Author: Brandon Christensen

From the Comments: Foreign Policy and the Rule of Law

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This excerpt comes from a debate I had with Dr. Delacroix on his main blog awhile back. It pretty much made me a star within Santa Cruz libertarian circles (i.e. four people now know my name). Behold:

The idea – nay wish! – that the newly liberated people of the Arab world will somehow elect secular, Western-friendly governments after 50 years of oppression by regimes that were perceived by the Muslim public to be secular and Western-friendly belongs to be filed under the category of ‘fantasy’, not foreign policy.

and this:

I think Egypt and Libya are going to be just as bad as they have been, if not worse. Only Tunisia, which did not rely on foreign support AND recently elected Islamist parties to their new government, will come out of this for the better. I hope I’m wrong, of course, but libertarians rarely are!

and finally this:

The idea that Paul knows everything about anything is one that sure does look a lot like dogmatism at first glance. But Ron Paul will be the first to claim that he does not know everything. That’s why he insists that everything go through the Constitutional process – including overseas activities. That is to say, Ron Paul’s idea of dogmatism is to adhere to The Rule of Law. Imagine that!

I highly, highly recommend reading through the whole exchange (it starts after a few other comments in the thread; just scroll down, you won’t regret it, and don’t forget the popcorn!).

Globalization: Its Context and Its Virtues

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In my spare time I try to read literary masterpieces and popular non-fiction. The latest book that I’ve picked up is Charles Mann’s 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created. I picked it up because the author’s previous work 1491, had a profound impact on my way of thinking about the world. The new book doesn’t disappoint. An excerpt:

One way to summarize [scholar’s] efforts might be to say that to the history of kings and queens most of us learned as students has been added a recognition of the remarkable role of exchange, both ecological and economic.

[…] In some respects this image of the past – a cosmopolitan place, driven by ecology and economics – is startling to people who, like me, were brought up on accounts of heroic navigators, brilliant inventors, and empires […] It is strange, too, to realize that globalization has been enriching the world for nigh on five centuries.

Indeed. I want to use this quote to level two separate criticisms, one at the Left and one at the Right. Continue reading →

The UN vote on Palestinian Question: Some Comments

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Law , , ,

Recently the UN voted to make the Palestinian territories as a “non-member observer state,” rather than a “non-member observer entity.” The vote was 73% to 5% with 22% abstaining.

As I’ve previously noted, I think the UN is a now-worthless organization, and CNN gives a good interpretation of the facts on the ground here if you’re interested.

My own take on this vote is scrambled, so bear with me as I lay it out here.

The Israelis have objected to this vote because they argue that the Palestinians are trying to forego direct negotiations with the Israelis. This is a fair objection.

However, the Israelis often argue that their state was legitimized when the UN voted in favor of a 1947 partition plan (the vote was 72% to 13% with 15% abstaining). That is to say, there were no direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians when the partition of Palestine was being drafted by the UN.

Much of the property owned by Jews in Israel today was acquired legally.

I think that the UN move by the Palestinians is a good one for two reasons:

  1. It gave the Israelis a taste of their own medicine by applying their own legal logic against them.
  2. It follows an ingenious tactic that the Israelis recently unveiled with the inclusion of expelled Jews from Arab states during the wars in the middle of last century.

To conclude, I favor a one state solution. I don’t like the idea of defining states in terms of religious or ethnic denominations, but I think the two-state solution is a good one to pursue for the time being. Both sides are guilty of practicing diplomacy in bad faith, but I have to hand it to the Palestinians on this one. It’s a stroke of genius.

God I’m Lazy…

Brandon Christensen Links

Economist Tyler Cowen defends Hayek and Friedman from a recent hit piece in a center-left magazine. He writes:

Solow neglects to mention that Milton Friedman turned out to be right on most of the issues he discussed (though targeting money doesn’t work), that MPS economists shaped at least two decades of major and indeed beneficial economic reforms across the world, or that some number of the economists at MIT envied the growth performance of the Soviet Union and that such remarks were found in the most popular economics textbook in the profession.

Read the whole thing.

Also, some stuff I’ve read over the past couple of days (weeks?):

  1. Should the U.S. Help Break Up Somalia?

    2. It’s not quite what it sounds like. Read the whole thing!

  2. Redrawing the Map.

Can you tell what’s been on my mind lately? A couple more:

  1. How Corrupt Are Ivy League Admissions? Ask Asians and Asian-Americans…
  2. Longtime reader (and a blogger far more popular than NoL) Hank asks a good question. Feel free to help your humble blogger out!

Around the Web

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  1. Free Baluchistan! More on secession, this time in Pakistan. I’d highly recommend taking a gander at this one.
  2. The Economist has great article critiquing France’s “new” relationship with Africa. It appears to be just like the old one.
  3. Six Nations passports, issued in Canada for the indigenous, are more than just travel documents. Or are they?
  4. Bacevich has an article at Foreign Policy suggesting that NATO should become an all-European alliance.
  5. More on secession: Welcome to New Bohemia (this time from the Left).

Secession within the EU?

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Liberty, Politics , , , , , ,

While I’m on the topic of secession, I thought I’d point readers to the upcoming vote in Catalonia to see if they want to secede from Spain. Central to my arguments for secession is the role that new states would have within a broader free trade zone (like the U.S. or the E.U.). For Catalonia, the British paper Telegraph reports:

Catalonia wants to collect its own taxes, to control how they are spent and it seems prepared to break away from Spain to do so.

But with a clear road map yet to be outlined the process of separating from Spain promises to be burdened with hurdles.

While Catalans prize their role as citizens of Europe, EU officials have warned that membership of the union won’t be automatic. Instead Catalonia would have to gain admission, joining the queue of a list of new European nations seeking membership, and the process would likely be blocked by a vengeful Spain.

This is key to not only Catalonia’s success, but also the success of secessionist movements everywhere. If regions within current states want independence, they have to be sure to not confuse political independence with economic independence. The latter will only lead to poverty. I highlight this point because new states formed during the beginning of the post-colonial revolution of the 60’s and 70s thought that economic independence was the key to liberty. How wrong they were. Continue reading →

The Case for More States in Africa? Anarchy, State or Utopia?

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Law, Liberty , , , , , , , ,

Yes please! There is an old article in the Atlantic arguing that more states are just what Africa needs, and I’d like to highlight why I think more states are a good thing, and at the same time pick up Dr. Delacroix’s argument on states and libertarianism from a little while back and explain why I think that more states are a good thing and why Dr. Delacroix doesn’t really understand libertarian thought.

Now, I know more states seems at first glance to be a counterintuitive position for a libertarian to take, but upon second glance I hope to show you why this isn’t true.

First up, from the Atlantic‘s article:

The idea that Africa suffers from too few secessionist campaigns, too few attempts to carve a few large nations into many smaller ones, flies in the face of conventional wisdom. One of the truisms of African politics is that traditional borders, even when bequeathed by colonizers without the least sympathy for African political justice, ought to be respected. The cult of colonial borders has been a cornerstone not only of diplomacy between African nations but of the assistance programs of foreign governments and multinational non-governmental organizations.

I’ve pointed this out from a number of different angles previously here on the blog, so I don’t want to delve too deeply into this, but the article, written by a professor of journalism at Arizona State, has more: Continue reading →

Around the Web: “I’m Stuffed” Edition

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, History, Links , ,

I’m so full from food and dessert it’s not even funny. I’m back home in NorCal, too. I hope your holiday has been everything that mine has and more.

  1. Immigration: Giant low-hanging fruit.
  2. Have you ever heard of Opera, the browser? I have, and I tried it out at one point, but Google’s Chrome is where its at. Anyway, Opera is the most used browser in Belarus…and no where else. Find out why, in the Atlantic.
  3. Some literary history. From FEE.
  4. China in Revolt.
  5. Contra #4, Hayek in China.

Happy holidays to you all, and tell your moms I said ‘hi’!

 

What Exactly is Profit, Anyway?

Brandon Christensen Economics , ,

Co-editor Fred Foldvary explains over at FEE’s revamped website:

We also need to distinguish economic revenue from accounting revenue.  Suppose a thief enters a house and steals $1,000 of loot.  To break into that house he bought a tool for $100.  Ignoring the opportunity cost of his time, the thief’s accounting revenue is $1,000, and his cost is $100.  Is the $900 net gain a profit in the economic sense?

Stolen loot is not real profit because it is a forced transfer of goods or money from the victim to the thief.  True profit is a net gain from production and exchange.  If someone gives you a gift of $100, it too is just a transfer.

If instead of directly stealing wealth someone uses the government to forcibly take money from some and give it to others, the gain is also not true profit.

Read the rest here.

Methodological Individualism

Brandon Christensen Books, Current Events, Economics, Links

That’s the title to co-blogger Warren Gibson’s latest piece in the Freeman. I wish I could copy and paste the whole thing, but you’ll have to settle for this juicy tidbit:

Let’s start with what methodological individualism is not.  It has nothing to do with “rugged individualism.”  It is not ideology at all.  It is a term that describes the essential nature of human thought and action.  It is a bedrock principle on which Mises grounds his entire exposition of economics.

“The Hangman, not the state, executes a criminal.”  This is Mises’s pithy summary of methodological individualism […]

When we think about the hangman from the point of view of praxeology (Mises’s name for the science of human action) we are not concerned with the social or psychological factors that may have influenced his action, nor the neural firings in his brain, nor the musculoskeletal actions in his arm.  We are simply observing that actions are always initiated and carried out by individuals and are always motivated by the individual’s expectation of being better off as a result of the chosen action rather than some alternative.

Do read the whole thing.

Around the Web

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Links
  1. Ron Paul’s Farewell Speech to Congress.
  2. A decent briefing of the Israeli-Gaza conflict. I hope to have more on this in the near future. From the LA Times.
  3. Free Speech on Campus? Yeah right. Universities are some of the most reactionary places in a given society, and the free speech codes they have built up over the past 60 years plainly shows this bias. Quick thought: if universities are so reactionary, why are they dominated by hard Leftists? Gold star to anyone who ventures to answer this! From the WSJ.
  4. Old Soviet jokes become the new American reality. Written by an immigrant from the former Soviet Union. Take it with a pinch of salt, though…

Go Bruins!

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That is all.

I’m originally from northern California, by way of Utah (long story: ask me about it sometime!), but I love Los Angeles! One of the world’s greatest cities.

In case you are wondering, UCLA’s football team just beat Southern Cal and won the division title in the nation’s toughest football conference. I don’t care what you say, but until I see some SEC teams come out West and play our boys, I’ll continue to argue that the West plays the best football in the country.

As for Southern Cal, well, there’s always basketball season…

Around the Web

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  1. The Future of Freedom Foundation has revamped its website. Be sure to give those guys some love.
  2. Reason on the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
  3. For some reason I keep coming back to this blog. The writing is just superb.

Have a good weekend!

Foldvary on the Concept of “Forward”

Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, History, Politics ,

Co-editor Fred Foldvary has an excellent post on the historical meaning of the Obama campaign’s choice of the word “Forward” as its political slogan. He writes:

The issue here is not about any political campaign, but the social concept of “forward.” Socialism is, first of all, a family of concepts. Some socialists seek greater statism, the control of society by the state. Other seek “social democracy,” whereby people vote on the major policy options. There are also socialists who seek to put the means of production, land as well as capital goods, in the hands of worker cooperatives.

Usually the “forward” thinkers seek, if not as an ultimate goal, then as the instrumental goal, a governmental control at least of the “commanding heights” of the economy: the financial system, the highways, education, medical care, and retirement pensions. Socialists seek strong controls on the remaining private production, and they also seek an equalization of wealth through a massive redistribution, with highly progressive taxation.

But the world has already experienced the results of “forward” policies in the failed economies of the old USSR, the China of the 1950s and 1960s, Cuba, North Korea, and Eastern Europe. The “forward” socialists seek a progression to the failed past. Of course they claim that their brand of socialism is different from that of the collapsed USSR, but the evidence of history reveals what was attempted in practice world-wide, even when it differs from hypothetical doctrines.

And this, too:

Instead of “forward,” a better metaphor may be “upwards.” Upward takes us to a higher place, and also to the origin of a flow such as a river. But how do we know which way is “up”?

Do read the whole thing, and what do you guys think of Dr. Foldvary’s suggestion of moving “upwards”?

Around the Web

Brandon Christensen Links ,
  1. Delacroix shares his thoughts on Obama’s re-election.
  2. Cowen on the fiscal cliff.
  3. Oh goody.

I’ve had a crappy midterm session. Forgive my hasty posts of late. On the bright side: I am now officially off the streets (at least until February).

Happy hump day everybody!