Bleeding Heart Libertarian Jason Brennan succinctly exposes some false presumptions that underlie Pres. Obama’s notion that Uncle Sam has an open-ended claim on the wealth of Americans who succeed in the market. I especially like this passage:
I benefit from the positive externalities created by an extended system of trade. Why think this indebts me to America (or the federal government) rather than almost the entire world?
Here are some of Thomas Sowell’s thoughts on Pres. Obama’s rather expansive and unwarranted collectivist notion. And here are yet other of Sowell’s thoughts on this matter. (HT W.E. Heasley)
And here’s Jonah Goldberg’s analysis of Mr. Obama’s ‘you’re-nuthin’-without-the-state’ argument.
Steve Landsburg isn’t quite as taken with IS-LM analysis as is Paul Krugman.
In this short video, Paul Krugman explains why he believes that inflation isn’t theft perpetrated by government and its monetary authority. You decide how compelling his argument is. (HT Fernando Monterroso)
George Selgin shares his notes for an essay on counterfeiting and currency competition. (Wonkish, but quite worthwhile.)
I’m chagrined to confess that I’ve never read anything by Samuel Smiles. Jim Otteson persuades me to do so. It’d be good if Mr. Obama and Elizabeth Warren would read Smiles, too. (HT Walter Grinder)
