Roman's Notes

My notes for The Economic Way of Thinking and Introduction to the Market Process have been posted on romansturgis.blogspot.com

More to come...

From "Tyranny and Utopia" by Charles H. Fairbanks

The Bolshevik taste for the absolute-for Utopia and violence-seems far distant now in the West that gave it birth. But it has reappeared within the Islamic world. The recreation of a universal Caliphate, which ceased to rule all Muslim lands about the year 800, has become a wide-spread demand of radical Islamic groups from Morocco to Central Asia-a demand as abstract and utopian as Communism itself. In pursuit of such aims a cult of death as pitiliess as Stalin's has gained widespread ascendancy over radical Muslims. The war against this style of tyranny demands the same energies, and meets with the same Western equivocations, as the war against Stalinism.

Some of you may be interested in this...

...essay contest on Atlas Shrugged.

The Lorax, Reinterpreted

Check out this great post by Jonathan Adler at The Commons blog. Check out my comment too.

What? A commercial to promote education instead of excessive consumerism?

Has anyone visited this new econ site?

Tonight I sat with my jaw on my lap as I watched a commercial for it in which a small boy is talking about gross revenue, etc., as he sells lemonade. Looks like an interesting site from the little I've explored so far.

Does it Make Me a Traitor?

I'm working on a book with a commie dedicated to applying libertarian thought to the socialist process. I know that sounds completely backwards (and like trying to put two north poles together on a magnet), but basically we are trying to show that despite their huge differences, there are areas they can be melded, and compromised with each other.

So... if I write taxes into my system, does it make me a traitor?!

(Don't worry, this is a what-if book, not a Jeanne-turned-into-a-tree-hugging-hippie-commie. I'm still a tree-hugging-hippie, but you'll never catch me being a commie)

heat

Hello everyone,

I've been enjoying reading your posts and wanted to get around to actually posting something. First, I've never been much of a novel reader, but you all inspired me to pick up a book instead of playing PS2 at nights. I went to the local public library (should I feel guilty about that?) and got the Fountainhead and have so far been impressed, its been difficult so far to put down. So thanks for the inspiration. Second, if you're looking for Must See TV, check out C-SPAN this evening for live coverage of U.S. House debate on CAFTA. You'll see plenty of rhetoric and emotion, as well as assertions that previous trade agreements such as NAFTA are major causes of job losses in this country. It's the political process at work, don't miss it.

Brandon

Mr. Happy and Mr. Miserable, redux

I call the following to your attention: http://www.johnkay.com/political/394

The bullet:

"The good news about extreme poverty is that more people have been lifted out of it in the past 10 years than in any decade in world history; that this is mainly the result of rapid economic growth in China and India, which is in turn principally due to internal reform not external action; that the real contributions of rich countries have mainly been through trade and investment, not aid; and that world leaders have played only a minor though constructive role in that process."

(Hat tip to Russ Roberts at Cafe Hayek.)

Glad to see folks are checking in here.

Want To Play?

Play: Living a Deeper Life, or maybe I should say "Living Life."

I am working on a paper dealing with "play." It is actually quite a fruitful and practical source of study.

My research is considering the role of "play" in human experience, spending some extra attention on whether or not play is an element in the religious life, or more precisely in the religious experience. I am relying on Gadamer (and Huizinga) for an understanding of play. Then I am considering Josef Pieper and Ratzinger's criticism of play. With some clarifications from Guardini and my own thought, thus far I am concluding that play does have a role in our lives--it is actually vital to human living, to the human part of a being's living. Further, it also has a role in the religious experience (even a certain role in liturgical life) and that it actually is a way of being that is only entered into with risk and thus results in a rich and deep encounter with the content of that religion: with Truth, with Love, with Goodness, with Beauty, and therefore in a way (some more than others perhaps) with Christ. I am relying on Giussani's thought to help support my conclusion.

A wide variety of thinkers have written on this phenomenon:

The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress by the libertarian Virginia Postrel (***I strongly recommend the chapter on play in this book.***)

Truth and Method by Hans-Georg Gadamer

Relevance of the Beautiful by Hans-Georg Gadamer

Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture by Johan Huizinga

In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity by Josef Pieper

Man, Play, and Games by Roger Caillois

The Religious Sense by Msgr. Luigi Giussani

The Spirit of the Liturgy by Romano Guardini

The Spirit of the Liturgy by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI)

and one of my favorites On the Unseriousness of Human Affairs by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ

Any thoughts or comments/questions would be appreciated. Comment here or email me at wperales@yahoo.com.

Some pictures for you

here.

European seminars

Dear everyone,

the seminar was a great experience. For those who are interested to participate in a seminar of the European sister organisation of IHS, the Institute of Economic Studies (IES) organises in Aix-en-Provence, France, its annual summer university:

http://www.ieseurope.org/ies3/version_anglaise/summer_university/universi.htm

The summer university will follow a 3-day seminar (August 24-27) for students only. The students will then have the opportunity to follow the summer university which is open to a broader audience. Students can apply to this International meeting of one week (3 day seminar + summer university) until August 1, 2005.

It is a big event, with great speakers, as last year Steve Davies was one of them. In the wonderfull city of Aix-en-Provence. Hope to meet some of you there!

Many greetings from Belgium,

Pieter

-> www.cleppe.blogspot.com

Bringing the gospel back to Sweden

Hi everyone!

So, I am now in Chicago, enjoying my last day in the land of Freedom. Tomorrow I head back to Sweden, to start working and spreading the love and the liberty. If any of you guys ever make it over to Scandinavia and want to meet up, let me know. I plan to start my own blog in August, so I will keep you posted on that.

Thanks a lot for a great week at Pitzer, I really enjoyed every aspect of it, and hope to meet some of you guys in the future.

A is A.
Anders is Anders.

Essay on Philosophy of International Law & Order

Some philosophy-minded or international law/relations-minded folks might enjoy reading this essay on Rawls, Bobbio, and Habermas's theories of international order.

To the law students out there

I thought I'd list some law resources for American law students.

NYU Journal of Law & Liberty - [shameless self-promotion..] - a journal that I and some friends started at NYU. It focuses on classical liberal and libertarian legal scholarship. A longer blurb about it here. It's awesome. Ask your library to subscribe.

Federalist Society - conservative/libertarian organization with increasing influence in the political/legal world. Lawyers divisions in all states and student groups at most law schools. Great resource for contacts, job and clerkship opportunities, networking, funding, support, etc.

Institute for Justice - foremost libertarian public-interest law firm - they have a great weekend seminar each August - definitely apply to attend (application deadline is around Feb.).

[Pacific Legal Foundation, Washington Legal Foundation, Atlantic Legal Foundation (google them), Alliance Defense Fund, Beckett Fund, etc. - public interest law firms, some decidedly more conservative than libertarian]

Volokh.com - blog of libertarian law profs; great blog, plus links to a ton of other good blogs.
Note on Volokh's website that he also has written a book on legal writing for students. I've never seen it, but I've heard it's good, so you might check it out.

Perhaps I'll add some other things to this list if I remember them, but really, Volokh, IJ, and Fed Soc should give you enough pointers for you to eventually find a host of things of interest to you. But if you're looking for anything that I might be able to help with, just email me.

Also, google something like "law student writing competitions"; there are a few sites that list a whole bunch of them...

Questions For Judge Roberts

National Review Online released a list of questions that Senator Schumer reportedly wishes to ask Judge Roberts during the judiciary committee hearings. They center around the judge's ideology rather than his "character" or "personal life," which I think is pretty cool. Among the questions, here are some of the ones I found interesting:

• When does speech cross the line between Constitutionally protected free expression and slander?
• Can Government regulate hate speech? What about sexually explicit materials?
• Must the Government avoid involvement with religion as a whole, or is the prohibition just on Government involvement with any specific religion?
• What is your view of the Supreme Court's opinion in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000), which held that prayer in public schools is prohibited even where it is student-organized, non-denominational, and at a football game?
• What do you believe is the extent of Congress's authority to legislate under the Commerce Clause? (heh, heh)
• Under what circumstances is it appropriate for the Supreme Court to overturn a well-settled precedent, upon which Americans have come to rely?
• Do you agree with the 1986 decision in which the Supreme Court held that states could criminalize private sex acts between consenting adults (Bowers v. Hardwick), or do you agree with the later 2003 decision, which held that the states could not (Lawrence v. Texas)? Was the Court right to overturn its precedent 17 years later? Why or why not?
• The word "privacy" is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution. In your view, does that mean it is wrong for the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution as conferring such a right?
• Once the right to privacy has been found - as in Griswold and Roe - under what circumstances should the Supreme Court revisit that right? (knew that would be in there, right?)
• Under the Constitution, how far can the states go in enacting laws to protect the environment, and does it matter whether there is federal legislation on the same subject?
• How do you define judicial activism? Give us three examples of Supreme Court cases that you consider the product of judicial activism.
• Do parents have a Due Process right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children, as the Supreme Court held in Troxel v. Granville (2000)?

There were also questions about Judge Robert's specific judging ideology, which I found rather intriguing:

• Do you describe yourself as falling into any particular school of judicial philosophy?
• What is your view of "strict constructionism"?
• What is your view of the notion of "original intent"? "Original meaning"?
• How do you square the notion of respecting "original intent" with the acceptance of the institution of slavery at the time the Constitution was adopted?

However, my favorite question was this one:

• When the Supreme Court issues non-unanimous opinions, Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg frequently find themselves in disagreement with each other. Do you more frequently agree with Justice Scalia's opinions, or Justice Ginsburg's? (hahahaha.)
  

Hello.

It's 9 in the morning and i'm finally home. Glad to see so many people i miss blogging here, or at least listed as contributors, which leads me to believe we'll hear from them sooner or later. Really curious to see everyone's other blogs. I also have some photos that i'll put up somewhere. But i'll do all that later, after i get some sleep. If i can remember how. Have a feeling it won't be difficult. See you all.

An Essay Competition for Graduate Students

The Society for the Development of Austrian Economics is please to announce that submissions for the Don Lavoie Memorial Graduate Student Essay Competition are now being accepted. Submissions will be accepted from students enrolled in a graduate program in economics or other relevant disciplines anywhere in the world. Essays should make use of and forward the work of the Austrian school of economics. Three prizes are given, each worth $1000, to be used to pay expenses to attend the Southern Economic Association meetings this November in Washington, where the winners will present their work on a special panel. Prize awards are contingent on attending the SEA meetings and the SDAE’s annual business meeting and awards banquet.

The prize committee consists of:

Peter Boettke, George Mason University
Emily Chamlee-Wright, Beloit College
Steven Horwitz, St. Lawrence University
David Prychitko, Northern Michigan University

Deadline for submissions is September 1, 2005. Decisions will be made by September 15.

All questions and submissions should be sent, either electronically or by mail, to:

Peter Boettke
Department of Economics
George Mason University, MSN 3G4
Fairfax, VA 22030
pboettke@gmu.edu

More information on the SDAE can be found here.

Feel free to pass this announcement on to other blogs or websites, or communicate it to colleagues and students at your schools.

Justice John G. Roberts

Born 1955 in Buffalo, NY

Federal Judicial Service:
U. S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit
Nominated by George W. Bush on January 7, 2003, to a seat vacated by James L. Buckley; Confirmed by the Senate on May 8, 2003, and received commission on June 2, 2003.

Education:
Harvard College, A.B., 1976

Harvard Law School, J.D., 1979

Professional Career:
Law clerk, Hon. Henry Friendly, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 1979-1980
Law clerk, Associate Justice William Rehnquist, Supreme Court of the United States, 1980-1981
Special assistant to the attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, 1981-1982
Associate counsel to the president, White House Counsel's Office, 1982-1986
Private practice, Washington, DC, 1986-1989, 1993-2003
Principal deputy solicitor general, U.S. Department of Justice, 1989-1993

Thoughts on his apparent anti-abortion stance? Apparently he signed a brief or something in 1973 that argued for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

SCOTUS Nominee?

Here's an article that has some guesses on who Bush's SCOTUS appointee is going to be. Ready for some major filibustering and holding out, folks? =) I'm interested in hearing your opinions on the nominees suggested (or even on ones not suggested).

Bush To Announce Supreme Court Choice Tuesday
By Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will announce his first nominee to the Supreme Court on Tuesday and Republican sources U.S. appeals court Judge Edith Clement has emerged as a leading candidate.

"The president has made a decision and will be announcing his nominee to the Supreme Court this evening at nine o'clock (0100 GMT)," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

Analysts say Clement, 57, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans, is a conservative who may not be as controversial as some other candidates because she has no long record of judicial opinions available for analysis.

She won Senate confirmation by a 99-0 vote in 2001. But Assistant Senate Democratic Leader Richard Durbin said "a different standard has to be applied" for a Supreme Court candidate and predicted she would face "harder questions, more questions" than in 2001.

Republican strategists said Bush has been leaning toward picking a woman to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the high court and a moderate conservative who often controlled the outcome on hot button issues like abortion, affirmative action and civil liberties.

At a news conference with the Australian Prime Minister, Bush was noncommittal: "I have thought about a variety of people, people from different walks of life, some of whom I've known before, some of whom I had never met before."

"I do have an obligation to think about people from different backgrounds but who share the same philosophy -- people who will not legislate from the bench," Bush said.

Some Republicans have urged Bush to name a candidate who would mesh closely with his conservative agenda. Others have urged him to choose someone who could assume O'Connor's more moderate role as a key swing vote between the nine-member court's conservative and liberal wings.

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee would oversee the confirmation process, has urged Bush to pick someone in O'Connor's mold for the lifetime appointment.

Republicans believe nominating a woman might help avoid a bitter partisan battle over Bush's choice for the court, which rules on many social issues like abortion and civil rights.

Sources said the timing of an announcement had been moved up in part to deflect attention away from a CIA leak controversy that has engulfed Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove.

'PRACTICALLY NO PAPER TRAIL'

Republican strategists with close ties to the White House described Clement as the leading candidate.

"She's pretty untouchable," one of the strategists said, noting that she has attracted little attention for her judicial opinions, reducing the chances of a bitter confirmation fight over her writings.

Manuel Miranda, head of the Third Branch Conference, a coalition of about 200 conservative groups, said if Clement is the nominee, "the president is playing it safe."

"Edith Clement has practically no paper trail," Miranda said. "She is a conservative, and she would be acceptable... But she doesn't have a clear record on a number of issues, and has caused some concerns on religious liberty issues."

Some Republicans may be wary of filling the post with someone whose views are so little known. Bush's father selected Justice David Souter, who has disappointed conservatives and turned out to be far more liberal than expected.

Brad Berenson, Bush's former associate White House counsel, said Clement would "face a relatively smooth confirmation" process because she has the backing of Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Landrieu was a member of the group of 14 senators -- seven Democrats and seven Republicans -- who signed a truce in May that averted a showdown over Bush's most conservative appeals court nominees that had threatened to shutdown the Senate.

That group may play a pivotal role in the Senate confirmation process and help decide if Democrats would be allowed to filibuster the nominee. According to their deal, filibusters would only be allowed under "extraordinary circumstances."

Clement was nominated by Bush's father to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court in Louisiana in 1991 and was elevated to her current job by the current Bush in 2001.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1948, Clement received her law degree from Tulane Law School in 1972 and worked as a private attorney in New Orleans from 1975 to 1991.

Another possible female candidate is Edith Hollan Jones, who also serves on the 5th Circuit. (Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and Thomas Ferraro)

Private Currency

During a discussion session, someone brought up the Liberty Dollar. I hadn't heard of it before, so I thought others might enjoy checking it out.

I was reminded of the discussion because I came across this article, which was posted on a Hayek email list-serve.

Where's Roman?

What is Roman's blog?

Fair Trade?

At one of our evening discussions, the topic of "Fair Trade" coffee came up. There were some who knew a bit about it, but most who knew next to nothing. I have a friend in Guatemala and I am waiting for him to give me a more detailed and "on-the-scene" perspective.

Until then, there is this helpful piece from Acton Institute, a free-market minded organization. Basically, "fair trade" is not all that fair nor is it what is best for all involved or affected by it.

Strange Brew: Churches push for “fair trade” coffee

by Jordan Ballor, Associate Editor

The “fair trade” coffee campaign (not to be confused with “free trade” coffee) is gaining traction beyond its early beachhead on college campuses and grungy latté shops. Increasingly, the campaign is finding new adherents in religious organizations, which are busily issuing guidelines for consumers. In churches and synagogues all over America, the once ideologically innocent coffee klatch has become a forum for international trade policy.

Prominent religious advocates of fair trade include the Interfaith Fair Trade Initiative, an outreach of Lutheran World Relief, and the Presbyterian Coffee Project of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Presbyterian Coffee Project, among other things, advises its churches to “offer gift baskets of fairly traded coffee and tea for new members, as Christmas presents, or on other occasions.” And in December, Catholic Relief Services announced the launch of an effort to boost fair trade coffee consumption among the nation’s 65 million Catholics.

People of faith are working with groups like Global Exchange, a San Francisco human rights organization, which claims, “Agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as ‘sweatshops in the fields.’” The fair trade movement, encouraged by victories among the religious and in corporate America, has ambitions that range all over America’s supermarket. TransFair USA, the only third-party certifier of fair trade commodities in the United States, announced on Jan. 22 that fresh fruit is its “Newest Fair Trade Certified™ Product Offering.” Soon, even the purchase of a bunch of bananas will force shoppers to make a political statement.

But let’s be fair to the fair traders. Their techniques are based on convincing the consuming public and working through the market to achieve their goals. This approach is vastly superior to relying solely on governmental subsidies, which has historically been the chosen means of influencing agriculture policy for many like-minded activists.

The main difficulty with this lies in the fact that these campaigns rely on guilt-tripping people who drink coffee, rather than arguing from sound economic principles. The rhetoric of the fair trade movement attacks “big business” coffee companies, and favors smaller, cooperative farms.

...

And corporate America is caving in. Last September, Proctor & Gamble announced it would begin offering Fair Trade Certified coffee though its specialty coffee division, Millstone. The fair traders’ answer to the “sweatshop on the fields” situation is simple: fix the price of coffee at a level that will provide an adequate standard of living for the farmer. Currently they affirm that this fair level is a minimum of $1.26 per pound (compared to the current 50 cents per pound prices in the actual marketplace).

Such artificial and arbitrary measures fly in the face of economic reality. The law of supply and demand is a major player in regulating the price of coffee, which is bought and sold like any other commodity. The economic price mechanism takes into account a variety of factors that an artificial price standard cannot hope to deal with justly.

Fair traders also ignore one of the main reasons coffee growers face price drops: worldwide production has greatly expanded, especially in Southeast Asia. Increased supply equals lower prices given a static demand.

...

Most troubling is the fact that the fair trade movement effectively pits the poor against the poor. It’s a case of coffee farmers in the fair trade co-ops versus conventional farmers. Those who sell coffee in the traditional commercial manner are forced to compete with those who are artificially enabled by the fair trade movement to maintain production through such guilt-driven, market-based subsidies.

.... The fair trade movement needs to take into consideration the poor who are left out of their arbitrarily constructed system of privilege.

The fair trade movement’s only response to this disparity is to argue for a complete standardization of its price-fixing methods. Global Exchange calls for “a total transformation of the coffee industry, so that all coffee sold in this country should be Fair Trade Certified.” The success of this sort of endeavor will never be comprehensively effective, especially in a free economy like the United States. As Global Exchange admits, “despite the growing popularity of Fair Trade coffee, demand has not yet matched supply: Last year about 200 million lbs. of certified Fair Trade coffee was sold at normal market prices because of insufficient demand.”

...

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

After repeatedly ridiculing the faculty for blogging stuff no one reads, I decided to join the action. You can read about my seminar experience, at my new Spontaneous Disorder blog. I don't know what has the longer odds, someone actually reading it or me actually adding stuff to it regularly. Oh well, I'll give it a shot.

A Short Summary

I've just posted a short summary of my experience at IHS. I hope to post more particularly about specific topics we addressed, but with work and all starting up again, who knows if I'll have time to do that. Nevertheless, enjoy.

Also, if any of you would like me to add your personal site to my blogroll, please let me know. I'm off to play some poker now; adios!

pictures and books

I have just posted on my blog some (only a few) pictures from the seminar, as well as a list of books, many of which I mentioned to more people than I can remember. So, if you are interested, go to http://witherspoongirl.blogspot.com.

Subscribing and Adding Your Own Blog

Not sure if someone has posted a thought or news? Well, then subscribe. See over to the left.

<-- Look over there. Up top a little.

Yah, that's right, there, where it says, "Enter your email address below to subscribe to Cafe Liberty!"

You got it.

Well, enter your email address and whenever someone posts something on this blog, you will receive an email the following morning--very early before the cock is crowing--which will tell you that someone has posted and it will tell you the beginning of their post (the first 300 words or so).

Now, isn't that easy?!

I thought you would think so.

Also, if you have a blog not listed here, send me an email (wperales@yahoo.com) or comment below at the comment link. Put your blog name and address and I will add it to this blogroll.

Gotta go now. Off to enter my email address so I do not miss any posts.

Hi and thanks

Hi all. Thanks for a great week at Pitzer. It was wonderful getting to know all of you, both the humans and the sheep. I hope that we can keep this forum going as a way to share ideas, links, and questions on into the future.

W: can you add "Liberty and Power" www.libertyandpower.org to the blogroll? Thanks!

Upcoming Lectures

Spread the news of upcoming lectures.

(Go to "Edit posts." Click "Edit" for "Upcoming Lectures" and then add your info to this post. Date, location, speaker, topic, etc. When finished and ready for all, then click orange box marked "Publish Post" below.) Hope this works. If there is an Internet link, include that as well. This will have to do ... for now.

Here is a list of upcoming lectures:

Date..... Location........... Speaker ............. Topic...........
(Contact for more info)

Sept. 26 .. UConn ............ Hernando de Soto ................................

(Priscillia)

Here It Is

Here it is.

The blog.

I figure we can post our thoughts from seminar, comments, questions, responses from classes or readings, short speeches, works in progress, completed works/essays, and so forth. Then the rest can all comment at comment link which is at end of each post.

Great! Many of you are signing up to this blog. "Now what?" you may ask.

Well, as you have thoughts or ideas to share with others (just to share or for feedback), post them on this sight.

How?

Sign in and go to "Posting." Then to "Create" if it does not already prompt you to the screen where you get to write a post.

Write your post or paste an essay from a Word document. Any special features such as bold or italics will not be transfered over when you copy and paste. You have to do it again once it is on the "Create" a "Post" page. Easy. Just go through and make necessary editing corrections.

In your writing, you can even link to web sites. Use the link icon on "Create" page. (This looks like a green globe with a white and black image above it.) Basically, you highlight what you want to show as the words which someone would click to go to another site; and then you go to the icon, click it, and enter the web address which those highlighted words signify. Hope that makes sense. If not, experiment with the site. Hold the cursor over various unknown icons or buttons to see what they are for. When you hold it over, a description will tell you what that one is for.

Enough for now. This hopefully will prove helpful to clarify ideas as well as to share and refine our own ideas from personal, political, philosophical, economic, religious, and so on interests.

Well, enjoy and, like I said above, hopefully this is beneficial or at least just fun for us.