StephanKinsella.com

[From my Webnote series]

On “Unowned” State Property, Legal Positivism, Ownership vs. Possession, Immigration, Public Roads, and the Bum in the Library:

But in the meantime, the state ought to set rules for the use of state owned resources to provide as much in-kind restitution to the citizen-taxpayers as possible. Of course this takes practical considerations into account just as juries have to assign monetary awards to victims of torts in lawsuits even though true value is subjective and true restitution is impossible. As I wrote years ago, [continue reading…]

A few years back I appeared on a podcast, Venture Stories Podcast by Village Global, alongside fellow guest Noah Smith. ¹ Amusingly, one reason I was invited on the podcast was that they confused me with the Irish economic journalist Stephen Kinsella. ² (Also somewhat amusing was they cut my derisive reference to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as “Occasional Cortex.”)

In any case, Smith recently published “I owe the libertarians an apology,” subtitled “It turns out there are worse monsters than the market,” which he discusses on a recent EconTalk episode with Russ Roberts, Two Cheers for Libertarianism and Econ 101 (with Noah Smith).

ChatGPT’s summary and analysis of the discussion and article is below. [continue reading…]

1. KOL261 | Venture Stories Podcast Debating Austrian Economics, Libertarianism, and Bitcoin with Noah Smith; KOL262 | My Comments on the Venture Stories Podcast Episode. [↩]
2. See Stephen Kinsella’s I am Not. [↩]

I was tagged in a recent Facebook Post by Reformed Christian and Libertarian Gregory Baus about his recent video arguing that non-Christian libertarians should become Christians (and in a sense, already are “religious”). His site contains various libertarian resources. ¹

His post: [continue reading…]

1. I gave him some suggestions: Here are some ideas to consider: Property and Freedom Podcast; ⁩Hoppe, Anarcho-Capitalism: An Annotated Bibliography; several key works by Hoppe here; Kinsella, The Greatest Libertarian Books. [↩]

[From my Webnote series]

My view is that rights are metanorms, not morals themselves. I used to think rights are a subset of morals. Now I think that the sets are intersecting, that most rights violations are immoral but not necessarily so as the purpose of rights is to tell us which laws are justified not how to act on a day to day basis. There might be situations where it is moral to violate rights (breaking into a cabin in the woods to save your baby) and where is is immoral to stand on one’s rights (being needlessly cruel to your grandma doens’t violate rights but is immoral). [continue reading…]

From Tom Woods’ latest daily email:

I just interviewed Jack Spirko for the Tom Woods Show about his new book Laws of Life: Ditch the System, Design Your Life. The interview will be released next Thursday.

One thing that came up was Jack’s insistence that we focus most of our energy and attention on things that are within our control. (His view is a bit more nuanced than that, but this is a mere email, dear reader.)

I don’t like that the U.S. government spends as much as it does. But there is nothing I can do about that.

I can make a long list of things I disapprove of that I have no way of changing.

But there are plenty of things I can do, in the here and now, to create a more secure and fulfilling life for my family and me.”

The following is adapted from a note I wrote to Tom in reply. [continue reading…]

[From my Webnote series]

I was having a discussion with a friend about immigration and related matters, sparked by the recent Soho Forum debate between Dave Smith and Alex Nowrasteh.

I’ve argued that Hoppe has a point that in today’s democratic system, immigration, whatever the state policy is, some rights are violated: either those of the would-be host/employer (forced exclusion) or those of citizens (forced integration). [continue reading…]

From the shownotes:

One of my friends on the Left Coast has had his cybertruck defaced twice now by the commies. I mused that it would be funny to rig it up to detect approaching commies by smelling their patchouli and shocking them, but that lawyers might warn that might be risky, and told Grok to write me some lyrics for a song. I then fed them into Suno and told it to make a country song. It’s not bad…. [continue reading…]

A group of us were discussing merits of the various Justices on the US Supreme Court, including Thomas and Alito. One of them wrote, re Supreme Court rebukes Texas judges, backs hearing before deportation for detained Venezuelans:

Thomas and Alito are the worst conservative judges.

“The 5th Amendment entitles aliens to due process of law in the context of removal proceedings. Procedural due process rules are meant to protect” against “the mistaken or unjustified deprivation of life, liberty, or property,” the majority said. “We have long held that no person shall be removed from the United States without opportunity, at some time, to be heard.”

Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas dissented last month, and they did the same on Friday.

The comments of my libertarian lawyer friend, F, with mine interspersed: [continue reading…]

Last week, after a trip to Nice with my wife (facebook), I joined some friends in Istanbul—Hans Hoppe, Saifedean Ammous, Greg Morin, and a few others (facebook) (some additional pix below). Had several interesting conversations, with Hans in particular. Since I sometimes act as his amanuensis—his Boswell to Johnson—¹ I might as well record some of his comments I found interesting. [continue reading…]

1. I enjoyed James Boswell’s, The LIfe of Samuel Johnson (1791), and as a former Objectivist I always recall this savage review of Barbara Branden’s biography of Ayn Rand, Louis Torres, “Boswell’s Johnson—Branden’s Rand: ‘The Passion of Ayn Rand’ in Historical Perspective,” Aristos 3, no. 5 (May 1987): 1–6; see the obituary for Branden in Aristos, Dec. 2013. [↩]

Update: Walter Block on Money as a Sui Generis Good

A few years ago I criticized a paper by William Barnett II & Walter Block, “On the Optimum Quantity of Money.” ¹ See my post Comments on Block and Barnett on the Optimum Quantity of Money; Walter Block on Money as a Sui Generis Good; and the section “The Optimal Supply of Money” in A Tour Through Walter Block’s Oeuvre.

Block argues that Rothbard and Mises are wrong that any supply of money is optimal, since if new gold is mined without violating rights, that consumers demonstrate their preference for this, thus demonstrating that the old supply was not optimal. I sensed something was wrong with this; that somehow Walter was conflating descriptive economics with normative, legal, and rights matters. The fact that rights are not violated in increasing the supply of money does not mean that the previous supply was not optimal. I sensed that this was some kind of hypersubjectivism run amok. [continue reading…]

1. William Barnett II & Walter Block, “On the Optimum Quantity of Money,” Q. J. Austrian Econ. 7, no. 1 (2004): 39–52; see also idem, “The Optimum Quantity of Money, Once Again,” Economics, Management, and Financial Markets 7, no. 1 (March 2012): 9–24 (pdf). [↩]

[From my Webnote series]

[This post needs to be organized, it’s here in raw form for now]

As I said in another post, “I ran this idea by Hans Hoppe last night by Hans Hoppe, with whom I was having dinner in Istanbul, and he immediately saw it the same way. I don’t mind operating without a net, but it’s nice to have one.”

Grok’s summary (not yet reviewed for accuracy): [continue reading…]