Dash of Calabash

Arnold Kling at TechCentralStation makes no bones about being a Libertarian. While we at GRIH try not to embrace any explicit political philosophy this article by Kling examines the thought processes that many of us have gone through to arrive where we are today.

Kling notes:

 My undergraduate economics professor, the late Bernie Saffran, exposed students to a variety of viewpoints, from Marxist to libertarian. But he revelled in showing us cases where policy intentions conflicted with policy results. The point that self-interest in a market context can lead to good outcomes, while good intentions in government regulation can lead to bad outcomes, was driven home. 

In other words, individual freedom and free markets work better than government regulation and interference.

This is an excellent read.  

I’m just going to link to this because there is too much on the blog to detail. For a long time John was in China and didn’t blog much and in the last week or two he has made up for the previous lack. If you have any interest in China and the way economics is unfolding there (and I know we have a number among our members who are precisely interested in this area) then you aren’t going to want to miss what John has to say. I wish I could go to China, sounds fascinating.

Link. 

If it goes past the end of September you will have to access the archives.

This comes by way of the Heartland Blog “From the Heartland” and refers to the work of that tireless researcher Wendell Cox on his website Demographia. (2nd quoted paragraph below is a link.)

There are few public policy issues more driven my myth than land use and the currently fashionable strategies of “smart growth” or “urban consolidation.”

Virtually all of the arguments made in support of smart growth’s densification and land restriction policies melt away when subjected to the light of scrutiny.  

The facts are “smart growth” (which is stupid growth in truth) simply doesn’t hold up when looked at carefully.