Local Officials Lead Revolution to Make America

An essential element to Libertarianism is to bring decision making to as local a level as possible. I have blogged previously that the Amish are as about as an ideal example of a local self reliant community as there can be.

Watched PBS News Hour's interview with the authors of  The Metropolitan Revolution which appears to me to be an anti federalist love letter to local control and initiative.  If this is the result of Washington political deadlock and sequestration,  then I love it.  

The Metropolitan Revolution

Brazil's Salad Revolution

In the New York Times today I see a Brazilian was arrested for carrying vinegar to a demonstration so that now the current social uprising has morphed to the “Salad Revolution.” I recall reading in “The Economist” a special section on Brazil several years ago which made me leery of investing there in spite of it being one of the BRIC's (Brazil, Russia, India and China) which to my eye are all failing to deliver promised economic growth. Brazil's problem is the Italian one where all the heavy regulation starts with firms who have a certain number of employee or more, therefore company owners resist growing into a costly administrative size and keep much activity underground. The rule of law is less than desirable as well with a judiciary that delays and usually resolves nothing. Brazil has a lot of liberalizing to do.

FDA Over reach on Cheese

Evidently some cheese has too many microbes, bugs (mites actually) and general decay for the likes of the Food and Drug administration which won't be satisfied until the only cheese we are allowed to be offered are completely sanitary ersatz cheese food products.

It is my experience that the really tasty stuff is expensive, hard to get and really un-sanitary in a modern hygiene sense, but easily avoidable if you are allergic to it.

Mimolette Cheese on FDA Hold

Reason TV Version of the Mimolette Cheese FDA Imbroglio

"Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know"

Jason Brennan's presentation at Cato makes some very good points, for me principally it is that Scandinavian countries are measurably more libertarian than ours.  A free market capitalist country that has a well developed social welfare system is a not a contradiction in terms, especially if it can't abide crony capitalism. For example Sweden was hard hearted enough to let Saab motor company go bankrupt in spite of an illustrious history.  Their attitude is if it can't pay it's way what  good is it to society.

Libertarianism: What Everybody Needs to Know

Doing Bad by Doing Good

Christopher Coyne's book got me thinking about the deficiencies in all endeavors, not just humanitarian, that fail to use markets to allocate resources. One example is of Boston's Big Dig, which tripled it's initial cost estimate to over 20 Billion Dollars, as badly spent money because it was a poor allocation of scarce resources.  Massachusetts has the wealth to recover from this self inflicted shot in the foot but in spite of the GDP blip this boondoggle created no one could argue it was a good expenditure that provide more benefit then it cost. Our military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are even worse examples of poor return for resource invested.

Paul Krugman's battle with the "Austerians" does not consider government's propensity to mis-allocate resources. For the good of all of us we need less government and more private spending.  The economy currently is handily overtaking government job losses with private job growth.  The sequester is a good thing.

How the NSA spies on Americians

Jm Harper's interview at Cato counters that initial feeling of what harm can it do and its for our protection, isn't it?

It makes me want to revisit a Will Smith movie "Enemy of the State" to get a feel a what an unelected bureaucrat could do to save his ass.

How the NSA Spies on Americans (Jim Harper)

Money can't buy an election

Jonathan Atler's the Center Holds is very comforting to my Libertarian sensibilities because it shows how ineffective money driven by authoritarians can be.   During the 2012 presidential election Republican's fed off a closed loop that questioned nothing while the Obama campaign's Chicago operation was a marketing juggernaut testing and classifying so efficiently it would have made Bain Capital envious.

Until the Republican's separate unquestioning faith as an individual, not federal, form of expression, I don't see much hope for the Grand Old Party.