Tag: Murray Rothbard

Blago: Friend or Foe?

The trial, as you probably know, concluded yesterday (I guess? At least the jury did their thing…I’m not sure what else they do in this byzantine court system) with Blago being declared innocent of all but one of the 20+ charges. So…what is my opinion of Blago? Well, it is very complicated, but let me start with this point. 1) Blago has disgraced our fair state with his shenanigans and ought to be sent to prison for 50 years. Actually, our state isn’t that fair (in either sense, being neither just nor pleasing in appearance) and hasn’t been since the…

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More from Mises U

Today is the last day of Mises University 2010. I’m already making plans for next year. 🙂 Here’s an observation from the week: Something that I love about the Mises Institute is the aesthetic beauty. Yes, the building is a little confusing because of all the additions, stairways, and so forth, but that difficulty is overwhelmed by the beauty of the building. It is not utilitarian in any sense. That is, there are some things that are there just because it makes the place beautiful. Not detail must have an physical utility. The place–inside and out–is gorgeous. The detail that…

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“The Tyranny of the Bench”

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Something that is very frustrating to me, and apparently Murray Rothbard, is the attitude people have towards the judicial system. It never occurs to them that the judicial system is absurd and can never possibly be for our own good. This upset Rothbard so much that he wrote a great article on it, here.

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What Has the Government Done To Our Money? Part III

Chapter 12: Money Warehouses Since in the free market we would use some sort of coins, they would eventually get too bulky to carry around, and warehouses would emerge. We would store our money in a warehouse and carry a warehouse receipt that would guarantee our ownership of the money. Warehouses would probably be even more important with money than other items, since we will always withdraw other items from a warehouse to use. But money has no “use” per se, we can’t consume it, just exchange it. It is just transferred from one person to another, and there’s no…

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“Milton Friedman Unraveled”

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By Murray Rothbard, here. Warning: This article is very long, and only for the brave of heart. I haven’t even attempted the whole thing yet, but hope to return when I have more time and give this article the time it deserves. I posted it because I feel that Friedman’s ideas are more dangerous than even Keynes. I’ve heard people say how Friedman was their “hero” and everyone assumes then, “oh, you must believe in the free market.” I think Friedman was a sort of impostor. That’s why we need someone like Rothbard to unveil his true motives and beliefs.

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“What Has the Government Done To Our Money?” Part I

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I’ve been reading this book by Rothbard (in preparation for Mises University later this month) and like all the books I’ve read by Rothbard so far, it is fantastic. Superb…stunning, these might be more appropriate words. It is taking me a long time to read it because I want to write down everything Rothbard says in my notes. I can’t read a sentence or two without stopping to quote him. I thought I’d share some of those quotes, and my thoughts on the book. He starts out by saying how confusing money is to people. This has led to a…

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“The Enterprise of Law” Part I

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There is a little known book out there called “The Enterprise of Law” by Bruce Benson. I was introduced to it by Richard Maybury, who highly recommended it in his books. That was about two years ago. I got the book from our local (public) library and enjoyed reading it. I thought, “oh, these are some interesting ideas on privatizing some government jobs.” Then more recently, I was reminded of the book and I realized it was a manifesto, of sorts, for anarchy. Since I’m swamped with reading, I don’t have time to reread the book, but I found my…

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