"He's a snake in the grass, I tell ya guys; he may look dumb but that's just a disguise; he's a mastermind in the ways of espionage." Charlie Daniels, "Uneasy Rider" June 2011 - Posts - TT's Lost in Tokyo

June 2011 - Posts

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Things Fall Apart: Guest post on further developments in the Dangerous Corporate "Free Speech" Balderdash by TokyoTom

I have commented extensively on the decision last year by the Scalia majority in the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United . An important point is that it is perfectly clear that (1) the Founders hated corporations and were seeking to protect...
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Perfect for you Fathers: Samuel L. Jackson reads the runaway hit, ‘Go the (Blank) to Sleep!’ by TokyoTom

I tweeted this earlier today, and thought I'd share with all you other fathers out there. @Tokyo_Tom Don’t Miss! Samuel L. Jackson narrates “Go the F**k to Sleep” | Nerve.com http://bit.ly/ko5Un0 #p2 #tpp #tcot #tlot Yeah, it's...
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(I'm irked and encouraged by the) anger and confusion, even among libertarians, over 'Capitalism' by TokyoTom

Yesterday I stumbled across a blog post by Joel S. Hirschhorn, a self-described libertarian who is author of Delusional Democracy , the Chair of the Independent Party of Maryland and co-founder of Friends of the Article V Convention ( www.foavc.org )...
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Despite financial crises, BP's mess in the Gulf and now TEPCO's costly meltdowns in Japan, Matt Ridley doesn't understand the attractiveness of a little 'precaution' by TokyoTom

In the wake of the recent deaths and illnesses in Germany from a dangerous strain of E. coli, thinker and former banker Matt Ridley - who've I discussed before in the context of nuclear crony capitalism - has an article in the June 11 Wall Street...
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Interesting new research shows that THE key to disaster recovery is the strength of the local community ('social capital'), NOT Government action by TokyoTom

Daniel P. Aldrich is an up-and-coming political scientist who got interested in disaster recovery when New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina a few months after he had moved there with his family. He has also spent quite a bit of time living and studying...
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Japan's nuclear power subsidies to rural areas a case study in sick dynamics: how governments eviscerate local economies and addict them to what destroys them by TokyoTom

We can see the same phenomenon in extractive economies wherever governments own the resources, but locals own the risks - as in the Gulf of Mexico/BP (as I noted in a number of posts) accident, Nigeria, Ecuador/Texaco, etc. We can also see this more generally...
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The fundamental socialism of capitalism: Elinor Ostrom echoes Hayek in explaining that rules and institutions are a form of social capital by TokyoTom

I hope you're not wondering just WHO Elinor Ostrom is, but I've blogged quite a bit about her . For those of you who need a reminder, Peter Boettke said the following when this brilliant, hard-working political scientist deservedly won the Nobel...
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Corporations are the Health of the State III: how the State, by "protecting" depositors and shareholders, elevates risks and creates a NeverNever Land where the buck never stops by TokyoTom

Just like deposit insurance means depositors don't bother to pay attention to whether or not bankers engage in risky activities, so too does limited liability mean that shareholders have little incentive to invest in managing risk. While it should...
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Corporations are the Health of the State II: Let's be Good Libertarians now, and defend state-created irresponsibility and lack of moral clarity by TokyoTom

In surfing for a simple post on moral hazard to distribute last week to a leadership seminar that I'm faciliating at a university here (not wanting to hazard my double-secret identity by proffering a post of my own), I stumbled across this little...
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Scrupulosity IV: Corporations are the Health of the State (thanks to institutionalized moral hazard) by TokyoTom

I copy below some more of my dialogue with Stephan Kinsella and others, regarding Jeffrey Tucker 's unhappiness that not all libertarians are cheerleaders for our current model of "capitallism" (see my eariler posts on " scrupulosity...
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Scrupulosity III: More fun at pretending that nothing about the nature of state-created corporations leads to statism by TokyoTom

I copy below a few more of my comments on Jeffrey Tucker 's unhappiness that not all libertarians are cheerleaders for our current model of "capitallism" (see my eariler posts on " scrupulosity "): TokyoTom June 3, 2011 at 8:35...
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The Catholic Church's small problem with institutionalized moral hazard by TokyoTom

Power and a lack of accountability: just where might they lead? See Maureen Dowd's June 4th column, An Archbishop Burns While Rome Fiddles . No, of course this is not at all related to the issue of moral hazard in state-created corporations , particularly...
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Scrupulosity II: A note to Stephan Kinsella on growing statism. limited liability, deposit insurance, and rampant moral hazard (and moral confusion) by TokyoTom

In addition to the comment that I blogged the other day regarding Jeffrey Tucker's June 2 post, Scrupulosity and the Condemnation of Every Existing Business , I posed a question to Jeffrey in response to this further comment by him: But Rothbard was...
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Who wants to trouble with "moral scrupulosity", when we can pretend that the state-created capitalism we're cheering on isn't profoundly corrupt? by TokyoTom

I tried to leave a few thoughts with Jefrey Tucker in response to his June 2 post, Scrupulosity and the Condemnation of Every Existing Business , but it looks like my immoderate use of links has landed me in moderation, again. So, here are my comments...