It would be a grave mistake to neglect the financial crisis behind the Upper Canadian Rebellion of 1837 [1]. In the first half of the 19th century, Upper Canada was an economically-backward British colony. British money funded the roads, canals
Archive for November, 2014
On the Swiss Gold Referendum
The Swiss gold initiative has come and gone. It can be summarized as much ado about nothing. Even if it had passed, the initiative would have had no real impact on the Swiss National Bank’s ability to print money or
The Continuing Story of Involuntary Servitude
The word slavery conjures up the most horrific images of evil and injustice in modern mind, on par with just about any other atrocity we can imagine. And rightly so. Nothing interferes with the fundamentally human right to control ones
Krugman: “Sticky Wages I Win, Flexible Wages You Lose”
The fun thing about Paul Krugman is that you often can use his own charts against him. For a recent example, consider the issue of “sticky wages.” One of the typical complaints against a hardline “the market always clears” position
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David Howden: Banking, Free And 100 Percent Reserve
Dave Howden Lecturing at Rothbard University 2014
Humble Markets, Prideful Politics
Reprinted from The Freeman Spiritual writers have long praised the virtue of humility, contrasting it with pride and arrogance. Humility involves the willingness to admit error, grant the reality of failure, be magnanimous in the face of success, and maintain
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Is It Wrong to Require Work on Black Friday?
Supporters of workers’ rights have two tropes they constantly revisit. The first is the argument for higher wages - either an increased minimum wage or the dreaded “living” wage. The demand for higher government-enforced pay seems incapable of dying a
Egalitarianism without Equality is Tyranny
Egalitarianism is the favorite religion of the left.The idea of equality has always been cherished, from the French revolutionary cry of egalite, liberte, fraternite, to the modern obsession with income inequality being the source of all the world’s evils. It
Freedom of the Press
Reprinted from The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (1954) Freedom of the press is one of the fundamental features of a nation of free citizens. It is one of the essential points in the political program of old classical liberalism. No one has
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Property Rights as Social Justice Part II
Read Part I here. Accompanying the somehow lawful state and nearly lawless state is the state of war. Such phenomena do not appear accidental. It does not seem overly difficult to recognize that, when properties are not legally protected, it
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Will someone please stop this man before he hurts himself?
From today’s Open Europe news summary: Juncker unveils his €315bn investment package for Europe Speaking to the European Parliament this morning, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker unveiled his plan for a €315bn investment fund – backed by €8bn from the
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Criminal Justice as a Domestic and Local Phenomenon
How ought we to treat criminals? How ought justice be dispensed? These are important questions, and trying to answer them raises many difficulties, not the least of which is that no two criminals are exactly alike in deed, in motive,
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Government debates fractional-reserve banking
Three cheers to Steve Baker, Conservative MP from Wycombe, for raising the delicate yet important of matter of fractional-reserve banking in Britain´s House of Commons. We are in a debt crisis of historic proportions because for far too long profit-maximising
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Sons of Anarchy!
If you find yourself in the Vancouver area Friday, December 12th at 7:00pm, head on down to the The Railway Club (directions below) for a night of philosophical talks on anarchy. Hosted by LibertyMingle, Sons of Anarchy will feature three
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The Fraud in Fractional Reserve Banking
Suppose you bring a fur coat to a dry cleaner, and discover that the owner allowed his wife to wear it before cleaning it (which is also the subject of an episode from Seinfeld). Or, suppose you gave your car keys
Is Scott Sumner “the NGDP Guy”?
In a recent post at EconLog, leading Market Monetarist Scott Sumner complained that he had been pigeonholed: I was recently reading a new book on monetary policy alternatives, edited by Larry White. One thing I noticed was that when my
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The Path to the Perfect Reserve Currency
Much has been written lately, including by me, about the coming rejection of the dollar as the primary reserve currency of the world’s most important central banks. My prediction is based upon two things: one, that the Federal Reserve is
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The Case Against Rent Control
Reprinted from The Freeman To someone ignorant of economic reasoning, rent control seems like a great policy. It appears instantly to provide “affordable housing” to poor tenants, while the only apparent downside is a reduction in the income flowing to
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Time to Raise Rates?
Canada emerged relative unscathed from the financial crisis of 2008. Indeed, over the last six years growth has been relatively robust and to venture out in Toronto, Calgary or Vancouver right now one would think they were in the midst
Pop Art and Intellectual Property
One of the most iconic painters of the 20th century was Roy Lichtenstein, a New York based artist who, alongside Andy Warhol, came to fame as one of the defining voices in the American Pop Art movement. Pop Art was
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