[rob.wells]

Skousen’s A Viennese Waltz Down Wall St (Austrian Economics for Investors) and Spitznagel’s “The Dao of Capital” may be of interest.

Neither of these are textbooks of course.

[rob.wells]

Hi Jeff,

To what extent can the U.S. be said to really be on a gold or silver standard in the 100 years up to WW1. Although gold and silver were used widely in exchange (either as coin or warehouse receipts) I understand that there was widespread fractional reserve banking and at times extensive use of fiat currency not redeemable in gold or silver.

Thanks in advance

[rob.wells]

Yes, I agree with most of what you say. I have read that book and it is an exciting read.

This question of intelligence is interesting as Hoppe argues the question of what is just only arises because we are capable of argumentation and therefore presumes a minimal level of intellectual capacity. In his discussion of this in “The Economics and Ethics of Private Property” (a wonderful book by the way) he argues that this question doesn’t arise with “a stone or fish” because they are incapable of propositional exchanges. However he doesn’t deal with borderline cases and what the implications of those might be, for example a baby or perhaps someone with a severe mental deficiency?

In relation to the Nature vs Nurture debate I can only relate my personal observations for what they are worth and there I have been surprised by how little a person’s temperament seems to change from birth to adulthood. To use an analogy – people are like trains, they might climb mountains but they always stick to their tracks.

Regards,

Rob

[rob.wells]

Thanks Gerard for answering my question.

I must say I was pleased to read that you too are “conflicted” with Hoppe’s AE but that it cannot be summarily dismissed.

For my part I am more concerned that his argument is incomplete rather than invalid and if he hasn’t quite established his strong case:

“Libertarian private property ethic can be justified argumentatively”

then he has established a strong argument that if we make certain basic assumptions that:

“nonlibertarian ethical proposals are falsified by the reality of actually proposing them”.

Thanks again,

Rob

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