--Edward J. Lopez

A few of us DOLers are in Guatemala for the APEE board meeting. Since I can't shoot any roman candles this year, allow me to celebrate with you by pasting these timeless words, never perfunctory.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

--Joshua Hall

Interesting archive here.

Here is historical downtown Auburn (date unknown).

--Edward J. Lopez

The latest study, from researchers at Liverpool John Moores University, included six boys and five girls between the ages of 13 and 15. The children were fitted with a calorie-counting monitoring device while they played games on the Xbox 360 and the Wii. The kids burned up to 66 percent more calories playing the Wii than the Xbox, the researchers found. That translates to about 179 calories burned an hour playing Wii tennis compared to 107 calories on the Xbox. At rest, a child expends about 70 calories.

But the most active game, Wii Tennis, fell far short of the calorie-burning effects of the real game. The researchers estimated kids playing real tennis for an hour would burn about 270 calories.

That's "Wii Video Workouts Don't Beat Real Sports," from the NYT's informative blog, Well. Personally I think Wii boxing is more of a workout than Wii tennis.

--Art Carden

My short piece on Mike's adventures in North Carolina politics (see below) was published on the Independent Institute's blog here.

--Edward J. Lopez

After traveling for more than a week, I came back to the office for the first time this morning, and this is what welcomed me:

Good people here at Liberty Fund. Baby is due August 4th-ish.

--Edward J. Lopez

From The Manolo (the most charming blog for extraneous definite articles and third-person self-references), a fun post, "The Pope Does Not Wear Prada"

The Devil may wear Prada — but the Pope does not, according to the Vatican.

The pontiff has been hailed as a "style icon" since his election just over three years ago and speculation has been rife that he enjoys designer clothes. Attention has focused not only on his often elaborate headgear and fashionable sunglasses but also on his dainty red shoes, or moccasins, widely assumed to be made by Prada.

However L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, categorically denied reports today that the shoes were a Prada product, saying this was "of course false". According to Vatican sources the Pope's shoes are made by a cobbler from Novara called Adriano Stefanelli, who makes them from calf or kid for the winter and nappa leather for the summer.

Full story here.

--Art Carden

I'm giving my talk on the Great Depression and World War II at the IHS "Liberty and Society" seminar in about two hours. In addition to the resources I discuss here, I would also add Murray Rothbard's America's Great Depression to the list (also available at a price of $0.00 from www.mises.org).

--Michael Munger

Dear Friends:

As you know, I have been working to run for Governor of North Carolina, as a Libertarian, for the past two years. Well, we got the 105,000 signatures, and we got on the ballot.

But then things got…weird. I was invited to the final debate, in October, at Queens College in Charlotte. But then that debate got cancelled, and ANOTHER debate, only without the Libertarians in it, got scheduled instead.

The state of NC is really dragging its feet in getting out new forms, so Libertarians can register. The state Board of Elections will barely meet with us, and the county Boards of Elections won't accept checks for filing fees for our candidates. I put up more than $1,000 worth of yard signs, and the state took them all down, because (get this) there is "no election going on at this time"! Ouch. (MORE BELOW THE FOLD....)

Read More »

--Lawrence H. White

I'm quoted in Steve Chapman's column by that title in yesterday's Chicago Tribune.

--Art Carden

I've heard David Beito shows this video in some of his IHS history lectures:

--Art Carden

During an informal discussion of poverty while students were in discussion groups, Hans Rosling's "Gapminder" software came up. Here are Rosling's TED Talks on Gapminder. The first, from February 2006:

And the second, from March 2007:

And finally, here is the link to the Gapminder website.

--Art Carden

My forthcoming paper "Inputs and Institutions as Conservative Elements" and my forthcoming review of Benjamin Powell's edited volume Making Poor Nations Rich are both available online. The abstract for "Inputs and Institutions":

Ludwig von Mises argued that capital goods were “conservative
elements” that constrain future production decisions. Similarly, social capital and
institutions also constrain future production decisions. These insights are applied to the institutional transformation of the post-Reconstruction American South. It is argued that the structure of social capital that developed in the South was
inappropriate to the formal institutions that emerged as a result of the Civil War
and Reconstruction. The tensions between institutions and social capital are
examined in the context of racist lynching.

I also wrote today's Mises.org Daily Article on the role of the Mises Institute in spreading good ideas.

I was also mugged by co-blogger Josh Hall during his IHS lecture on education and externalities. I assure you, this gross injustice will be avenged.

--Art Carden

I'm at the IHS "Liberty and Society" seminar this week. A few notes on the last couple of days:

1. Special collections librarians are awesome. Thanks to the staff at UMass-Amherst for help with the collections on Friday.

2. The pizza at Antonio's in Amherst is truly excellent. For those who lament the allegedly homogenizing consequences national/global integration, I have to wonder what would be lost, socially, if Antonio's were to open a location in Memphis.

3. The drive from Great Barrington to Bryn Mawr (mostly through eastern NY) is beautiful. We tried to find a gas station at an exit for FDR's birthplace and presidential library yesterday; unfortunately the station identified by our Garmin no longer exists (coincidence?).

4. We paid over $4.50/gallon for gas yesterday. My back-of-the-envelope estimate of the optimal (additional) Pigou tax is no more than $0.00.

5. At the end of my "Economics in One Lesson" talk last night, I asked student discussion groups to make economic cases for and against recycling. All the groups made excellent points. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that recycling programs constitute very costly ways to achieve ambiguous (or negative) environmental benefits. To the extent that we produce too much waste, I'm inclined to believe that it is because garbage collection isn't priced efficiently. One could make plausible public good and natural monopoly arguments for government garbage collection, but one could make the same argument for government-provided lawn care.

--Craig Depken

From the June 28, 1908 NYT:

The black sheep of the family may really be a blonde.

Don't waste your time. You will need it all before you die.

It seems as though only the wealthy can afford to have no manners.

We all know a sure cure for the other fellow's ills.

Wise is the man who wants no more than he can get.

The eleventh commandment might very well be, "Mind your own business."

--Edward J. Lopez

The Pigou Club in nutshel via Greg Mankiw, from Tim Kane at Kaufman Foundation:

And when the time comes to balance the budget, we should aim to tax the bad things (noise, gasoline, trash, violent crime, evil foreign dictators) and untax the good things (homegrown profits, employment, innovation).

My rejection in a nutshell: The knowledge of which things are good or bad, in which circumstances of time and place, and to what dollar amount, are beyond the reach of anyone including policymakers; but even absent the knowledge problem, the incentive problem ensures that the enacted policies would be diverted by compromise from what little we do happen to know of the public interest.

In short, Hayek and Buchanan trump Pigou. I know, I know. I'm a total party pooper. But hey. If you don't want to take my word for it, here's Coase (Sec. VI, "The Problem of Social Cost"):

[T]here is no reason to suppose that the...regulations made by a fallible administration subject to political pressures and operating without any competitive check, will necessarily always be those which increase the efficiency with which the economic system operates... [I]t follows that direct governmental regulation will not necessarily give better results than leaving the problem to be solved by the market or the firm. ... Pigou seems to have had a faulty view of the facts of the situation. But it also seems likely that he was mistaken in his economic analysis.

--Wilson Mixon

So who's the criminal? According to James Hansen, it's greedy CEOs:

CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual. In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature.

According to an unnamed UN adviser, it's those pushing ethanol:

But several aid agencies and analysts have warned of the possible downside of biofuel crop cultivation.

One UN adviser went as far as describing biofuels as a "crime against humanity".

In both cases, it's pretty loose talk.

HT: CEI's "Cooler Heads Digest" 6/27/08