Roberts and Selgin on Free Banking

This week’s EconTalk with George Selgin is one of the most thought-provoking talks Russell Roberts has ever hosted. They use free banking as an analogy to free trade and discuss differences between the idea of free banking and the current model with central bank and state monopoly to issue money. Selgin eloquently explains potential differences in safety measures for depositors, levels of currency reserves and capital structure of financial institutions in both schemes. Add some public choice perspective mixed with witty humor and what you get is this rare gem of easy to understand and fascinating talk about economics and monetary policy.

Strongly recommended.

Burrrrrn!

I have redirected both the main and the comments feed to Feedburner. This way I will be able to get more detailed statistics on readership and the number of subscribers. For all my exceptional guests everything should look as usual, including addresses of both feeds. Minor changes in the way the feeds look in your readers may show up.

Show Me Your Significant Other…

… and I will tell you who you are. People we spend our lives with tell more about us than we usually think. If somebody knows the kind of individuals that want to be our companions, he will be able to guess the emotional and social needs we are apt to fulfill as friends or family members. In addition to that, the way we are ready to do this will become clear, as two different persons may require completely different ways for satisfying the same desire.

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Nobody Likes Competition

One thing is true for most organizations, political and market entities or particular individuals. They do not like competition and most arguments for restricting it are mere rationalizations used to sell such restrictions as somehow socially advantageous.

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Bailout out of Ethics

More and more governments decide to bailout banks that got into trouble due to recent price changes in American real estate market (the so called “housing bubble burst”). Contrary to most commentators who write about economics I do not want to get into details of the situation. Lots of articles has already been written, more are surely to come and I do not feel like contributing anything really new or valuable to what is already present in the media. I just want to mention briefly the question of business ethics.

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Links Update

I have added the Economic Logic blog to the blogroll.

Swedes Love Paul Krugman

Just for the record, as the economic blogosphere and mainstream media have already been commenting on this for hours: this year’s Nobel laureate in Economics is Paul Krugman, a scientist known mostly for his work on economic geography and foreign trade and also from his left-wing column in New York Times. His sharp public profile stirs a lot of controversy so the timing of the award will be without doubt read by some as a political statement made just before the US presidential election of 2008.

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Taxpayers and BMWs

In theory, politicians are administrators. They are like a company hired by owners of the building (the citizens) to take care about their estate. Their duty is to manage and repair infrastructure, keep streets clean and safe and represent the owners’ best interest abroad. But if they are only a hired administrative body, is it fair that it is for them to decide how much money they will be paid?

Who is Going to Control the Controllers?

It is a common idea that the state should be “in control” of the economy for the good of ordinary people, or consumers (or citizens). The problem with delegation of power, however, is that the institution to which the power to control is to be delegated needs to be controlled too. In this context the following assumption seems to be plausible: if you want to hire organization A to oversee organization B on your behalf, make sure that you have stronger influence over the way A works than over the way B works. Otherwise it does not make sense.

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Socialism and Referenda

From Wikipedia:

Referendum:

A referendum (plural referendums or referenda), ballot question, or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita, originally a decree of the Concilium Plebis) is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. The referendum or plebiscite is a form of direct democracy ideally favoring the majority.

Socialism:

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society.

They seem to be compatible, don’t they?

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