Libertarian new & views (11/12/08)
Australian libertarians now have a place they can go to get all the latest news & views about the libertarian movement in Australia. The main ALS website now provides links to all the latest commentary from all the main pro-freedom blogs in Australia. This is a summary of the Australian libertarian news & views for this week…
The “shaked & stirred” mob have provided details of the four speeches given on prohibition last weekend — covering prostitution, the internet, drugs & guns.
Following Rudd’s $10 billion give-away, Stephen Kirchner talks about why fiscal stimulus measures don’t work. And on other issues financial, Sukrit Sabhlok links to a brilliant video showing Peter Schiff repeatedly predicting the financial troubles in the US and other commentators mocking him.
Jennifer Marohasy notes that the Europeans are going cold on their emissions trading scheme, and she is leading a fight against an Australian ETS, and asking for your help. JC notes that James Hanson is also opposed to the ETS. Jim Fryar joins the global warming theme, noting that the founder of the weather channel and 30,000 others now want to sue Al Gore.
Jim also looks at the the failures of the opposition and finds a case of a raid by the thought police when a man copied and pasted a youtube clip.
In other news, education expert Andrew Norton turns his attention to the issue of whether international students crowd-out Australian students at university, and Jason Soon points out the artistic double-standards of people who would glamourise Che Guevara, and sends people to this anti-Che facebook group.
The case for gun control
The Australian Libertarian Society supports the rights of gun owners, and I have blogged previously outlining the case for more liberal gun laws. But in the name of balance I thought I should post the below video outlining one set of arguments for gun control.
The Menzies legacy
Gerard Henderson, who has been described as a chief safeguard of the Menzies legacy, recently gave a speech on Robert Menzies which was re-produced in the latest edition of Quadrant Magazine. At the end of the article Henderson outlines the achievements of Menzies, which I thought I would score from a libertarian perspective.
1) Menzies believed in the family. Well, we all believe that families exist and are good things. But Henderson is presumably refering to distortionary government policies that subsidise or restrict various lifestyle choices. That’s 0/1 so far.
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Catallaxy Files- Not all recessions are caused by the Fed February 10, 2012More middle of the night blogging. My economics is classical. The almost perfect overlay of my own book can be found in a series of notes taken by Nicholas Kaldor at the LSE in 1927-29 from lectures delivered by the great American economist, Allyn Young. These notes were only published around a decade ago but [...]Steve Kates
- Where’s Romney? February 10, 2012It is quite extraordinary to watch the American political process up close. Now, I admit I have been busy and I don’t watch much of the television and do not read a lot of the press. But before I arrived the thing I did want to do was see more of Mitt Romney since from [...]Steve Kates
- Keeping tabs on the Climate Commission February 10, 2012Gosh, they’ve been flat out over at the Climate Commission. The last event was 9 November last year – in Alice Springs. We really are getting value for money from all those Climate Commissioners. Really educating the public on the intracies of climate change and computer modelling. But fear not, there are two upcoming events [...]Judith Sloan
- Not all recessions are caused by the Fed February 10, 2012
- inCISe
- More on PHI rebate means test February 10, 2012When I wrote in Incise yesterday, ‘Rebate should not be means tested,’ I did not expect events to move quite as quickly as they have. The government seems confident it has the numbers to get the means test through. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rob Oakshott and Andrew Wilkie have indeed swallowed the government’s nonsensical arguments, but it will be interestin […]Robert Carling
- Quiggin versus Carling and Kirchner February 9, 2012John Quiggin accuses Robert Carling and I of ‘an appalling breach of elementary standards of research’ for not acknowledging that Alberto Alesina’s work on the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus and consolidations is ‘highly controversial.’ In fact, we referenced Alesina’s work precisely because it has featured so prominently in public debate, including in the […]Stephen Kirchner
- Police going too far February 9, 2012According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald, police are lecturing parents for letting their children walk to the shops or catch a bus on their own, with senior police saying such incidents will be reported to the Department of Community Services (DOCs) if a child is considered at risk. But when is a child ‘at risk’? One mother was told it was inappr […]Sara Hudson
- More on PHI rebate means test February 10, 2012
- IPA news
- Let European dogs lie February 9, 2012Australians will be surprised to learn that, apparently, the federal government now has responsibility to help the city of...
- It's time to bring back the thrift February 9, 2012Ted Baillieu plans to shave 3600 jobs from Victoria's bloated public service. The state of Wisconsin in the US, with a...
- We'll huff, we'll puff, we'll blow the budget into surplus February 8, 2012Bill Clinton famously said, "It's the economy, stupid". So it is. Unsuccessful politicians might be inclined to argue,...
- Let European dogs lie February 9, 2012
