REALISM AND ABSTRACTION IN ECONOMICS (william)
- Highlight on Page 12 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:57 AM
the theory that minimum wage laws cause unemployment is not a precisive abstraction, applicable only to an idealized case in which minimum wage laws are the only factor influencing unemployment; rather it is a nonprecisive abstraction, applicable to all situations involving minimum-wage laws,
5 de jan. de 2013
economic laws as Austrians understand them are not relations between earlier and later events, but rather between actual and counterfactual events
REALISM AND ABSTRACTION IN ECONOMICS (william)
- Highlight on Page 12 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:55 AM
As Guido Hülsmann has pointed out, economic laws as Austrians understand them are not relations between earlier and later events, but rather between actual and counterfactual events
- Highlight on Page 12 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:55 AM
As Guido Hülsmann has pointed out, economic laws as Austrians understand them are not relations between earlier and later events, but rather between actual and counterfactual events
counterfactuals
REALISM AND ABSTRACTION IN ECONOMICS (william)
- Highlight on Page 12 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:56 AM
There is no guarantee, for example, that a minimum wage law will cause unemployment in the sense of making unemployment higher than it was before the law; for the level of unemployment is influenced by many different factors, some countervailing. What economic law does guarantee is that the level of unemployment will be higher under a minimum wage law than it would have beenwithout the law. (This is precisely the distinction, familiar to Austrians from the writings of Frédéric Bastiat and Henry Hazlitt, between “what is seen and what is not seen.”)
- Highlight on Page 12 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:56 AM
There is no guarantee, for example, that a minimum wage law will cause unemployment in the sense of making unemployment higher than it was before the law; for the level of unemployment is influenced by many different factors, some countervailing. What economic law does guarantee is that the level of unemployment will be higher under a minimum wage law than it would have beenwithout the law. (This is precisely the distinction, familiar to Austrians from the writings of Frédéric Bastiat and Henry Hazlitt, between “what is seen and what is not seen.”)
degrees of realism? 2.00 vs 2.0
REALISM AND ABSTRACTION IN ECONOMICS (william)
- Highlight on Page 10 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:50 AM
Friedman’s mistake lies in taking a theory that incorporates ancestry, eye color, and so on to be the “logical extreme” of realism. But realism does not demand that all these extraneous traits be specified; it merely demands that their nonexistencenot be specified either. Those who criticize neoclassical models for their lack of realism are not seeking a precisive abstraction that more closelyapproximates reality; rather, they are seeking an abstraction that is not precisive at all. The right question to ask is not “How closely should our theories approximate reality in order to yield useful predictions?” but rather “How much specificity should our theories incorporate in order to yield useful explanations?” It’s a mistake to talk, as even Austrians sometimes do,4 about degrees of realism. All nonprecisive abstractions are equally realistic: “Cujo is a Saint Bernard” is no more realisticthan “Cujo is a dog” (though it is more precise, just as a measurement of 2.00 is more precise than a measurement of 2.0—not more correct, but correct to more significant figures)
- Highlight on Page 10 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:50 AM
Friedman’s mistake lies in taking a theory that incorporates ancestry, eye color, and so on to be the “logical extreme” of realism. But realism does not demand that all these extraneous traits be specified; it merely demands that their nonexistencenot be specified either. Those who criticize neoclassical models for their lack of realism are not seeking a precisive abstraction that more closelyapproximates reality; rather, they are seeking an abstraction that is not precisive at all. The right question to ask is not “How closely should our theories approximate reality in order to yield useful predictions?” but rather “How much specificity should our theories incorporate in order to yield useful explanations?” It’s a mistake to talk, as even Austrians sometimes do,4 about degrees of realism. All nonprecisive abstractions are equally realistic: “Cujo is a Saint Bernard” is no more realisticthan “Cujo is a dog” (though it is more precise, just as a measurement of 2.00 is more precise than a measurement of 2.0—not more correct, but correct to more significant figures)
let’s say that in early 2001 I formulate a theory to the effect that there is a Constant Tolkienian Force in the universe that produces a Tolkien film every year
REALISM AND ABSTRACTION IN ECONOMICS (william)
- Highlight on Page 4 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:30 AM
from a Misesian point of view, when we find an empirical regularity we still need a correct theory to determine whether this regularity can be expected to hold over a broad or a narrow range of circumstances. For example, let’s say that in early 2001 I formulate a theory to the effect that there is a Constant Tolkienian Force in the universe that produces a Tolkien film every year. When Austrians complain that my theory ignores the fact that films are products of human action and not of constant impersonal forces, I reply: “Oh, I know that. My theory isn’t supposed to be realistic. The question is whether it’s a good predictor.” So I test it in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Lo and behold, my theory works each year!
- Highlight on Page 4 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:30 AM
from a Misesian point of view, when we find an empirical regularity we still need a correct theory to determine whether this regularity can be expected to hold over a broad or a narrow range of circumstances. For example, let’s say that in early 2001 I formulate a theory to the effect that there is a Constant Tolkienian Force in the universe that produces a Tolkien film every year. When Austrians complain that my theory ignores the fact that films are products of human action and not of constant impersonal forces, I reply: “Oh, I know that. My theory isn’t supposed to be realistic. The question is whether it’s a good predictor.” So I test it in 2001, 2002, and 2003. Lo and behold, my theory works each year!
predict x understand
REALISM AND ABSTRACTION IN ECONOMICS (william)
- Highlight on Page 4 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:29 AM
The important question for us is: in what circumstances could one say that one had understoodthis sort of behaviour? . . . Weber often speaks as if the ultimate test were our ability to formulate statistical laws which would enable us to predictwith fair accuracy what people would be likely to do in given circumstances. . . . [But] we might well be able to make predictions of great accuracy in this way and still not be able to claim any real understanding of what those people were doing. The difference is precisely analogous to that between being able to formulate statistical laws about the likely occurrences of words in a language and being able to understand what was being saidby someone who spoke the language. . . . [A] man who understands Chinese is not a man who has a firm grasp of the statistical probabilities for the occurrence of the various words in the Chinese language. (Winch 1990, p. 115)
- Highlight on Page 4 | Added on Monday, March 12, 2012, 12:29 AM
The important question for us is: in what circumstances could one say that one had understoodthis sort of behaviour? . . . Weber often speaks as if the ultimate test were our ability to formulate statistical laws which would enable us to predictwith fair accuracy what people would be likely to do in given circumstances. . . . [But] we might well be able to make predictions of great accuracy in this way and still not be able to claim any real understanding of what those people were doing. The difference is precisely analogous to that between being able to formulate statistical laws about the likely occurrences of words in a language and being able to understand what was being saidby someone who spoke the language. . . . [A] man who understands Chinese is not a man who has a firm grasp of the statistical probabilities for the occurrence of the various words in the Chinese language. (Winch 1990, p. 115)
Choice is choice between alternatives, and these alternatives must be distinguishable or they are not alternatives
Choice and Preference (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 2-4 | Added on Saturday, March 10, 2012, 05:21 PM
Choice is choice between alternatives, and these alternatives must be distinguishable or they are not alternatives; moreover, one must in some way present itself as more attractive than the other, or it cannot be chosen. -- R.G. Collingwood, The Idea of Nature, p. 41
- Highlight Loc. 2-4 | Added on Saturday, March 10, 2012, 05:21 PM
Choice is choice between alternatives, and these alternatives must be distinguishable or they are not alternatives; moreover, one must in some way present itself as more attractive than the other, or it cannot be chosen. -- R.G. Collingwood, The Idea of Nature, p. 41
Gresham’s law: bad education drives out good
Albert Jay Nock on Education (lfb.org)
- Highlight Loc. 75-80 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:49 PM
Nock’s second law was adapted from Gresham’s law on the nature of currency. Simply stated: bad money drives out good. When government dictates equivalency of value, the worst form of currency will circulate and the better money will disappear. Nock extended Gresham’s law to cover culture. He asked the reader to imagine a concert being played for an audience of 300 randomly chosen people. He argued that the program would not include the best music produced through the centuries, but the most popular music of the moment. So too with education: bad education would drive out good. Mass education did nothing more than reduce the quality of education to what Nock called “the dreadful average.”
- Highlight Loc. 75-80 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:49 PM
Nock’s second law was adapted from Gresham’s law on the nature of currency. Simply stated: bad money drives out good. When government dictates equivalency of value, the worst form of currency will circulate and the better money will disappear. Nock extended Gresham’s law to cover culture. He asked the reader to imagine a concert being played for an audience of 300 randomly chosen people. He argued that the program would not include the best music produced through the centuries, but the most popular music of the moment. So too with education: bad education would drive out good. Mass education did nothing more than reduce the quality of education to what Nock called “the dreadful average.”
Albert Jay Nock on political means
Albert Jay Nock on Education (lfb.org)
- Highlight Loc. 70-75 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:48 PM
Nock’s first law of social order was named after his friend Edward E. Epstean from whom he first heard the principle. As rephrased in Free Speech and Plain Language, the law is, “Man tends to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion. Not, it must be understood, that he always does so satisfy them, for other considerations principle, convention, fear, superstition or what not may supervene; but he always tends to satisfy them with the least possible exertion, and, in the absence of a stronger motive, will always do so.” Nock applied this law to the political means. He believed that as long as the State could “confer an economic advantage at the mere touch of a button,” people would maneuver to “get at the button, because law-made property is acquired with less exertion than labour-made property.”
- Highlight Loc. 70-75 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:48 PM
Nock’s first law of social order was named after his friend Edward E. Epstean from whom he first heard the principle. As rephrased in Free Speech and Plain Language, the law is, “Man tends to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion. Not, it must be understood, that he always does so satisfy them, for other considerations principle, convention, fear, superstition or what not may supervene; but he always tends to satisfy them with the least possible exertion, and, in the absence of a stronger motive, will always do so.” Nock applied this law to the political means. He believed that as long as the State could “confer an economic advantage at the mere touch of a button,” people would maneuver to “get at the button, because law-made property is acquired with less exertion than labour-made property.”
He learned to read without formal assistance by staring at a news clipping posted on his wall until, at the age of three, he could spell out words.
Albert Jay Nock on Education (lfb.org)
- Highlight Loc. 32-34 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:38 PM
Albert Jay Nock was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to a respectable but poor family, which relocated a few years afterward to Brooklyn, New York. He learned to read without formal assistance by staring at a news clipping posted on his wall until, at the age of three, he could spell out words.
- Highlight Loc. 32-34 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:38 PM
Albert Jay Nock was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to a respectable but poor family, which relocated a few years afterward to Brooklyn, New York. He learned to read without formal assistance by staring at a news clipping posted on his wall until, at the age of three, he could spell out words.
As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.
Laissez-Faire Books (lfb.org)
- Highlight Loc. 53-57 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:24 PM
I still remember the contest run by Canada’s national magazine Macleans years ago. It wanted to come up with a phrase that captured what was quintessentially Canadian, similar to the down-under phrase “As American as apple pie.” And, so, Macleans invited readers to fill in the blank: “As Canadian as _________.” The chalenge was distinguishing Canada from its neighbor who was louder, flashier, (then) richer, sexier and, well, add “er” onto almost any adjective. The winner? “As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.” Arrogance is not a problem.
- Highlight Loc. 53-57 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:24 PM
I still remember the contest run by Canada’s national magazine Macleans years ago. It wanted to come up with a phrase that captured what was quintessentially Canadian, similar to the down-under phrase “As American as apple pie.” And, so, Macleans invited readers to fill in the blank: “As Canadian as _________.” The chalenge was distinguishing Canada from its neighbor who was louder, flashier, (then) richer, sexier and, well, add “er” onto almost any adjective. The winner? “As Canadian as possible under the circumstances.” Arrogance is not a problem.
O pensamento humano, linear ou não, não é uma força exterior à natureza, que surja do nada para dominá-la com um deus ex machina, mas a cópia de um processo (de divisão e união) que já existe na própria natureza
Olavo de Carvalho -- Mandala (dennymarquesani.sites.uol.com.br)
- Highlight Loc. 129-34 | Added on Wednesday, March 07, 2012, 07:03 PM
A mandala contém ainda duas outras idéias, bastante alheias aos hábitos modernos. A primeira é a de considerar o homem um microcosmo. Se a natureza em sua totalidade é um conjunto harmônico – a que denominamos macrocosmo –, o homem, na sua condição de microcosmo, certamente portará em si, em plano menor, a mesma harmonia. O pensamento humano, linear ou não, não é uma força exterior à natureza, que surja do nada para dominá-la com um deus ex machina, mas a cópia de um processo (de divisão e união) que já existe na própria natureza. A sociedade moderna, ao contrário, vê o pensamento humano como algo exterior e estranho à natureza.
- Highlight Loc. 129-34 | Added on Wednesday, March 07, 2012, 07:03 PM
A mandala contém ainda duas outras idéias, bastante alheias aos hábitos modernos. A primeira é a de considerar o homem um microcosmo. Se a natureza em sua totalidade é um conjunto harmônico – a que denominamos macrocosmo –, o homem, na sua condição de microcosmo, certamente portará em si, em plano menor, a mesma harmonia. O pensamento humano, linear ou não, não é uma força exterior à natureza, que surja do nada para dominá-la com um deus ex machina, mas a cópia de um processo (de divisão e união) que já existe na própria natureza. A sociedade moderna, ao contrário, vê o pensamento humano como algo exterior e estranho à natureza.
Yes, Minister
Learning About the State (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 29-32 | Added on Wednesday, March 07, 2012, 10:00 AM
It is not the people we elect who are in charge. They are only the human face on the machine. If they don't know this before the election, they quickly discover it after the election. They find themselves on a conveyor belt of tasks and photo-ops and duties. These consume them completely. They are in awe of the operation of the state and feel immediately powerless to do anything about it.
- Highlight Loc. 29-32 | Added on Wednesday, March 07, 2012, 10:00 AM
It is not the people we elect who are in charge. They are only the human face on the machine. If they don't know this before the election, they quickly discover it after the election. They find themselves on a conveyor belt of tasks and photo-ops and duties. These consume them completely. They are in awe of the operation of the state and feel immediately powerless to do anything about it.
The people making the decisions and conducting policy were not elected by anyone.
Learning About the State (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 21-25 | Added on Wednesday, March 07, 2012, 09:58 AM
Today, the state embodies all the worst features of the unaccountable, impersonal leviathan that had been the goal of every bad-guy political dreamer in world history. We can see this in operation during the financial meltdown. The people making the decisions and conducting policy were not elected by anyone. They report to no one. They are the Secretary of the Treasury and the head of the Fed, and each represents certain private-sector interests among the financial elite. They conduct their policies based on their private assessment of what is good for those they represent, and they do it in cooperation with the permanently entrenched bureaucracy and financial managers who rule the country.
- Highlight Loc. 21-25 | Added on Wednesday, March 07, 2012, 09:58 AM
Today, the state embodies all the worst features of the unaccountable, impersonal leviathan that had been the goal of every bad-guy political dreamer in world history. We can see this in operation during the financial meltdown. The people making the decisions and conducting policy were not elected by anyone. They report to no one. They are the Secretary of the Treasury and the head of the Fed, and each represents certain private-sector interests among the financial elite. They conduct their policies based on their private assessment of what is good for those they represent, and they do it in cooperation with the permanently entrenched bureaucracy and financial managers who rule the country.
If he dies, nothing changes.
Learning About the State (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 12-15 | Added on Wednesday, March 07, 2012, 09:57 AM
the personal state is long gone from history in the developed world. In the 17th century, we begin to see the emergence of the impersonal state. Under this approach, the ruler does not use his own resources. He is a manager. If he dies, nothing changes. The state itself takes on a permanent form. It is not elected. It is hired and lives on regardless of the changes at the top.
- Highlight Loc. 12-15 | Added on Wednesday, March 07, 2012, 09:57 AM
the personal state is long gone from history in the developed world. In the 17th century, we begin to see the emergence of the impersonal state. Under this approach, the ruler does not use his own resources. He is a manager. If he dies, nothing changes. The state itself takes on a permanent form. It is not elected. It is hired and lives on regardless of the changes at the top.
Civil society or State ? -- Ancient Greece
Civil society in Ancient Greece
- Highlight Loc. 209-12 | Added on Monday, March 05, 2012, 02:01 PM
Most of the major tasks of policing -- investigation, apprehension, prosecution, and even in some cases enforcement of court decisions -- fell tot he citizens themselves. For private initiative and self-help were the rule. ... Here punitive enforcement is not the result of coercion by a central authority but of autonomous self-regulation on the part of the community. ... For many of the functions that the modern state now entrusts to bureaucracy, police, or judiciary were embedded in a variety of social institutions .... (Hunter (1994), pp. 3-5.)
- Highlight Loc. 209-12 | Added on Monday, March 05, 2012, 02:01 PM
Most of the major tasks of policing -- investigation, apprehension, prosecution, and even in some cases enforcement of court decisions -- fell tot he citizens themselves. For private initiative and self-help were the rule. ... Here punitive enforcement is not the result of coercion by a central authority but of autonomous self-regulation on the part of the community. ... For many of the functions that the modern state now entrusts to bureaucracy, police, or judiciary were embedded in a variety of social institutions .... (Hunter (1994), pp. 3-5.)
o tempo, um interminável agora
Olavo de Carvalho -- Mandala (dennymarquesani.sites.uol.com.br)
- Highlight Loc. 71-73 | Added on Monday, March 05, 2012, 02:06 AM
em todas as mandalas, o centro representa também o tempo, que por toda a parte e sempre só surge sob a forma concreta de um interminável agora (o passado e o futuro são simples conclusões que extraímos precisamente da continuidade da consciência, isto é, da continuidade do presente).
- Highlight Loc. 71-73 | Added on Monday, March 05, 2012, 02:06 AM
em todas as mandalas, o centro representa também o tempo, que por toda a parte e sempre só surge sob a forma concreta de um interminável agora (o passado e o futuro são simples conclusões que extraímos precisamente da continuidade da consciência, isto é, da continuidade do presente).
banking in Ancient Greece
Civil society in Ancient Greece
- Highlight Loc. 134-38 | Added on Monday, March 05, 2012, 01:59 AM
The bankers also expedited commerce ... through credit-enhancement devices that utilized bank deposits in place of coins. ... By guaranteeing payments of funds at far-off locations, the banks ... allowed customers to avoid the dangers and inconvenience inherent in transporting a large amount of coins or bullion. Thus when Stratokles needed funds available at the distant Black Sea, to which he was about to journey, he was able to leave his own money on loan in Athens and carry instead a bank guarantee of payment of principal and interest on 300 Cyzicene staters. (Cohen (1992), pp. 15-16.)
- Highlight Loc. 134-38 | Added on Monday, March 05, 2012, 01:59 AM
The bankers also expedited commerce ... through credit-enhancement devices that utilized bank deposits in place of coins. ... By guaranteeing payments of funds at far-off locations, the banks ... allowed customers to avoid the dangers and inconvenience inherent in transporting a large amount of coins or bullion. Thus when Stratokles needed funds available at the distant Black Sea, to which he was about to journey, he was able to leave his own money on loan in Athens and carry instead a bank guarantee of payment of principal and interest on 300 Cyzicene staters. (Cohen (1992), pp. 15-16.)
qualquer estatismo deve ser pelo governo mundial.
IMB - A produção privada de serviços de segurança (mises.org.br)
- Highlight Loc. 32-41 | Added on Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 05:37 PM
Além disso, os estatistas de Thomas Hobbes a James Buchanan sustentam que um estado protetor S surgiria como o resultado de algum tipo de contrato "constitucional."[1] No entanto, quem em seu juízo perfeito assinaria um contrato que permitisse a um protetor determinar unilateralmente — e inapelavelmente — a quantia que os protegidos têm de pagar por sua proteção; e o fato é que ninguém jamais assinou![2] Permitam-me interromper minha discussão aqui e retornar à reconstrução do mito hobbesiano. Ao se supor que, a fim de instituir uma cooperação pacífica entre A e B, é necessário haver um estado S, segue-se uma conclusão de duas partes. Se houver mais de um estado, S1, S2, S3, então, assim como presumivelmente não pode haver paz entre A e B sem S, não poderá haver paz entre os estados S1, S2 e S3 enquanto eles permanecerem em um estado de natureza (isto é, em um estado de anarquia) um em relação ao outro. Consequentemente, para alcançar-se a paz universal, a centralização política, a unificação e, por fim, o estabelecimento de um único governo mundial são necessários.
- Highlight Loc. 32-41 | Added on Tuesday, February 28, 2012, 05:37 PM
Além disso, os estatistas de Thomas Hobbes a James Buchanan sustentam que um estado protetor S surgiria como o resultado de algum tipo de contrato "constitucional."[1] No entanto, quem em seu juízo perfeito assinaria um contrato que permitisse a um protetor determinar unilateralmente — e inapelavelmente — a quantia que os protegidos têm de pagar por sua proteção; e o fato é que ninguém jamais assinou![2] Permitam-me interromper minha discussão aqui e retornar à reconstrução do mito hobbesiano. Ao se supor que, a fim de instituir uma cooperação pacífica entre A e B, é necessário haver um estado S, segue-se uma conclusão de duas partes. Se houver mais de um estado, S1, S2, S3, então, assim como presumivelmente não pode haver paz entre A e B sem S, não poderá haver paz entre os estados S1, S2 e S3 enquanto eles permanecerem em um estado de natureza (isto é, em um estado de anarquia) um em relação ao outro. Consequentemente, para alcançar-se a paz universal, a centralização política, a unificação e, por fim, o estabelecimento de um único governo mundial são necessários.
Some insights from my visit to the ECB
Some insights from my visit to the ECB (blog.mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 30-40 | Added on Sunday, February 12, 2012, 10:31 PM
4. There is a whole area of research related to the following information that I too have previously learned the importance of: the transmission channel of money flow into consumer prices (i.e., bank loans) is a completely different transmission channel of money flow into asset prices. For asset prices, money flow is originated in the interbank market (money market) with the large banks and hits the hedge funds/brokerage houses/institutional investors in the form of “non-monetary bank liabilities such as money market papers, certificates of deposit, commercial papers, structured notes, or bonds, which [are bank credit but] not recognized as the common medium of exchange.” As part of this, there is a large debate about which side of bank balance sheets are responsible for rising prices: the asset or liability side. This is known as the money view vs. the credit view. The money view is the liabilities view that argues that the creation of money in the form of bank deposits pushes prices higher. The credit view is the asset view (or loanable funds theory) that argues that the creation of credit in the form of bank loans is responsible for rising prices. They noted that credit has grown much more rapidly than money over the last 25 years. This explains why both GDP growth and consumer prices have had low growth rates while asset prices of boomed (asset inflation has been high). It also explains why performance of the financial market is unrelated to the performance of the real economy (money can flow into asset prices without flowing very much into consumer prices, causing GDP to stay low).
- Highlight Loc. 30-40 | Added on Sunday, February 12, 2012, 10:31 PM
4. There is a whole area of research related to the following information that I too have previously learned the importance of: the transmission channel of money flow into consumer prices (i.e., bank loans) is a completely different transmission channel of money flow into asset prices. For asset prices, money flow is originated in the interbank market (money market) with the large banks and hits the hedge funds/brokerage houses/institutional investors in the form of “non-monetary bank liabilities such as money market papers, certificates of deposit, commercial papers, structured notes, or bonds, which [are bank credit but] not recognized as the common medium of exchange.” As part of this, there is a large debate about which side of bank balance sheets are responsible for rising prices: the asset or liability side. This is known as the money view vs. the credit view. The money view is the liabilities view that argues that the creation of money in the form of bank deposits pushes prices higher. The credit view is the asset view (or loanable funds theory) that argues that the creation of credit in the form of bank loans is responsible for rising prices. They noted that credit has grown much more rapidly than money over the last 25 years. This explains why both GDP growth and consumer prices have had low growth rates while asset prices of boomed (asset inflation has been high). It also explains why performance of the financial market is unrelated to the performance of the real economy (money can flow into asset prices without flowing very much into consumer prices, causing GDP to stay low).
If the queen is taken away, a hundred thousand bees die, just as a headless body dies.
The Pagan View (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 33-36 | Added on Sunday, February 12, 2012, 04:28 AM
Some insects actually do seem to be controlled by an authority outside themselves. The honeybee, for example, appears to be wholly lacking in self-faith and individual initiative. A will-of-the-swarm seems to control it. The bee's life is exhausted in selfless, changeless toil for the common good. The swarm itself seems to be the living creature. If the queen is taken away, a hundred thousand bees die, just as a headless body dies.
- Highlight Loc. 33-36 | Added on Sunday, February 12, 2012, 04:28 AM
Some insects actually do seem to be controlled by an authority outside themselves. The honeybee, for example, appears to be wholly lacking in self-faith and individual initiative. A will-of-the-swarm seems to control it. The bee's life is exhausted in selfless, changeless toil for the common good. The swarm itself seems to be the living creature. If the queen is taken away, a hundred thousand bees die, just as a headless body dies.
caramba, controle de preços
Postwar Rent Controls (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 40-42 | Added on Thursday, February 09, 2012, 12:11 AM
Professor Frank Knight commented[3] on the phenomenon: "If educated people can't or won't see that fixing a price below the market level inevitably creates a 'shortage' … it is hard to believe in the usefulness of telling them anything whatever
- Highlight Loc. 40-42 | Added on Thursday, February 09, 2012, 12:11 AM
Professor Frank Knight commented[3] on the phenomenon: "If educated people can't or won't see that fixing a price below the market level inevitably creates a 'shortage' … it is hard to believe in the usefulness of telling them anything whatever
escolhas
Free Market Education vs. the NWO (lewrockwell.com)
- Highlight Loc. 91-97 | Added on Wednesday, February 08, 2012, 04:20 PM
Central bankers have a choice: inflate or die. Commercial bankers have a choice: lend or increase excess reserves. Politicians have a choice: kick the can or lose the next election. Bureaucrats have a choice: thwart public opinion or retire. European voters have a choice: Europhile Party A or Europhile Party B. American voters have a choice: Council on Foreign Relations Team A or Council on Foreign Relations Team B.
- Highlight Loc. 91-97 | Added on Wednesday, February 08, 2012, 04:20 PM
Central bankers have a choice: inflate or die. Commercial bankers have a choice: lend or increase excess reserves. Politicians have a choice: kick the can or lose the next election. Bureaucrats have a choice: thwart public opinion or retire. European voters have a choice: Europhile Party A or Europhile Party B. American voters have a choice: Council on Foreign Relations Team A or Council on Foreign Relations Team B.
3 stages of inflation
Currency Wars (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 89-91 | Added on Wednesday, February 08, 2012, 11:36 AM
In Mises's stage one, government prints all the money it can, because prices don't rise nearly as much as money supply. In stage two, the demand for money falls, which intensifies price inflation. Finally, in stage three, prices go up faster than money supply. A shortage of money develops, and people urge government to print more; when the government does this, prices and money supply spiral upwards.
- Highlight Loc. 89-91 | Added on Wednesday, February 08, 2012, 11:36 AM
In Mises's stage one, government prints all the money it can, because prices don't rise nearly as much as money supply. In stage two, the demand for money falls, which intensifies price inflation. Finally, in stage three, prices go up faster than money supply. A shortage of money develops, and people urge government to print more; when the government does this, prices and money supply spiral upwards.
The Politics of Johann Wolfgang Goethe
The Politics of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 36-47 | Added on Monday, February 06, 2012, 11:22 PM
As a classical liberal, Goethe, wisely and with remarkable prescience, stood largely alone in firm opposition to this transformation of the liberal creed. In his view, democracy was incompatible with liberty. "Legislators and revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the same time," he wrote in his Maximen und Reflexionen, "are either psychopaths or mountebanks." Political centralization, as Goethe explained in his conversation with Eckermann, would lead to the destruction of culture: I do not fear that Germany will not be united; our excellent streets and future railroads will do their own. Germany is united in her patriotism and opposition to external enemies. She is united, because the German Taler and Groschen have the same value throughout the entire Empire, and because my suitcase can pass through all thirty-six states without being opened. It is united, because the municipal travel documents of a resident of Weimar are accepted everywhere on a par with the passports of the citizens of her mighty foreign neighbors. With regard to the German states, there is no longer any talk of domestic and foreign lands. Further, Germany is united in the areas of weights and measures, trade and migration, and a hundred similar things which I neither can nor wish to mention. "One is mistaken, however, if one thinks that Germany's unity should be expressed in the form of one large capital city, and that this great city might benefit the masses in the same way that it might benefit the development of a few outstanding individuals," he added.
- Highlight Loc. 36-47 | Added on Monday, February 06, 2012, 11:22 PM
As a classical liberal, Goethe, wisely and with remarkable prescience, stood largely alone in firm opposition to this transformation of the liberal creed. In his view, democracy was incompatible with liberty. "Legislators and revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the same time," he wrote in his Maximen und Reflexionen, "are either psychopaths or mountebanks." Political centralization, as Goethe explained in his conversation with Eckermann, would lead to the destruction of culture: I do not fear that Germany will not be united; our excellent streets and future railroads will do their own. Germany is united in her patriotism and opposition to external enemies. She is united, because the German Taler and Groschen have the same value throughout the entire Empire, and because my suitcase can pass through all thirty-six states without being opened. It is united, because the municipal travel documents of a resident of Weimar are accepted everywhere on a par with the passports of the citizens of her mighty foreign neighbors. With regard to the German states, there is no longer any talk of domestic and foreign lands. Further, Germany is united in the areas of weights and measures, trade and migration, and a hundred similar things which I neither can nor wish to mention. "One is mistaken, however, if one thinks that Germany's unity should be expressed in the form of one large capital city, and that this great city might benefit the masses in the same way that it might benefit the development of a few outstanding individuals," he added.
a lei de Say é uma descrição básica das coisas
A Rehabilitation of Say’s Law (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 473-77 | Added on Thursday, February 02, 2012, 02:17 PM
manquer).”5 “When the clearance of their products is slow . . . ,” entrepreneurs say that “money is scarce.”6 A merchant will say, “It is not other products that I am demanding in exchange for mine, it is money”7 [Say’s italics]. The answer to him is, “Sales are sluggish (la vente ne va pas), not because money is scarce but because other products are.”
- Highlight Loc. 473-77 | Added on Thursday, February 02, 2012, 02:17 PM
manquer).”5 “When the clearance of their products is slow . . . ,” entrepreneurs say that “money is scarce.”6 A merchant will say, “It is not other products that I am demanding in exchange for mine, it is money”7 [Say’s italics]. The answer to him is, “Sales are sluggish (la vente ne va pas), not because money is scarce but because other products are.”
citação do eminente médico brasileiro Vital Brasil:
Os mais excluídos dos excluídos (olavodecarvalho.org)
- Highlight Loc. 6-9 | Added on Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 11:54 PM
Devo começar por fazer recordar aos franceses aqui presentes uma citação do eminente médico brasileiro Vital Brasil, que, na ocasião de falar pela primeira vez a um público de língua francesa, disse: “Peço que me perdoeis pelos danos que eu venha a fazer à gramática, porque estou falando numa língua que não é a minha e que, como o percebereis em poucos instantes, talvez não seja tampouco a vossa.”
- Highlight Loc. 6-9 | Added on Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 11:54 PM
Devo começar por fazer recordar aos franceses aqui presentes uma citação do eminente médico brasileiro Vital Brasil, que, na ocasião de falar pela primeira vez a um público de língua francesa, disse: “Peço que me perdoeis pelos danos que eu venha a fazer à gramática, porque estou falando numa língua que não é a minha e que, como o percebereis em poucos instantes, talvez não seja tampouco a vossa.”
Olavo de Carvalho -- A Gnose de Princeton (dennymarquesani.sites.uol.com.br)
- Highlight Loc. 89-100 | Added on Monday, January 30, 2012, 11:43 PM
O exame objetivo estabelece um gato objetivo — um mamífero, de quatro patas, dotado de um cérebro assim e assado, de um sistema nervoso assim e assado etc. etc. Esse gato, evidentemente, não é consciência. Mas este é o gato para a ciência, o gato para a consciência objetiva humana, o gato abstrato e genérico, e não este gato específico, único, irredutível a outro gato. O gato genérico é um gato universal e necessário, redutível a certas uniformidades com os outros gatos. Este gato específico e único, ao contrário, resulta de um agrupamento altamente improvável de fatores constituintes; ele é único justamente porque não se reduz a leis, objetivas, e genéricas; neste sentido, é um «eu». Tudo quanto é real e concreto, individual, irredutível, é um «eu», algo que não só emite, mas recebe significados. Todas as coisas reais são assim. As coisas da ciência é que não. Mas a ciência não se ocupa com «as coisas» e sim com «o lado objetivo das coisas» que é precisamente o que elas não são em si mesmas. A ciência não descreve «o mundo», descreve «o avesso do mundo». Nas palavras de Aimé Michel: A dferença que há entre os «seres» desprovidos de um «eu» e os verdadeiros seres é a mesma que há entre 500 mil caracteres tipográficos espalhados sobre uma mesa e os mesmos caracteres sucedendo-se ordenadamente num romance de Tolstoi.
- Highlight Loc. 89-100 | Added on Monday, January 30, 2012, 11:43 PM
O exame objetivo estabelece um gato objetivo — um mamífero, de quatro patas, dotado de um cérebro assim e assado, de um sistema nervoso assim e assado etc. etc. Esse gato, evidentemente, não é consciência. Mas este é o gato para a ciência, o gato para a consciência objetiva humana, o gato abstrato e genérico, e não este gato específico, único, irredutível a outro gato. O gato genérico é um gato universal e necessário, redutível a certas uniformidades com os outros gatos. Este gato específico e único, ao contrário, resulta de um agrupamento altamente improvável de fatores constituintes; ele é único justamente porque não se reduz a leis, objetivas, e genéricas; neste sentido, é um «eu». Tudo quanto é real e concreto, individual, irredutível, é um «eu», algo que não só emite, mas recebe significados. Todas as coisas reais são assim. As coisas da ciência é que não. Mas a ciência não se ocupa com «as coisas» e sim com «o lado objetivo das coisas» que é precisamente o que elas não são em si mesmas. A ciência não descreve «o mundo», descreve «o avesso do mundo». Nas palavras de Aimé Michel: A dferença que há entre os «seres» desprovidos de um «eu» e os verdadeiros seres é a mesma que há entre 500 mil caracteres tipográficos espalhados sobre uma mesa e os mesmos caracteres sucedendo-se ordenadamente num romance de Tolstoi.
acupuntura vs cientismo
Olavo de Carvalho -- Acupuntura – um desafio à medicina ocidental (dennymarquesani.sites.uol.com.br)
- Highlight Loc. 82-88 | Added on Friday, January 27, 2012, 01:09 PM
Os pequisadores empenhados nesse esforço de ocidentalização respondem o seguinte: – A energia a que se referem os chineses só pode ser do mesmo tipo dos estímulos nervosos comuns. De algum jeito os estímulos dados pelas agulhadas abrem caminho através do sistema nervoso e vão atingir os nervos dos órgãos doentes, estimulando-os ou acalmando-os, conforme o caso. Se assim é (e assim tem de ser, porque esse é o único processo que nós conhecemos, e tudo o que não conhecemos não existe), então a teoria da acupuntura está errada. Porque o fato, comprovado em testes e reconhecido pelos próprios acupunturistas, é que a rede dos meridianos não coincide com o curso do sistema nervoso.
- Highlight Loc. 82-88 | Added on Friday, January 27, 2012, 01:09 PM
Os pequisadores empenhados nesse esforço de ocidentalização respondem o seguinte: – A energia a que se referem os chineses só pode ser do mesmo tipo dos estímulos nervosos comuns. De algum jeito os estímulos dados pelas agulhadas abrem caminho através do sistema nervoso e vão atingir os nervos dos órgãos doentes, estimulando-os ou acalmando-os, conforme o caso. Se assim é (e assim tem de ser, porque esse é o único processo que nós conhecemos, e tudo o que não conhecemos não existe), então a teoria da acupuntura está errada. Porque o fato, comprovado em testes e reconhecido pelos próprios acupunturistas, é que a rede dos meridianos não coincide com o curso do sistema nervoso.
astrologia e ciclos na bolsa
A Volta da Astrologia - Imagick - Olavo de Carvalho (imagick.org.br)
- Highlight Loc. 130-34 | Added on Friday, January 27, 2012, 01:12 AM
Mais recentemente o economista norte-americano L. Peter Cogan procurou averiguar em que medida os ciclos de pessimismo e otimismo dos investidores, com reflexos nítidos na bolsa de valores, coincidiam com posições planetárias. Abarcando o período de 1873 a 1966, seu estudo concluiu que tais ciclos respondiam simetricamente às posições do Sol com relação a Saturno e Urano (planetas que, segundo a astrologia, regem o capitalismo). Os ciclos de pessimismo correspondiam às relações de 180 e 90 graus (ângulos "maléficos", segundo a tradição astrológica).
- Highlight Loc. 130-34 | Added on Friday, January 27, 2012, 01:12 AM
Mais recentemente o economista norte-americano L. Peter Cogan procurou averiguar em que medida os ciclos de pessimismo e otimismo dos investidores, com reflexos nítidos na bolsa de valores, coincidiam com posições planetárias. Abarcando o período de 1873 a 1966, seu estudo concluiu que tais ciclos respondiam simetricamente às posições do Sol com relação a Saturno e Urano (planetas que, segundo a astrologia, regem o capitalismo). Os ciclos de pessimismo correspondiam às relações de 180 e 90 graus (ângulos "maléficos", segundo a tradição astrológica).
o principio de causa e efeito, tão importante para o cientista materialista, é, para os astrólogos, um principio menor e secundário
A Volta da Astrologia - Imagick - Olavo de Carvalho (imagick.org.br)
- Highlight Loc. 96-99 | Added on Friday, January 27, 2012, 01:09 AM
nenhum astrólogo jamais disse que os astros causam as ações humanas, pela simples razão de que o principio de causa e efeito, tão importante para o cientista materialista, é, para os astrólogos, um principio menor e secundário. O princípio maior é a lei de analogia, mediante a qual o grande e o pequeno, o macrocosmo e o microcosmo, a matéria e a consciência, têm uma estrutura e uma dinâmica semelhante, já que são apenas faces diversas do mesmo fenômeno.
- Highlight Loc. 96-99 | Added on Friday, January 27, 2012, 01:09 AM
nenhum astrólogo jamais disse que os astros causam as ações humanas, pela simples razão de que o principio de causa e efeito, tão importante para o cientista materialista, é, para os astrólogos, um principio menor e secundário. O princípio maior é a lei de analogia, mediante a qual o grande e o pequeno, o macrocosmo e o microcosmo, a matéria e a consciência, têm uma estrutura e uma dinâmica semelhante, já que são apenas faces diversas do mesmo fenômeno.
MONEY
A Rehabilitation of Say’s Law (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 350-55 | Added on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 02:11 PM
Money. All assets the value of which arises, or is enhanced, because they are demanded and held wholly or partially for the monetary services they render, i.e., for the express purpose of exchange for non-money goods or services in the future. This definition covers currency in circulation, demand deposits, and (here my usage differs from what is conventional*) the pure money equivalent of “near-money” or “money substitutes”—“hybrid” assets which are partly non-money but which provide monetary services and are therefore partly money also (“hybrid assets”).* *
- Highlight Loc. 350-55 | Added on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 02:11 PM
Money. All assets the value of which arises, or is enhanced, because they are demanded and held wholly or partially for the monetary services they render, i.e., for the express purpose of exchange for non-money goods or services in the future. This definition covers currency in circulation, demand deposits, and (here my usage differs from what is conventional*) the pure money equivalent of “near-money” or “money substitutes”—“hybrid” assets which are partly non-money but which provide monetary services and are therefore partly money also (“hybrid assets”).* *
INVESTMENT: not a magnitude
A Rehabilitation of Say’s Law (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 347-50 | Added on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 02:11 PM
Investment. The entrepreneurial process of choosing the prospectively most profitable forms in which services are embodied into assets for replacement or accumulation, “human capital” (the composition of the stock of muscles and skills) included. That is, in this essay, “investment” is not conceived of as a magnitude. The relevant magnitudes are (i) “savings,” or “net accumulation,” and (ii) “dissavings” or “decumulation”.
- Highlight Loc. 347-50 | Added on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 02:11 PM
Investment. The entrepreneurial process of choosing the prospectively most profitable forms in which services are embodied into assets for replacement or accumulation, “human capital” (the composition of the stock of muscles and skills) included. That is, in this essay, “investment” is not conceived of as a magnitude. The relevant magnitudes are (i) “savings,” or “net accumulation,” and (ii) “dissavings” or “decumulation”.
PGP for life
Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities (groups.csail.mit.edu)
- Highlight Loc. 256-58 | Added on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 08:46 AM
The political opposition in Myan Mar--formerly Burma--is using Pretty Good Privacy running on DOS laptops in the jungles for communications amongst the rebels, according to Phil Zimmermann, author of PGP. This life-and-death usage underscores the role of crypto.
- Highlight Loc. 256-58 | Added on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 08:46 AM
The political opposition in Myan Mar--formerly Burma--is using Pretty Good Privacy running on DOS laptops in the jungles for communications amongst the rebels, according to Phil Zimmermann, author of PGP. This life-and-death usage underscores the role of crypto.
the crucial nexus between potential sellers and potential buyers
A Rehabilitation of Say’s Law (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 169-74 | Added on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 12:40 AM
What Say was really showing was that the crucial nexus between potential sellers and potential buyers (potential suppliers and potential demanders) which, when constrained, causes a slowing down of productive activity, is never constrained through the use of money or through monetary policy but through defects in pricing. Under the conditions of his day, no grounds existed for Say to add what it would have been appropriate to have added in the present era, namely, “even although deflation may magnify the consequences of defects in the pricing process and unanticipated inflation minimize those consequences” [my phrasing].
- Highlight Loc. 169-74 | Added on Thursday, January 26, 2012, 12:40 AM
What Say was really showing was that the crucial nexus between potential sellers and potential buyers (potential suppliers and potential demanders) which, when constrained, causes a slowing down of productive activity, is never constrained through the use of money or through monetary policy but through defects in pricing. Under the conditions of his day, no grounds existed for Say to add what it would have been appropriate to have added in the present era, namely, “even although deflation may magnify the consequences of defects in the pricing process and unanticipated inflation minimize those consequences” [my phrasing].
This statement holds without qualification in the absence of saving or dissaving
A Rehabilitation of Say’s Law (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 239-42 | Added on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 08:31 PM
*This statement holds without qualification in the absence of saving or dissaving. When saving is occurring, assets are being demanded through the offer of services (capital by the offer of income). When dissaving is occurring, services for consumption are being demanded through the offer of assets, or assets are themselves being consumed.
- Highlight Loc. 239-42 | Added on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 08:31 PM
*This statement holds without qualification in the absence of saving or dissaving. When saving is occurring, assets are being demanded through the offer of services (capital by the offer of income). When dissaving is occurring, services for consumption are being demanded through the offer of assets, or assets are themselves being consumed.
Say’s law of markets
A Rehabilitation of Say’s Law (W. H. Hutt)
- Highlight Loc. 108-15 | Added on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 04:41 AM
“Say’s law of markets” survives as the most fundamental “economic law” in all economic theory. It enunciates the principle that “demands in general” are “supplies in general”—different aspects of one phenomenon. Today’s textbooks usually express Say’s law most carelessly, using a description of the law which, I think, Keynes was the first to use. It asserts, they tell their readers (without mentioning Keynes) that “supply creates its own demand”.* But the supply of plums does not create the demand for plums. And the word “creates” is injudicious. What the law really asserts is that the supply of plums constitutes demand for whatever the supplier is destined to acquire in exchange for the plums under barter, or with the money proceeds in a money economy. (The supplier may of course hold on to the money, i.e., demand it instead of other non-money).
- Highlight Loc. 108-15 | Added on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 04:41 AM
“Say’s law of markets” survives as the most fundamental “economic law” in all economic theory. It enunciates the principle that “demands in general” are “supplies in general”—different aspects of one phenomenon. Today’s textbooks usually express Say’s law most carelessly, using a description of the law which, I think, Keynes was the first to use. It asserts, they tell their readers (without mentioning Keynes) that “supply creates its own demand”.* But the supply of plums does not create the demand for plums. And the word “creates” is injudicious. What the law really asserts is that the supply of plums constitutes demand for whatever the supplier is destined to acquire in exchange for the plums under barter, or with the money proceeds in a money economy. (The supplier may of course hold on to the money, i.e., demand it instead of other non-money).
HTML has always been a conversation between browser makers, authors, standards wonks, and other people who just showed up and liked to talk about
HOW DID WE GET HERE? - DIVE INTO HTML5 (mislav.uniqpath.com)
- Highlight Loc. 173-77 | Added on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 12:08 AM
HTML has always been a conversation between browser makers, authors, standards wonks, and other people who just showed up and liked to talk about angle brackets. Most of the successful versions of HTML have been “retro-specs,” catching up to the world while simultaneously trying to nudge it in the right direction. Anyone who tells you that HTML should be kept “pure” (presumably by ignoring browser makers, or ignoring authors, or both) is simply misinformed. HTML has never been pure, and all attempts to purify it have been spectacular failures, matched only by the attempts to replace it.
- Highlight Loc. 173-77 | Added on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 12:08 AM
HTML has always been a conversation between browser makers, authors, standards wonks, and other people who just showed up and liked to talk about angle brackets. Most of the successful versions of HTML have been “retro-specs,” catching up to the world while simultaneously trying to nudge it in the right direction. Anyone who tells you that HTML should be kept “pure” (presumably by ignoring browser makers, or ignoring authors, or both) is simply misinformed. HTML has never been pure, and all attempts to purify it have been spectacular failures, matched only by the attempts to replace it.
Online Library of Liberty - Reader's Forum on Norman Barry's "The Tradition of Spontaneous Order" (oll.libertyfund.org)
- Highlight Loc. 24-29 | Added on Sunday, January 22, 2012, 06:31 PM
Individuals do not act so as to maximize utilities described in independently existing functions. They confront genuine choices, and the sequence of decisions taken may be conceptualized, ex post (after the choices), in terms of "as if" functions that are maximized. But these "as if" functions are, themselves, generated in the choosing process, not separately from such process. If viewed in this perspective, there is no means by which even the most idealized omniscient designer could duplicate the results of voluntary interchange. The potential participants do not know until tey enter the process what their own choices will be. From this it follows that it is logically impossible for an omniscient designer to know, unless, of course, we are to preclude individual freedom of will.
- Highlight Loc. 24-29 | Added on Sunday, January 22, 2012, 06:31 PM
Individuals do not act so as to maximize utilities described in independently existing functions. They confront genuine choices, and the sequence of decisions taken may be conceptualized, ex post (after the choices), in terms of "as if" functions that are maximized. But these "as if" functions are, themselves, generated in the choosing process, not separately from such process. If viewed in this perspective, there is no means by which even the most idealized omniscient designer could duplicate the results of voluntary interchange. The potential participants do not know until tey enter the process what their own choices will be. From this it follows that it is logically impossible for an omniscient designer to know, unless, of course, we are to preclude individual freedom of will.
The "order" is, itself, defined as the outcome of the process that generates it.
Online Library of Liberty - Reader's Forum on Norman Barry's "The Tradition of Spontaneous Order" (oll.libertyfund.org)
- Highlight Loc. 14-17 | Added on Sunday, January 22, 2012, 06:30 PM
I want to argue that the "order" of the market emerges only from the process of voluntary exchange among the participating individuals. The "order" is, itself, defined as the outcome of the process that generates it. The "it," the allocation-distribution result, does not, and cannot, exist independently of the trading process. Absent this process, there is and can be no "order."
- Highlight Loc. 14-17 | Added on Sunday, January 22, 2012, 06:30 PM
I want to argue that the "order" of the market emerges only from the process of voluntary exchange among the participating individuals. The "order" is, itself, defined as the outcome of the process that generates it. The "it," the allocation-distribution result, does not, and cannot, exist independently of the trading process. Absent this process, there is and can be no "order."
antropologia
O problema da verdade e a verdade do problema (olavodecarvalho.org)
- Highlight Loc. 307-25 | Added on Sunday, January 22, 2012, 12:21 PM
"Na sua maneira de compreender o pensamento antigo, a maior parte das pessoas ainda está hoje sob o domínio do historicismo. Ou seja, hoje compreendemos muitíssimo bem as idéias de Aristóteles ou de Platão, em função de seu momento e lugar de origem. Mas ainda não realizamos a operação desistoricista, que nos levaria a compreendê-los em função daquilo que eles têm a dizer, não para os gregos, mas para todos os homens, inclusive nós. Conseguimos julgar as suas idéias em função do ponto onde viemos parar, mas ainda não fizemos a operação contrária que é a de julgar a nós mesmos em função de Platão e Aristóteles, ou da antiguidade em geral. Fazemos do nosso tempo o juiz da Antiguidade e jamais convocamos a Antiguidade a depor sobre o nosso tempo. Julgamos, como dizia Karl Kraus, para não sermos julgados. Para corrigir isso, devemos desligar-nos da perspectiva unilateramente temporal e evolutiva, e, invertendo o historicismo, julgar o presente com os critérios do passado. "Esta operação de vai-e-volta foi realizada, por exemplo, em outro sentido - não temporal, mas espacial -, na ciência da antropologia. A antropologia começa a surgir no século passado com os viajantes, sobretudo ingleses. Inglês tem esta mania de viajar e se instalar em todos os lugares exóticos do mundo; e eles vão desenvolvendo a antropologia na medida em que mandam para a Sociedade Científica de Londres informações sobre os hábitos, costumes, valores de todas as sociedades do mundo. Graças a este imenso acúmulo de informações sobre as outras sociedades foi possível de surgir no campo da antropologia o relativismo antropológico. Isto significa que não devemos olhar as outras culturas somente com os olhos da nossa, mas tentar fazer o contrário: olhar-nos também com os olhos da outra cultura. Se o antropólogo inglês está entre os pigmeus da Nova Guiné, não interessa só o que o inglês pensa sobre eles, mas o que eles pensam do inglês. Isto se chamou relativismo antropológico. Também não deve ser absolutizado, transformado num dogma da equivalência de todos os valores, mas é um método útil, porque ajuda a compreender os outros povos nos seus próprios termos.
- Highlight Loc. 307-25 | Added on Sunday, January 22, 2012, 12:21 PM
"Na sua maneira de compreender o pensamento antigo, a maior parte das pessoas ainda está hoje sob o domínio do historicismo. Ou seja, hoje compreendemos muitíssimo bem as idéias de Aristóteles ou de Platão, em função de seu momento e lugar de origem. Mas ainda não realizamos a operação desistoricista, que nos levaria a compreendê-los em função daquilo que eles têm a dizer, não para os gregos, mas para todos os homens, inclusive nós. Conseguimos julgar as suas idéias em função do ponto onde viemos parar, mas ainda não fizemos a operação contrária que é a de julgar a nós mesmos em função de Platão e Aristóteles, ou da antiguidade em geral. Fazemos do nosso tempo o juiz da Antiguidade e jamais convocamos a Antiguidade a depor sobre o nosso tempo. Julgamos, como dizia Karl Kraus, para não sermos julgados. Para corrigir isso, devemos desligar-nos da perspectiva unilateramente temporal e evolutiva, e, invertendo o historicismo, julgar o presente com os critérios do passado. "Esta operação de vai-e-volta foi realizada, por exemplo, em outro sentido - não temporal, mas espacial -, na ciência da antropologia. A antropologia começa a surgir no século passado com os viajantes, sobretudo ingleses. Inglês tem esta mania de viajar e se instalar em todos os lugares exóticos do mundo; e eles vão desenvolvendo a antropologia na medida em que mandam para a Sociedade Científica de Londres informações sobre os hábitos, costumes, valores de todas as sociedades do mundo. Graças a este imenso acúmulo de informações sobre as outras sociedades foi possível de surgir no campo da antropologia o relativismo antropológico. Isto significa que não devemos olhar as outras culturas somente com os olhos da nossa, mas tentar fazer o contrário: olhar-nos também com os olhos da outra cultura. Se o antropólogo inglês está entre os pigmeus da Nova Guiné, não interessa só o que o inglês pensa sobre eles, mas o que eles pensam do inglês. Isto se chamou relativismo antropológico. Também não deve ser absolutizado, transformado num dogma da equivalência de todos os valores, mas é um método útil, porque ajuda a compreender os outros povos nos seus próprios termos.
How PGP works (pgpi.org)
- Highlight Loc. 21-24 | Added on Saturday, January 21, 2012, 01:22 AM
Cryptographic strength is measured in the time and resources it would require to recover the plaintext. The result of strong cryptography is ciphertext that is very difficult to decipher without possession of the appropriate decoding tool. How difficult? Given all of today's computing power and available time — even a billion computers doing a billion checks a second — it is not possible to decipher the result of strong cryptography before the end of the universe.
- Highlight Loc. 21-24 | Added on Saturday, January 21, 2012, 01:22 AM
Cryptographic strength is measured in the time and resources it would require to recover the plaintext. The result of strong cryptography is ciphertext that is very difficult to decipher without possession of the appropriate decoding tool. How difficult? Given all of today's computing power and available time — even a billion computers doing a billion checks a second — it is not possible to decipher the result of strong cryptography before the end of the universe.
"Por que existe o ser e não antes o nada?"
Para uma antropologia filosófica (olavodecarvalho.org)
- Highlight Loc. 23-26 | Added on Friday, January 20, 2012, 02:24 AM
"Por que existe o ser e não antes o nada?": assim formulava Schelling a interrogação suprema. Podemos tentar respondê-la pela concepção de um absoluto metafísico, de uma divindade ordenadora ou de uma fantástica auto-regulação de coincidências. Podemos até expulsá-la da discussão pública, deixando-a à mercê do arbítrio privado, com a abjeta covardia intelectual do agnosticismo moderno.
- Highlight Loc. 23-26 | Added on Friday, January 20, 2012, 02:24 AM
"Por que existe o ser e não antes o nada?": assim formulava Schelling a interrogação suprema. Podemos tentar respondê-la pela concepção de um absoluto metafísico, de uma divindade ordenadora ou de uma fantástica auto-regulação de coincidências. Podemos até expulsá-la da discussão pública, deixando-a à mercê do arbítrio privado, com a abjeta covardia intelectual do agnosticismo moderno.
“The ultimate result of protecting fools from their folly is to fill the planet full of fools.”
Persuasion versus Force Essay by Mark Skousen (mskousen.com)
- Highlight Loc. 104-7 | Added on Friday, January 20, 2012, 02:06 AM
In this context, let us answer the all- important question, “Liberty and morality: can we have both?” The answer is, absolutely yes! Not only can we have both, but we must have both, or eventually we will have neither. As Sir James Russell Lowell said, “The ultimate result of protecting fools from their folly is to fill the planet full of fools.”
- Highlight Loc. 104-7 | Added on Friday, January 20, 2012, 02:06 AM
In this context, let us answer the all- important question, “Liberty and morality: can we have both?” The answer is, absolutely yes! Not only can we have both, but we must have both, or eventually we will have neither. As Sir James Russell Lowell said, “The ultimate result of protecting fools from their folly is to fill the planet full of fools.”
The creation of the world — said Plato — is the victory of persuasion over force
Persuasion versus Force Essay by Mark Skousen (mskousen.com)
- Highlight Loc. 12-19 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:39 PM
Here’s what it says: “The creation of the world — said Plato — is the victory of persuasion over force… Civilization is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals… “Now the intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force.”
- Highlight Loc. 12-19 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:39 PM
Here’s what it says: “The creation of the world — said Plato — is the victory of persuasion over force… Civilization is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals… “Now the intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force.”
Taxation is the price we pay for civilization?
Persuasion versus Force Essay by Mark Skousen (mskousen.com)
- Highlight Loc. 31-35 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:40 PM
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.” But isn’t the opposite really the case? Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.
- Highlight Loc. 31-35 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:40 PM
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Taxation is the price we pay for civilization.” But isn’t the opposite really the case? Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.
A coincidência de sujeito e objeto é uma posição privilegiada
A consciência da consciência (olavodecarvalho.org)
- Highlight Loc. 18-20 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:29 PM
A coincidência de sujeito e objeto é, ao contrário, uma posição privilegiada que deve ser assumida desde o início como premissa e norma orientadora em todo o campo das ciências humanas. A técnica para o estudo de um objeto assim definido, aliás, já existe há milênios e é um dos mais aprimorados instrumentos cognitivos ao alcance do ser humano. Ela chama-se "meditação"
- Highlight Loc. 18-20 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:29 PM
A coincidência de sujeito e objeto é, ao contrário, uma posição privilegiada que deve ser assumida desde o início como premissa e norma orientadora em todo o campo das ciências humanas. A técnica para o estudo de um objeto assim definido, aliás, já existe há milênios e é um dos mais aprimorados instrumentos cognitivos ao alcance do ser humano. Ela chama-se "meditação"
A consciência da consciência (olavodecarvalho.org)
- Highlight Loc. 7-8 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:29 PM
O fato de que nas ciências ditas humanas o sujeito e o objeto do conhecimento sejam o mesmo foi muitas vezes lamentado como causa de distorções subjetivistas incompatíveis com as pretensões do rigor científico.
- Highlight Loc. 7-8 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 11:29 PM
O fato de que nas ciências ditas humanas o sujeito e o objeto do conhecimento sejam o mesmo foi muitas vezes lamentado como causa de distorções subjetivistas incompatíveis com as pretensões do rigor científico.
Despite the lack of centralized control, the Internet exhibits a remarkable degree of order.
The Wild West Meets Cyberspace (thefreemanonline.org)
- Highlight Loc. 47-50 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 06:27 PM
Despite the lack of centralized control, the Internet exhibits a remarkable degree of order. Without government coercion, millions of users have managed to adopt standardized protocols enabling the network to function, Social norms have arisen in a wide range of contexts, norms that are enforced by communities of users rather than a centralized police force.
- Highlight Loc. 47-50 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 06:27 PM
Despite the lack of centralized control, the Internet exhibits a remarkable degree of order. Without government coercion, millions of users have managed to adopt standardized protocols enabling the network to function, Social norms have arisen in a wide range of contexts, norms that are enforced by communities of users rather than a centralized police force.
“an embarrassing excrescence” that detracts from the Austrians’ other ideas
Marginal revolutionaries (economist.com)
- Highlight Loc. 140-44 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 03:07 PM
According to Leland Yeager, a fellow-traveller of the Austrian school who once held the Mises chair at Auburn, it is “an embarrassing excrescence” that detracts from the Austrians’ other ideas. While it provides insights into booms and their ending, it fails to explain why things must end quite so badly, or how to escape when they do. Low interest rates no doubt helped to inflate America’s housing bubble. But this malinvestment cannot explain why 21.8m Americans remain unemployed or underemployed five years after the housing boom peaked.
- Highlight Loc. 140-44 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 03:07 PM
According to Leland Yeager, a fellow-traveller of the Austrian school who once held the Mises chair at Auburn, it is “an embarrassing excrescence” that detracts from the Austrians’ other ideas. While it provides insights into booms and their ending, it fails to explain why things must end quite so badly, or how to escape when they do. Low interest rates no doubt helped to inflate America’s housing bubble. But this malinvestment cannot explain why 21.8m Americans remain unemployed or underemployed five years after the housing boom peaked.
Investment or Malinvestment? (mises.org)
Investment or Malinvestment? (mises.org)
- Highlight Loc. 43-45 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 01:06 AM
There is no way to know if a particular sum of money, machine, building, or worker is put to a valuable, productive use, other than to put them to the test of the free market. Outside the free market, investing capital is like throwing darts blindfolded when you don't even know which direction the dartboard is.
- Highlight Loc. 43-45 | Added on Thursday, January 19, 2012, 01:06 AM
There is no way to know if a particular sum of money, machine, building, or worker is put to a valuable, productive use, other than to put them to the test of the free market. Outside the free market, investing capital is like throwing darts blindfolded when you don't even know which direction the dartboard is.
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