Quote of the Day: The Wreck of Venezuela

And why has it come to this?  

The reason? A brain-dead rejection of basic economics, and a hardline, anti-market approach of the worst possible kind. There are maximum prices, other price controls, profit controls, capital controls, nationalisations, expropriations and every other statist, atavistic policy you can think of. An extreme left wing government has waged war on capitalism and won; and as ever, ordinary people are paying the price.

A Woman of Consequence

A historian looks at the legacy of the Iron Lady.  Oh, and she was right about the euro too.  How about this for our quote of the day:

The reaction to Margaret Thatcher’s death is painfully predictable. 

The right is honoring her service in standing up to socialism and communism at home and abroad, while the left is vilifying her for standing up to socialism and communism at home and abroad.

As someone else said, Maggie Thatcher p*ssed off all the right people, and I think that is a honorable epitaph indeed.  Anyway, look at this, this, this, and this:

Forgotten History: A Lesson From Plymouth Plantation

On this Thanksgiving, here's a bit of relevant (if now forgotten) colonial history.  More here from Professor Paul Rahe, an expert in the history of republics.

Reading Recommendations From An Econ Prof

Usually this sort of thing would have me rushing for the doors, but econ professor Art Carden (Samford University) has some interesting-looking choices.  Carden also links to some cool TED talks and free online lectures.  Ain't technology grand!

Quote of the Day: Protests and Missing the Mark

From British MEP Daniel Hannan on the various and variously intellectually incoherent Occupy [Insert Location Here] protests:

The hard-Left protesters who marched in cities across the world today are wrong about many things, but they have got one thing absolutely right: bailing out first banks and then entire countries, is a form of class war against working people. 

The trouble is, the demonstrators are picking the wrong target. The people they should blame are not the financiers, but the politicians who obsequiously agreed to rescue them from the consequences of their malinvestments. 

Please understand, my Leftie friends, that what has taken place since 2008 is anything but capitalism. In a capitalist system, incompetent banks would have been allowed to fail, their profitable operations sold on to their competitors. Shareholders, bondholders and some depositors would have lost money, but taxpayers would not have contributed a penny.

Well, yes.  If these protesters had the least understanding of actual capitalism versus the perverse crony capitalism currently being practiced by corrupt-ocrats on both sides of the Pond and if these angry demonstrators actually had two economically-literate neurons to rub together, they'd be marching on government buildings.  But, of course, they don't.  And, so life imitates "Star Trek II": "You've managed to kill everyone else, but like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target!"  UPDATE: By the way, La Parisienne and I would like to note for the record that we always thought the massive government bailouts were stupid, but of course nobody listens to us.

Beware Greeks Bearing Economic Ruin

Well, the Greek economy is in tatters and threatening to ruin a whole lot of other people while it's on a roll.  Here are two thoughts: the role of rampant tax evasion and whether Greek political elites ruined the country.

Daniel Hannan: A European's Warning to America

In short?  Don't repeat our mistakes.  Sounds like good advice to me.

Public Sector Unions, Absconding Politicians, and the Flight From Reality

Read this.  So it's not only a gross abdication of responsibility, Brave Sir Robin?  Pathetic.

Quote of the Day: Income Inequality and Its Shibboleths

Here's an observation:

Arguments about the fairness of "income distribution" are not really arguments at all. They are tautologies that embed preconceived answers in the question, allowing no rebuttal.

Read the whole thing.  Was I just recently banging on about this general idea?  A parting zinger from the article:

Imagine a workers' paradise in which income inequality is eliminated by government command. Wait, we don't have to imagine. Go visit Cuba.

Quote of the Day: On the French Demonstrations

In a nutshell?  Here it is:

The French have the habit of deploying the revolutionary gesture in the service of the reactionary cause of stopping change.

The latest round of strikes and social unrest in the face of even modest attempts at reforming an utterly unsustainable system is all of a piece.  Nothing makes people more selfish than socialism in the style of the French and the Greeks, or more cavalierly callous about the future, or more inflexible and unable to deal with a changing world.  What I always find bemusing is the spectacle of university students out there protesting the idea of retiring at 62 instead of 60.  I mean, seriously? These "kids" haven't even really entered the labor market yet.  But by golly they want the guarantee of a cushy retirement.

World Cup Obsession: Soccer and Socialism -- A Tale of Two Analyses

Look at these two analyses of soccer/football. They're totally different in their opinions, yet goofily similar in their overdone soapboxing.

1. Soccer is the opiate of the masses, preventing them from glorious people's workers' revolution!

2. Soccer is the perfect socialist sport!

I think both of these are pretty much crazy in their own way. Anyway, if you don't like soccer, you don't have to like it! Can't those who do now just watch some World Cup and enjoy ourselves without listening to a bunch of haters spout off? Say what you want, soccer can be thrilling beyond belief.

Weird Political "Analysis" of the Day, World Cup Edition: Soccer Is the New Opiate of the Masses

Heh! It's unintentionally hilarious. Then again, a self-important professor wrote it.

So we're not getting the prof's much-desired Glorious Proletariat People Workers' Revolution because all the downtrodden are too busy watching soccer to go after kulaks and capitalist running dogs and whatever else. Instead of the hammer and sickle, we've got vuvuzelas and soccer babes ... and lots of 'em! And, hey, on the up side, vuvuzelas (and soccer babes) have killed infinitely fewer people than Marxism.

Well, for plenty of people, sports basically are a religion (remember me during March Madness?), though not in the way this professor seems to think.

(OK, true confessions: I'm typing this as I'm watching the US-Slovenia match. Oooooh, yummy yummy sports-opium!)

MM (hearts) Michael Caine

Indeed.

Euro Notes: Europe's Easy Living is Unsustainable

The facts are not surprising. What is may be the fact that this appeared in the New York Times.

Here is a gloomy quoter from a 52-year-old Italian photographer, but it's applicable across all of western Europe:

“It’s going to go belly-up because no one will be around to fill the pension coffers. It’s not just me; this country has no future.”

The European model is failing, people. So why do you want to copy it?

Truer Words Were Never Said: Brazil's Lula da Silva Lets the Cat Out of the Bag

Heh! Hey, now, wasn't that a confession that socialism can't create wealth, only move it around? I told you so.

Mark Steyn on the Greek Implosion

Utterly unsustainable. The demographics alone render the entitlements impossible, but everyone's become addicted to entitlements.

Protests in Venezuela and Che Guevara Chic

Hmmmmmmm. And this.

Becoming a Free Marketeer in a Communist State: Vaclav Klaus Remembers

Here is an interesting interview with Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic (and holder of a doctorate in economics). Do see.

Bonus: it's an example of grad school and higher education actually having a great result!

Also see Klaus' comment on the current state of things in the relationship between Brussels and the Czech Republic: "We are importing socialism from the EU." Uh-oh. He doesn't sound at all happy with this, as well he shouldn't.

The Free Market is not the Same as Rationing

How many times do we have to explain? At least one more time, apparently. This time Paul Hsieh gives the lesson.

European Thoughts on Socialized Health Care

Something from France and something from a Brit. Both France and the UK have socialized medicine, and they seem not to be doing so very well. Note the French facing up to the high cost. Hmmm.