A Libertarian's Thoughts on Whatever

Thursday, April 10, 2003

 
Well, it's been a tough week personally, but I'm ready to get back in the saddle I think.
Apparently the Baseball Hall of Fame president is a fascist. Whether or not you agree with Robbins and Sarandon should have no impact on a completely non-political event. Besides, he played Andy Dufresne. That should allow him to do a lot of stupid things before we shun him completely (not that I think his opposition to invading Iraq is stupid, I'm just saying...).
Paul Craig Roberts writes on my cousin Ross' book, 'Democracy by Decree'. Ross was heavily involved in public interest lawsuits when they were really getting off the ground, but now sees how dangerous consent decrees can be. I recommend the book, and not just because we're related. It's a clear-eyed look at both the good and the bad that can come from using this method to achieve your desired results.
Part four from Thomas Sowell.
Here is a good piece on the reliability of war reports. Read the whole thing to get the full effect.
Something silly that might make you feel better.
Before class on Tuesday I attended a talk by Arthur Laffer. He is known for The Laffer Curve, one of the most misunderstood economic concepts there is. It has somehow come to be known as stating that any tax cut will immediately generate at least as much revenue as it costs. This is ridiculous prima facie, as cutting all taxes to 0% should make apparent. All it says it there is a point beyond which raising taxes lowers revenues, or, conversely, where cutting taxes raises revenue. It is simply the law of diminishing returns applied to taxation. Anyway, the talk was very enjoyable for me, and I also found out I was sitting next to his family during it. And when he was done and someone from BC's econ department wrapped things up I moved over so he could sit next to them. I thought it was cool....Anyway, he stuck around for a while and a small group of fellow students and I talked to him about various economics issues. Mostly it was him going off for a while on the topic we brought up. I brought up capital gains taxation, pitching a softball about indexing it for inflation. He explained pretty well that there should not be any capital gains tax at all. I had to go before he did so I shook his hand and told him how much I enjoyed the event. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy and to really enjoy interacting with young minds like ours. He definitely moved up a notch in my book.
Maestro 9:10 PM