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Inspired Comment on the Commentary of The Comment on the Commentary of the Day by Donald J. Boudreaux Chairman, Department of Economics George Mason University [email protected] http://www.cafehayek.com Disclaimer: The following “Letters to the Editor” were sent to the respective publications on the dates indicated. Some were printed but many were not. The original articles that are being commented on may or may not be available on the internet and may require registration or subscription to access if they are. Some of the original articles are syndicated and therefore may have appeared in other publications also. 20 February 2011 "correspondent Louise centralized state – that Mr. Hidalgo in Kazakhstan Ehrlich advises we must Editor, Los Angeles Times says that the most amazing submit to if we are to be thing about the disaster is saved from genuine eco- Dear Editor: that it is no accident. 'The disasters. Soviet planners who fatally Three different readers tapped the rivers, which 19 February 2011 write today in praise of fed the seas to irrigate Paul Ehrlich and his central Asia's vast cotton Friends, predictions of eco- fields, expected it dry up. mageddon (Letters, Feb. They either did not realise I just discovered this hour- 20). Such praise is odd, the consequences the plus long video of a talk on given that not one of the Aral's disappearance would immigration that my brilliant many catastrophes that Mr. bring or they simply did not young colleague Bryan Ehrlich has predicted over care.'" Caplan delivered, here on the past 43 years has [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ GMU's Fairfax campus, occurred. special_report/1998/water_ last September: week/70460.stm] http://vimeo.com/15000835 The drying of the Aral Sea, alas, is not - contrary to How interesting that the Bryan really shines in this reader David McClave's one genuine eco-disaster speech! Enjoy. claim - evidence of Mr. mentioned as confirmation Ehrlich's prescience. of Mr. Ehrlich's wisdom 19 February 2011 Here's what the BBC was caused by the same reported in 1998: institution – the powerful, Editor, The New York deficit is necessarily a pretentious and dangerous Times symptom of American fraud. Obeying its 620 Eighth Avenue economic decline, a commands is never New York, NY 10018 contributor to this decline, justified by any and evidence of 'unfair' considerations higher than To the Editor: trade practices by foreign simple, practical, personal governments. prudence - the same sort I enjoyed your report on of prudence that persuades how Hyundai's automobile- 19 February 2011 a robbery victim to hand production operations in over her pearl necklace to Alabama provide better Editor, The Wall Street the thug who is pointing a economic opportunities to Journal loaded gun at her head. Alabamians and raise 1211 6th Ave. wages in that state New York, NY 10036 18 February 2011 ("Hyundai's Swift Growth Lifts Alabama's Economy," To the Editor: Editor, Washington Post Feb. 19). Such capital 1150 15th St., NW investments are indeed Peter Meredith writes that Washington, DC 20071 indispensable for "True conservatives honor widespread economic their financial obligations.... Dear Editor: growth. After reading your editorial I find it somewhat Charles Krauthammer It's worth noting that surprising that the Journal refers to the president's Hyundai's investments in chides a part of the proposed budget as these facilities - which president's budget "Obama's Louis XV increase the stock of proposal that aims to better budget" (Feb. 18). productive capital in collect income taxes operation in the U.S. - add required by law. While a From Obamacare to to America's trade deficit. conservative believes that financial-market 'reform' to Rather than Hyundai increasing taxes is often its refusal to cut spending cashing out its dollars by unwise, it is always on so-called "entitlements," purchasing American dishonest to avoid our legal this administration does exports - expenditures duty" (Letters, Feb. 19). indeed reflect an ancient- which would have regime-like attitude toward narrowed America's trade This letter is exquisite ordinary people. As Alexis deficit - this Korean evidence of what de Tocqueville explained in company expanded that distinguishes conservatives The Old Regime and the deficit by instead using from libertarians. French Revolution, those dollars to build Conservatives, at day's France's pre-revolutionary productive facilities and end, bow in homage to the Bourbon governments machines in America. state. Libertarians, in regulated, dictated, contrast, recognize that prohibited, and prescribed This fact should give pause any state that attempts to citizens' private affairs in to the countless politicians do more than protect suffocating detail. "In and pundits who insist that persons and their property short," observed a rising American trade from violent aggression is a Tocqueville, "the central power had taken to playing 18 February 2011 the part of an indefatigable Moreover, Apple has mentor and keeping the Editor, The Wall Street capable competitors (such nation in quasi-paternal Journal as HP, with its TouchPad). tutelage." [Alexis de 1211 6th Ave. So if consumers ARE Tocqueville, The Old New York, NY 10036 harmed by Apple's Regime and the French contractual terms, Apple's Revolution (New York: To the Editor: rivals will offer to content Doubleday, 1955 [1856]), suppliers terms more to Part 2, Chap. 2, p. 41.] You report that U.S. these suppliers' liking, antitrust regulators are causing these suppliers to Is Uncle Sam not more and scrutinizing Apple abandon Apple. And more playing such a ("Regulators Eye Apple Apple's market share will lamentable role in Anew," Feb. 18). One fall while that of its rivals Americans' lives? concern is that, "Under rises. Apple's terms for the new service, companies that 18 February 2011 sell digital subscriptions to content on Apple devices Editor, The Wall Street would be required to make Journal it available for sale through 1211 6th Ave. apps at the company's New York, NY 10036 iTunes App Store at the best available price." To the Editor: If a chief function of You report that "U.S. competition is to ensure antitrust enforcers have that consumers get the begun looking at the terms lowest possible prices, how Apple Inc. set this week for can Apple's policy of media companies who requiring that content want to sell their content on suppliers give Apple its popular iPad" customers the "best ("Regulators Eye Apple available" - i.e., the lowest - Anew," Feb. 18). prices be anticompetitive? Because no content This fact proves one of the supplier is required to sell rules of modern its content on Apple Washington (and devices, suppliers who Brussels): a private firm's choose to do so clearly success in a commercial expect to remain profitable market attracts officious despite their agreeing to bureaucrats as surely as a charge Apple customers chocolate cake at a picnic prices no higher than they attracts voracious ants. charge non-Apple And in both cases, these customers. creatures' ravenous appetites damage the The people who today are objects of their attention. In "So Much for Market hungry and starving are not Efficiency" (Feb. 16), Raj those of us living in 17 February 2011 Patel writes that "Over the globalized, liberal centuries, societies economies; it is, rather, the Friends, developed the tools of poor souls cursed with the grain stores, crop misfortune of living in At this link you'll find the diversification and 'moral countries whose videotape of my GMU economies' to guarantee governments follow the colleague Russ Roberts's the poor access to food in advice of the likes of Mr. testimony yesterday on times of crisis. Global Patel and 'protect' their Capitol Hill regarding economic liberalization citizens from "global recent 'stimulus' spending: discarded these buffers in economic liberalization." http://cafehayek.com/2011/ favor of lean lines of trade" 02/testimony-on-video.html - and, thereby, allegedly 15 February 2011 exacerbates today's food Enjoy! crisis. Editor, The New York Times 16 February 2011 Nonsense. Until three 620 Eighth Avenue hundred years ago the New York, NY 10018 Friends, poor had no "guaranteed" access to food; famine was To the Editor: At this link you will find the frequent and routine full text of my GMU Econ throughout the world. This David Brooks appropriately colleague (and co-blogger) horrible reality was devotes today's column to Russ Roberts's succinct, reversed only by economic my GMU Econ colleague trenchant testimony today liberalism and expanding Tyler Cowen's important on Capitol Hill on the failed trade. As economist new book "The Great "stimulus" spending: Jagdish Bhawati notes, Stagnation" ("The http://cafehayek.com/2011/ "medieval famines in Experience Economy," 02/congressional- Europe were moderated by Feb. 15). Mr. Brooks offers testimony-on-the- the increasing opening of the intriguing hypothesis stimulus.html trade routes and that what accounts for the integration precisely relatively 'stagnant' I believe that you'll - or, that because food moved to measured economic most of you will! - enjoy famine-stricken high-price growth since the mid- Russ's powerful words. areas, dampening prices, 1970s isn't so much the moderating the food absence of remaining "low- scarcity and improving its 16 February 2011 hanging fruit" (as Tyler accessibility to the poor." argues) but, instead, a shift [Jagdish Bhagwati, In Editor, The New York to less materialist values. Defense of Globalization Times (New York: Oxford 620 Eighth Avenue I have a different University Press, 2004), p. New York, NY 10018 hypothesis: what has 100.] stagnated isn't the To the Editor: economy but, rather, economists' and have large, national You report that "Each year statisticians' capacity to businesses who often since 2006, [U.S. furniture measure economic activity submit lower contract makers] have asked the and its contribution to prices to gain the upper- Commerce Department to human well-being.
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