Krugman Watch: Culture Is A Status Economy
The assertion that Europe’s crisis proves that the welfare state doesn’t work comes from many Republicans. … The idea, presumably, is that the crisis countries are in trouble because they’re groaning under the burden of high government spending. But .. [...]
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from Modeled Behavior on the Jobs Report
…here is the long-run trend on private sector service sector employment.
Notice that its just as strong as the last recovery though coming sooner. Not quite as strong as [...]
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Jarrow On Predicting Asset Bubbles
In, How to Detect an Asset Bubble, Robert Jarrow, Younes Kchia and Philip Protter describe the method by which asset bubbles can be deduced from the asymptotic behavior of prices.
I can just about follow the reasoning, and it [...]
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Why 30 Large Companies Paid Only 18% Tax
Rick writes:
RE: “One big one is accelerated depreciation that lets them write off equipment faster than it actually wears out. Deductions on executive stock options help. So do tax breaks for research and development and for making products in [...]
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On a facebook conversation Ron writes:
Capitalism and Socialism have become emotionally charged misrepresentations of their ideals, so I won’t go there. Profit is not a driver, it is a derivative of the current market system. If profit really was [...]
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Vanessa Friedman of the Financial Times writes about her frustration that the ‘Best Dressed Lists’ actually contain the ‘most influential people’, not the best dressed. See Is Kate Middleton best-dressed or best-addressed?
So anyone want to join me in [...]
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Krugman Watch: Austerity Class? Or is it a Starve-The-Beast Class?
Paul Krugman Quotes Ari Berman today:
The central paradox in American politics over the past two years: how, in the midst of a massive unemployment crisis—when it’s painfully obvious that not enough jobs are being created and the public overwhelmingly [...]
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In practical terms, Religions establish the terms by which the population consents to be ruled.
Religions differ from systems of ethics, in that they are far harder to alter in response to fashion – ethical systems have a predictable and [...]
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Why I'm Harping On Karl Smith
There are only two people who make rational arguments on the ‘left’. They’re you and Krugman. We all know he’s a political shill. I’m in the camp that says you’re a moral man, and just missing the point of it [...]
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Debating Means Of Stimulus – Tradeoffs Between Goods And Bads
Karl Smith (correctly) suggests that we could make drastic tax cuts to fund stimulus, and borrow the money cheaply. I think he misses the point of the entire political debate going on in the country today (people don’t trust [...]
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About
Curt Doolittle
Seattle, WA, United States
"De Philosophia Aristocratia"
I am an independent theorist of Political Economy in the Austrian Libertarian tradition. As a methodological Propertarian, I support the Property and Freedom Society, The Mises Institute, and the Neo-Classical LIberalism Movement.Purpose
Anglo Conservatism is the remnant of Aristocratic philosophy and the Classical Liberal philosophy of the Enlightenment, combined with our ancient tribal instincts for group persistence and land-holding. It currently consists as a set of sentiments rather than as an articulated rational philosophy. And without that rational articulation, conservatives lack the ability to create and promote a plan that is a positive and rhetorically defensible alternative to the hazards of accidental bureaucracy and purposeful socialism.
This lack of an articulated philosophy leaves conservatives vulnerable in the public debate with Schumpeterian public intellectuals whose advantage in both volume of production, and simplicity of argument poses a nearly insurmountable challenge.
Libertarianism by contrast, is a rational philosophy of an articulate but permanent minority. It is based upon a solid, rational and critical methodology, even if it is flawed in its initial assumption: the principle of non-violence.
Unfortunately the Rothbardian Anarchist movement has appropriated the term "Libertarian", and left Classical Liberals and Conservatives alienated from the only system of thought with which they need to articulate their political sentiments in rational and empirical rather than moralistic and sentimental form.
By repairing the flaws in Libertarian philosophy we can use its methodology to provide a rhetorical solution for conservatives - a language which in turn may become an articulated philosophical body of argument and advocacy for the frustrated conservative majority.
Points To Ponder
Recent Posts
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Defining Capitalism
56 days ago -
Inverting The Argument: Inequality Is The Product Of Diversity
56 days ago -
Why Are Artificial Breasts All The Rage In Columbia?
57 days ago -
From Freedom To Slavery: The Five Evolutionary Stages Of Fiat Money
57 days ago -
Doolittle's Chart's On Political Preferences
64 days ago -
My Friend Karl Smith's Progressive Framing
64 days ago -
An Anti-Masculine Bias In Pornography Actors?
64 days ago -
Labor and Education Numbers Illustrate What's Wrong With Progressives And Keynesianism
64 days ago -
Keynesian Absurd Optimism
66 days ago -
Why Do Left-Leaning Economists Ignore IQ Data?
71 days ago
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Defining Capitalism