A Journal for Western Man :  Issue CXXX

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Culture

 

Race and Crime:

Fred Reed

December 10, 2007:

Curious. Don Imus, apparently a radio jock of some sort, refers to a black women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.” Rude, certainly, and unnecessary, but nothing more. It becomes national news and he loses his job. Blacks beat a white woman until her bones break and… near silence. Fred Reed is sick of it. He is sick of these attacks and of the animals that commit them. And he is sick of the attitude of the press. This piece exposes the blatant double standard that exists with regard to transgressions, based on the race of the transgressor.

 

Economics

 

The Antitrust Cases Against Microsoft (1990-2001) and Arguments for the Legitimacy of Microsoft's Conduct:

G. Stolyarov II

December 10, 2007:

Mr. Stolyarov gives an overview of the principal antitrust cases against Microsoft during the period from 1990 to 2001. He also examines the arguments used against Microsoft's practices and shows why these arguments are flawed.

 

Increasing Drug Use Bureaucratization Can Be Risky and Costly Policy:

Molinari Economic Institute

December 10, 2007:

With the aim of controlling health care spending, public authorities increasingly are regulating the prescription, use, and reimbursement of drugs. One of the latest examples is therapeutic substitution policies concerning drug therapies. However, as the Molinari Economic Institute points out, this sort of substitution policies by cheaper drugs, sometimes conducted on a broad scale for all insured persons, has its own costs and risks, even if it may create savings in the budgetary item of some specific pharmaceutical product.

In Defense of CEO Compensation:

Robert P. Murphy

December 10, 2007:

Robert P. Murphy defends CEO compensation by noting that in our increasingly global economy, certain individuals are incredibly productive and can command incredibly high earnings as a result. Corporate executives really do perform valuable tasks, and it really does make a difference who is running the company. Once we concede that productive individuals will earn more than less productive ones, the fact that some make 364 times what others do is largely irrelevant. After all, a TV set might be 364 times more expensive than a gumball. Is that "unfair," or does it merely reflect the forces of supply and demand?

 

The Social Function of Corporate Takeovers:

Robert P. Murphy

December 10, 2007:

Dr. Robert Murphy writes that contrary to the views of socialists, the frenzied trading in New York, London, and other financial centers every day really accomplishes something. Those speculators are trying to anticipate the future, as reflected in the earnings and other performance characteristics of firms. Successful hedge funds and private equity firms are precisely those that notice mistakes in the appraisement of other experts—and that’s why they swoop in to buy up the “cheap” companies and resell them later at a significant gain.

 

Mechanism Design and the Free Market:

Robert P. Murphy

December 10, 2007:

Earlier this year, three Americans won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for laying the foundations of "mechanism design theory." The work of Leonid Hurwicz, Roger Myerson, and Eric Maskin was noted for its help in implementing efficient voting, trading, and regulatory schemes. Notwithstanding the official press release and subsequent media coverage, the goal of mechanism design is, generally speaking, to study how best to harness markets. As Hurwicz himself said in a famous passage, "[W]hat economists should be able to do is to figure out a system that works without shooting people." It's true that Hurwicz's definition of coercion is much narrower than the typical libertarian's, but, even so, Robert Murphy writes that Austrian economists should not dismiss this field simply because of a few misleading stories in the media. Mechanism design poses no threat to the free market.

 

The Mortgage Mess:

Robert P. Murphy

December 10, 2007:

Political attempts to help homeowners endangered by the recent subprime mortgage crisis may sound generous and noble, but in practice they will prevent true reform of the mortgage industry. Dr. Robert Murphy writes that, especially in light of the artificially low interest rates in the early 2000s that fueled the housing boom, politicians are the last people we should trust to restore integrity and soundness to the mortgage industry.

 

Starbucks and Corporate Social Responsibility:

Robert P. Murphy

December 10, 2007:

Robert Murphy thinks that, regardless of one’s political views, surely we can all agree that we don’t need corporations taking our money and spending it to advance a particular agenda. If something is controversial enough (such as how to address greenhouse gases or whether to cut taxes) that advertisements are necessary, then corporations shouldn’t be in the business of choosing sides. They can use the money instead to cut prices or give dividends to their shareholders, who can then donate to nonprofit advocacy groups if they so wish.

 

Politics

 

Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't:

Ron Paul

December 10, 2007:

Ron Paul argues that Iran is being asked to do the logically impossible feat of proving a negative.  They are being presumed guilty until proven innocent because there is no evidence with which to indict them.  There is still no evidence that Iran, a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has ever violated the treaty's terms – and the terms clearly state that Iran is allowed to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful, civilian energy needs.  The United States cannot unilaterally change the terms of the treaty, and it is unfair and unwise diplomatically to impose sanctions for no legitimate reason.

 

Christian Right Just Doesn't Get It:

Chuck Baldwin

December 10, 2007:

Chuck Baldwin laments that somewhere down the line, the Christian Right has lost track of the importance of constitutional government. Its members have forgotten (or never learned) the principles of liberty. Sadly, the Christian Right has allowed The Bill of Rights to become an antiquated and incidental document with no importance whatsoever to them.

 

"Of modesty enough. Ever to meet it where one seeks to hear dry truth, is vexing."

~ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

 

 

 

 

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