Profiles in Liberty — series trailer
Forthcoming in January 2012. Profiles in Liberty main page.
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Economics
Three more anti-free-market arguments (UFM seminar)
In this third Socratic seminar on the Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism, we take up three arguments: a) the paternalist argument that human beings are incapable of living freely, b) the collectivist argument that wealth is a social creation (at 11 minutes), and c) the religious argument that value is not of this world (at
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Two anti-capitalist arguments: scarcity and depravity (UFM seminar)
As part of an invited lecture series, I led several seminars on the topic The Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism. The format is Socratic and the participants are professors at my host, Francisco Marroquín University. In this second seminar, we take up the arguments that: a) We live in a world of scarce resources, and
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“Capitalism is dog-eat-dog” — UFM seminar
At Francisco Marroquín University, I led a series of seminars on the Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism. The format is Socratic, with lively back-and-forth between me and an impressive group of UFM professors. In first session, we take up the argument that Free-market capitalism is dog-eat-dog. The video’s editor, Luis Barrueto, provides a useful thematic
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PIGS, Catholicism, and Protestantism
I am neither Catholic nor Protestant, so I do not have a dog in that fight but rather a cultural history question about the financially bankrupt PIGS or PIIGS countries in Europe. With the exception of Ireland, all are in southern Europe. Including Ireland, all of them are traditionally Catholic [except Greece, which is mostly
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Subprime mortgage crisis — history flowchart
Here is a simplified flowchart, developed for my business ethics courses, reflecting my understanding of subprime mortgages’ contribution to the crisis. Let me emphasize that this is only about the subprime contribution of the overall crisis. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enabled much spillover into non-subprime mortgage sectors, government-set capital requirements and other regulations enabled
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Deregulation? The Federal Register’s size
Following up on my post entitled “When was the financial sector deregulated?” Another crude measure of regulation or deregulation is to count the number of pages in the U.S. Federal Register. The Federal Register is the government’s daily publication of new and proposed rules. Some of the rules are trivial and some have large impact;
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More: Do conservatives really value economic liberty?
Some do, sort of. But most of its major representatives do not. Another example is GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich. In his 1984 book, Window of Opportunity, Gingrich attacks laissez-faire and proposes what he calls “opportunity society conservatism”: “The opportunity society calls not for a laissez-faire society in which the economic world is a neutral jungle
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