[turnerbt]

Yes! My local library has the audiobook!

[turnerbt]

That’s an interesting episode and one that I’ve never thought to examine through the lens of Austrian economics. I remember the price of games was quite high ($30-$40, maybe even higher) before that, and suddenly became much cheaper as new games from third party developers came on the market. A lot of the new games were terrible and barely playable, but you could buy five to ten of them for what you previously paid for one, and there was the occasional gem in there. The interesting part is that Atari’s branded games fell in price right alongside the third party stuff, not to the same extent, but enough so that we were able to pick up older games we’d wanted for a while at less than a quarter of their former price. It seemed like a strange phenomenon (but not an unwelcome one) at the time, but now it makes more sense. I wonder to what extent advances in console technology played a role. We had the old Atari 2600 and never upgraded to any of the newer and better systems (Intellivision and Coleco). I guess consumer preference for those newer systems forced sellers of Atari games to cut their prices to clear unsold merchandise. But even that wasn’t enough, and unsold cartridges were infamously landfilled.

[turnerbt]

Yes, someone yesterday reminded me of the recommended readings for each lecture, so I’ve decided to start there. I do like the two DiLorenzo books on Lincoln. DiLorenzo also did a lecture series for the Mises Institute that dealt quite a bit with Lincoln and the war. https://mises.org/library/1-lincolns-tariff-war

[turnerbt]

I heard the Tom Woods interview in which Dr. Gutzman registered his opinion on the Radicalism book. I was wondering about the Wood book Empire of Liberty (creepy title, in my opinion). It’s Audible’s Daily Deal today. The unfavorable Amazon reviews pan it as being too pro-Jefferson, which doesn’t strike me as a bad thing. Any thoughts on this book?

[turnerbt]

Thanks. I also found this, which helps to clarify the matter further:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north408.html

I do understand that limited liability enables corporations to undertake risky ventures that they might not ordinarily, but I tend to dwell on the potential to abuse this privilege by engaging in outrageously risky ventures. But when investing, as with other consumer activities, the buyer should beware.

The more I read of Rothbard, the more I lean toward the idea of a world without states. Or at the very least, a world with as many tiny competing governments as possible. I like the idea of a limited government, but they tend not to stay that way. As for politicians, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that true libertarians generally do poorly in politics because they have absolutely no interest in controlling other people. Such an interest seems to be a prerequisite for the job. There are exceptions, of course.

[Author]

Posts