Around the Web

12/29/2014 Brandon Christensen Links alien civilizations, BBC Magazine, Biao Xiang, Cato Unbound, China, Diana Darke, Gary Rosen, Knowledge Exchange, Leo Strauss, Robin Hanson, Syria, the National Interest

Christmas went well. I’ve got four books I have to read before the three books I ordered from amazon.com (thanks to a gift card) arrive.

How to Rebut the Condescending Leftist

03/21/201301/30/2015 Brandon Christensen Current Events Bryan Caplan, Cato Institute, Cato Unbound, condescending Leftists, immigration, Independent Review, Jacques Delacroix, poverty alleviation, think tanks

Economist Bryan Caplan, in responding to calls for more to be done by governments for the world’s poor, writes the following:

Isn’t the entire problem that the world’s poor have little of value to sell on the world market? The answer, surprisingly, is no. The world’s poor have a very valuable good to sell: their labor. Though Third World workers often earn a dollar or two a day, even unskilled labor is worth $10-$15,000 per year on the world market.

There’s just one problem: First World governments’ immigration policies effectively forbid international trade in labor. The world’s poor cannot legally work in a First World country without that government’s permission. For most current residents of the Third World, this permission is almost impossible to obtain. If you’re an unskilled worker with no relatives in the First World, you have to endure Third World poverty, win the immigration lottery, or break the law.

Do read the whole thing. It’s from the recent Cato Unbound symposium on “Authority, Obedience and the State.” The Cato Institute is probably one of three think tanks that actually puts out work I can count on (the other two being Brookings and Hoover). Their monthly Cato Unbound is one of the best symposiums on the web.

Dr. Delacroix has written on immigration before. Here is a piece he produced for the Independent Review. Here are his blog posts on immigration.

A Few Good Debates

04/11/201201/20/2015 Brandon Christensen Comments, Current Events, Economics, Links Alex Tabarrok, bleeding heart libertarianism, Cato Unbound, coordination problem, free banking, Jacques Delacroix, Mises Institute, Steve Horwitz, Tyler Cowen

I have often thought that debating other people is just as good (if not better) for learning about other how other people think (and imagine things) as reading a book on a subject. In this spirit, I thought it’d be cool to point out some of the great debates I’ve had a pleasure of being a part of either though participation or simply as an observer.

Cato Unbound is by far the best place to go if you want to get a good, scholarly, but still colloquial, debate on a topic. This month’s lead essay is on ‘Bleeding Heart Libertarianism’ and features responses from a number of prominent academics. I highly recommend taking some time to read through the whole symposium.

Over at the blog Coordination Problem, economist Steve Horwitz takes a grad student (Daniel Kuehn) out for a beating in the proverbial woodshed in the ‘comments’ section.

Again in the ‘comments’ section, I take Jacques Delacroix to school on matters of foreign policy and the law.

And at MarginalRevolution, co-bloggers Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok go at it on banking institutions. Here is Part 1 (by TC), Part 2 (AT), Part 3 (TC), and Part 4 (AT).

All of these are tough reads with lots of top scholars debating big ideas (save for me, though Jacques is a world-renowned scholar on international trade and development), so you might want to come back to this post and click around a little bit at a time. All of the debates are highly, highly recommended.

Oh, and the Mises Institute has their new blog up and running (it’s very good): The Circle Bastiat

Somalia and Anarchy: Links Edition

03/09/201205/12/2015 Brandon Christensen Current Events, Economics, Links Alex de Waal, anarchism, Cato Unbound, Chris Blattman, foreign policy, Fred Foldvary, free trade, Greg Mills, Jeffrey Herbst, Mises Daily, New York Times, Peter Leeson, political thought, Somalia, Spencer Heath MacCallum, war and peace, Yumi Kim

I am too lazy to write much more on Somalia right now (you can always check out my latest piece again if you are really itching for something satisfying), so I have compiled a list of great pieces I have read over the past couple days on Somalia, Anarchy, and the idea that post-colonial states ought to fail more often than not.
Jeffrey Herbst and Greg Mills argue over in Foreign Policy that the Congolese state needs to fail if the region is to ever know peace again.
Over in the New York Times, Alex de Waal argues along the same lines that I have: that Somalia as it stands is a bad idea, and that much more decentralization is needed for it to effectively flourish.
The Mises Institute has two wonderful articles (one by an anthropologist and one by a lawyer) on why anarchy has been great for Somalia, despite the government interventions imposed upon the Somalis by the West over the past two decades (and, really, much longer than that, but I digress).
Political Economist Chris Blattman raises the flag of caution, though. How do we really know that more states will be better for the people living in these regions?
Co-editor Fred Foldvary defends anarchism’s good name after the (government-initiated) looting in Iraq.
And last but not least, Cato Unbound, one of my favorite places to visit, had an excellent symposium on anarchism awhile back (like, 5 years ago). Here is Pete Leeson’s lead essay, in which Somalia is specifically used to illustrate his points. Be sure to read the responses of the other members in the exchange, too.

Have a great weekend, and have fun with all the reading! One of the things that really bothers me is the example of Somalia that is thrown out in favor of government over liberty. I really hate having to take the time to explain to people that the problems in Somalia are created by the government! It’s like screaming at a brick wall…