a Titan 4A booster, the loss of the Mars Observer, a weather satellite,
USA Today notes in an article today that “States and local governments across the USA are preparing to cash in valuable public assets for one-time windfalls that could reap tens of billions of dollars.” Though there is talk in the article of “operations that private enterprise might operate better” one wonders if this is any sort of victory for
A fascinating report by Jeff Porten in TidBITS on the 16th Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference. An amusing bit comes with his description of a speech given by Stewart Baker, Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security: He opened his speech by asking how many audience members considered themselves to be
From a Fortune article on Cubicles: The great mistake : Another critical factor in the cubicle’s rapid ascent was Uncle Sam. During the 1960s, to stimulate business spending, the Treasury created new rules for depreciating assets. The changes specified clearer ranges for depreciation and established a shorter life for furniture and equipment, vs.
About 20 of us from the Austrian Scholars Conference caught V for Vendetta Friday night. It’s not everyday that you get to see a great libertarian, even anarchist, film on opening weekend with libertarians from around the country! Here is my review for the film page : V for Vendetta (2006) “People shouldn’t fear their governments. Governments
USA Today has broken the story that, with the cooperation of AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, the NSA has been collecting (nearly) all our phone call records since shortly after 9/11: “It’s the largest database ever assembled in the world,” said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA’s activities, declined to be identified
Mises has emphasized the central role of calculation in a developed economic order. This is not an allegorical term but quite literal. He means adding, subtracting and otherwise calculating with numbers... Numbers that are money prices arising from private property. But the theoretical relationship that Mises points out, the dependance of rational
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
