Rational Review » RRND Commentary

Ten things I learned from …

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:51:20 +0000

“The recent moves by central banks over the world to spend and add trillions of dollars to their balance sheet leads one to revisit the great coup when an investment firm speculated that the British pound was too high, took a short position against the pound, and was so powerful and correct that the central bank succumbed and devalued thereby leading to a 10 figure profit for the investment firm. I knew and spent considerable time in both business and personal activities with the head of that investment firm before he severed his connection with me, and thought that it might be apt to reconsider what I should have learned from him so that I and others might learn from his wisdom for the future.” (03/14/10)

Pitting governments against one another

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:47:32 +0000

“As much as I value individual liberty, and probably to a large extent because I value individual liberty, I must admit I enjoy seeing governments fighting one another. I just try to stay out of the way and not get caught in the crossfire. This is why I support the ’state sovereignty’ and secession movements, at least in spirit. Even though I owe a ’state’ no more loyalty than I owe a ‘nation’ (none at all), it amuses me to think of the two governments posturing and fighting.” (03/14/10)

To bury Caesar, not to praise him

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:34:09 +0000

“‘Smaller government’ movements invariably fail (sometimes in their attempts to seize power, sometimes when they’ve done so and can’t deliver the goods) because they refuse to become what their opponents call them: anti-government. With few if any exceptions, ’smaller government’ movements quickly find themselves plagued with contradictions and reservations, either from the get-go or after hard work by their co-optors to shoehorn those contradictions and reservations into the movement’s rhetoric. Sooner or later, it turns out that they’re for ’smaller government’ … except where they’re for bigger government.” (03/12/10)

In profile: The world’s richest man, Carlos Slim

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:31:26 +0000

“In fiction, billionaires are larger than life characters, lighting cigars with burning $100 notes and bathing in solid gold bathtubs. But fact is rarely as colourful as fiction, and the Mexican man who last week replaced the nerdy, smaller than life Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the wealthiest man in the world sadly does not drink margaritas made with gold leaf or fire platinum pistols in the air to celebrate a good day at the market. Telecoms mogul Carlos Slim, with an estimated wealth of $53.5 billion, crunches numbers in a tattered notebook and wears cheap ties from his own department stores. Until recently few people outside Mexico had heard of the self-made billionaire who likes to boast that he doesn’t own a computer.” (03/13/10)

How not to argue for IP

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:29:54 +0000

“Under marginalist economics, any production input with a price has ‘marginal productivity’ equal to what it adds to the final price of the good. So under that orthodox paradigm, the toll-gate owners would have ‘marginal productivity’ equal to whatever cost the toll added to total production costs and prices, and economists would be stroking their beards and intoning learnedly about the ’service’ the toll collectors perform in not impeding traffic on the roads. And of course, GDP would increase by the amount of the tolls. In other words, anything anyone can do to make it more costly to produce anything, to increase the amount of money you have to pay to receive a given good or service, or in general to increase the cost of living our daily lives, will show up as an increase in the GDP.” (03/12/10)

And the TSA actually responds

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:22:28 +0000

“In the blog entry The TSA Wants you Dead, strong accusations were made against the TSA based upon this blog entry at the TSA blog. The accusations were quite harsh, and quickly picked up on by critics of the TSA in the comments section of that entry of the TSA blog as well as on the Flyer Talk Forums Travel Safety and Security forum. The general harshness of the response has prompted a rapid response by the TSA. The argument made by the TSA is that the dosage of X-Ray in an X-Ray backscatter is so low that it is safe. This ignores a couple of scientific facts: first, no level of ionizing radiation is actually safe, merely that some doses are safer than others, and also that ionizing radiation is cumulative so even safe doses contribute to a lifetime unsafe level.” (03/13/10)

Third parties and political investments

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:21:02 +0000

“Imagine that you are considering investing in the political marketplace, as candidate, party official or contributor. What party should you invest in? The obvious choice is one of the two majors. Most of the time, one of them is running things and so in a position to provide benefits to its supporters — opportunities to influence policy and legislation, cash, status. There is, however, another option. The more supporters the party in power has, the more thinly the loot will have to be spread; seen from this standpoint, the ideal electoral victory produces a majority of one. Most of the time, one of the major parties is in power and someone who invests in the third party gets little or no return for his time or money. But once in a while …” (03/13/10)

Playing with crime figures

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:10:52 +0000

“While the definitions of some crimes may have changed over time, or be either way crimes, murder is murder so that’s the gold standard to look at. Changes in the murder rate will therefore be the best guide to whether crime is increasing or not. This isn’t, I sorry to have to say, entirely true. Yes, we can indeed measure murder rather better than we can all other crimes. But we’re still missing something. That is that medical treatment of trauma victims has got a great deal better over the decades: people attacked who would have died in earlier times (ie, would have been murdered) now survive (and are thus not murdered). So by counting only the number of people successfully murdered we’re confusing two entirely different things.” (03/14/10)

The big dead-cat bounce

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:03:19 +0000

“It’s now been a year since the dark days of early March 2009, when, although no one knew it at the time, the stock market hit rock bottom. From there, all of the indexes went on a tear through the rest of the year, moving almost uninterruptedly higher before easing slightly in the first two months of 2010. At this writing (March 5), the Dow is still up 60%, the S&P 500 68%, and the NASDAQ 83%. Virtually no one was calling for this kind of rally a year ago. But it happened. So investors are either seeing the ‘green shoots’ supposedly sprouting from the moribund economy or believe that they’re about to break ground any day now. That sentiment is continually reinforced by government officials and media talking heads who almost universally proclaim that ‘the worst is past,’ ‘we’re back from the brink,’ or other words to that effect. It’s often said that stock market action is a leading indicator, reflecting what investors think the economy will be like six or nine months down the road. Are they right? Will good times soon be here again? Or is this just a big dead-cat bounce?” (03/12/10)

The free market of ideas

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:56:00 +0000

“It may be pretty early in America’s experiment with a reasonably free country, given that throughout human history in most regions of the globe governments have run nearly everything, extorting the funds needed for this from citizens (subjects!) who have only very limited powers to give them direction. It would seem, however, that part of that experiment should by now extend to education, just as it is so clearly manifest in the publishing sphere. Here is a part of culture that addresses the human mind and if there is anywhere that government ought to have zero influence it is precisely here.” (03/13/10)

Nuclear standoff

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:53:21 +0000

“What happens when you find uUranium in your backyard? Bad things. Very bad things.” (03/12/10)

Colorado Internet retail tax backfires

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:48:56 +0000

“Colorado Democrats predicted that revoking what they described as the Internet sales-tax exemption would bring an additional $5 million to the state’s depleted coffers. Instead, it appears the Democrat-controlled legislature has killed an entire industry at the cost of as many as 10,000 jobs. Almost immediately after Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed the legislation, Amazon struck back. The company sent out emails to its associates informing them that it would cease its affiliate program in Colorado. That means Colorado website operators can no longer earn income by referring customers to Amazon through links and advertising on their sites.” (03/12/10)

1994 and 2010

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:42:10 +0000

“Republicans hope that 2010 will be a rerun of 1994. There are some striking similarities, which should give them hope. But there are also key differences, which should give them pause.” (03/12/10)

The anti-jobs bill

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:34:59 +0000

“Beyond taxes and spending, Obama-care would also wreak havoc on the labor market. Because employers would get penalized if any of their low- and moderate-wage workers ended up in the new subsidized insurance pool, they would avoid hiring such workers. Democrats claim they want to jam through health care reform so they can turn their attention to jobs, but the bill provides a strong disincentive for businesses to hire those who need jobs the most.” (for publication 03/22/10)

Pizza & ice cream, Ayn Rand & Rothbard

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:26:55 +0000

“‘Pizza and ice cream makes a winning team’ go singer-songwriter-comic Fred Stein’s lyrics in ‘At the Mall,’ just as powerhouse freedom philosophers made a winning team in Stein’s intellectual development.” (03/13/10)

Where have all the whistleblowers gone?

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:19:26 +0000

“By sending UBS informant Bradley Birkenfeld to prison, did the Obama Justice Department discourage more financial insiders from exposing malfeasance?” [editor’s note: Helping people hide their stuff from thieves is not “malfeasance” - TLK] (03/12/10)

More Quotations from EasyChairman Neil

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:17:24 +0000

“There is nothing innocent about any public service — even the public library … not when being late returning a DVD borrowed from the library turns a speeding ticket into being handcuffed and taken to jail. Rip up your library card. Netflix may cost more but it’s a whole lot safer.” (03/13/10)

In cases like Toyota, free market works better than government

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:09:45 +0000

“Considering the massive recalls by Toyota for problem accelerators, whom should consumers trust to protect them from unsafe products — government or the free market? If you answered government, you’re probably in the majority. You’re also incorrect. The market does a much better job. And even massive product recalls should be seen not as examples of market failure, but as signs that markets work as they should.” (03/08/10)

The ObamaCare quagmire

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:08:12 +0000

“Even if Democrats extract the votes to put ObamaCare over the top, it will at best be a Pyrrhic victory for them. Regardless of the outcome, this monstrosity might cost the Democrats the Congress this November, ruin the party for a long time, and prematurely render Barack Obama a lame duck president for the rest of his term. So why didn’t the Democrats pull back when they still had the chance? The reason is that both the Democratic Party and President Obama have mutually reinforcing blind spots that have rendered them incapable of seeing what’s crystal clear to every other sentient being in the country: This was the wrong bill at the wrong time.” (03/12/10)

In defense of non-commercial culture

Thomas L. Knapp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:05:43 +0000

“That sprawl opponents want to restrict development is well-known; less well-known is that existing laws make it impossible to develop anything but sprawl. To save cognitive resources, libertarians rationally overestimate the importance of available information (being anti-sprawl means being anti-development!) at the expense of information that takes time and effort to gather (being anti-sprawl also means being anti-central planning). This doesn’t excuse John Stossel, who presumably had time to research his vindication of sprawl before broadcasting it, but it does explain why others make similar mistakes. Indeed, the availability heuristic explains why both libertarians and their opponents so often assume that the free market causes sprawl.” (03/12/10)