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I wont confess everything, but I will admit that I was once a great fan of Murray Rothbard (1926-1995), the economist who was nicknamed Mr. Libertarian. I was reminded of that when I saw him mentioned in a Financial Times column a few days ago: Jonathan Derbyshire, Libertarianism Is Having a Moment With Argentinas Milei, August 31, 2023.

The column focuses on Javier Milei, who is the favorite to win the upcoming presidential election in Argentina (see also Argentina Could Get Its First Libertarian President, The Economist, January 14, 2023). Milei, who defines himself as an anarcho-capitalist la Rothbard, is a fan of the latter and named one of his dogs after him. The fact that Milei is apparently also a fan of Donald Trump does not bode well for the future. The Financial Times columnist does get Trumps anti-libertarianism right, albeit not to its full extent. But he is wrong in suggesting that Republican primaries candidate Vivek Ramaswamy could (or, at any rate, should) be embraced by the libertarian movement. Anti-libertarians have been elected before Trump, but this is not an excuse for libertarians to compete down to the bottom of the barrel. If we are to believe The Economist, many of Mr. Mileis political allies are not exactly paragons of libertarianism either. I do think that libertarianism and classical liberalism should be a big tent, but there is a limit somewhere.

Rothbards system had an apparent advantage, which was also its big defect: it had an obvious, definitive, nearly religious answer to any and all questions. I was bothered by some of his claims, like the right of a child to run away from home whenever he wants to because he is thereby asserting his natural right of self-ownership (The Ethics of Liberty, p. 102). I also had doubts about his economics, although it took me some time to recognize their significance. He had a deep distaste for, or fear of, anything that looked like mathematics. He did not realize that, as J. Williard Gibbs said, mathematics is a language. He did not see the relationship between mathematics and logic. For instance, he could not understand that his supposedly ordinal marginal utility is mathematically impossible if utility is ordinal (that is, just a ranking as opposed to a cardinal measure). It makes no sense to chop an ordinal value into identifiable (uniquely defined) marginal pieces. So he was unknowingly using a concept of cardinal utility.

What Rothbard was missing had been explained by John Hicks (a future Nobel economics laureate) and Roy Allen in two famous 1934 Economica articles, A Reconsideration of the Theory of Value. Hicks and Allen formalized an ordinal theory of utility, which Irving Fisher, Vilfredo Pareto, and perhaps other economists had already postulated but not exactly specified. As Hicks and Allen put it, if total utility is not quantitatively definable, neither is marginal utility. Lionel Robbins, who represented a mix of the Austrian and neoclassical schools of economics, mentioned Hicks and Allens advance in the 1935 edition of his Essay on the Nature of Significance of Economic Science.

Changing ones opinion for good reasons is not a cardinal sin.

Sometime around the turn of the millennium, I asked Anthony de Jasay, who described himself as a liberal and an anarchist, why he did not use the anarcho-capitalist label. He answered, I do not wish to be counted as one of that company, or perhaps simply I dont like the company. (Although I quoted the first sentence elsewhere, the latter also hangs in my memory. I should have written it down at the time.) I think Tonys statement was meant as a criticism of the Rothbardian sort of anarcho-capitalism.

Lets hope Mr. Milei wins the election in October and does not oblige libertarians all over the world to walk back their support or, worse, lead them to Trumpianize the libertarian movement.

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Murray Rothbard in the Financial Times - Econlib

A businessman who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, Vivek Ramaswamy, says he will lay out a legal and constitutional basis for shutting down federal agencies with executive power during a speech Wednesday at the America First Policy Institute at Washington, D.C.

Shutting down the Department of Education has long been a Republican talking point, but Mr. Ramaswamy and much of the New Right a constellation of mostly young thinkers and activists unburdened by conservative orthodoxy want to go further, promising to shut down a host of alphabet agencies, like the FBI, the IRS, and the ATF. Mr. Ramaswamy says if elected president, he will reduce the workforce of the federal bureaucracy swamp by 75 percent.

Mr. Ramaswamy calls the unelected bureaucrats at Washington collecting a paycheck from taxpayers through Republican and Democrat administrations the fourth branch of government and he wants it gone. His pledge sounds a lot like President Trumps 2016 drain the swamp campaign promise, but Mr. Ramaswamys pitch is that he is the smart, adept one who can actually get it done.

They duped presidents from Reagan to Trump by telling them they couldnt do it. And on solid legal authority we are, on Wednesday, going to lay out exactly how we will get that done in a way that goes far beyond any historical GOP talking points, Mr. Ramaswamy told reporters Sunday at an event at New Hampshire. It takes the America First movement to the next level.

At a barbecue at New Hampshire Sunday hosted by a cryptocurrency millionaire and former Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Bruce Fenton, Mr. Ramaswamy articulated his vision in revolutionary terms. The tables were adorned with Gadsden flags, tricorn hats, and faux-aged copies of the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Fenton is part of the Free State Project, a movement to get liberty lovers to move to New Hampshire, influence state politics, and create a libertarian homeland.

Do you want incremental reform, or do you want revolution? Mr. Ramaswamy asked the crowd of about 150 people. I think thats the real choice we face in the GOP primary.

A 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur, Mr. Ramaswamy favors revolution, and the crowd ate it up. He painted a dark vision of the state of the country, saying that Americans are starved for purpose and meaning and identity.

At a time in our national history, with the things that used to fill the void faith, patriotism, hard work, family these things have disappeared, Mr. Ramaswamy said. And when you have a black hole in your heart that runs that deep, that is when the poison fills the void: woke-ism, transgenderism, climate-ism, Covid-ism, globalism. As I sometimes joke around now, Zelensky-ism.

This American carnage articulation recalls Mr. Trump and runs in direct contrast to the Reaganite optimism of Republican presidential candidates such as Ambassador Nikki Haley and Vice President Pence. Were not looking for a new national identity, Mr. Pence argued with Mr. Ramaswamy at the Republican presidential debate. The American people are the most faith-filled, freedom-loving, idealistic, hard-working people the world has ever known.

Its not morning in America, Mr. Ramaswamy shot back.

Mr. Ramaswamys opposition to funding the war in Ukraine is another point of departure from traditional Republicanism. These divisions reflect a larger split within the conservative movement between the Nikki Haleys of the world and the younger, ber-online right that is attracted to Messrs. Ramaswamy and DeSantis and their scorched-earth vision of dismantling the administrative state, or as Mr. DeSantis said last month, when referring to reducing the federal workforce, slitting throats on day one.

Mr. Ramaswamy says he used to identify as libertarian and didnt vote in his 20s because he was jaded. His message about shutting down government agencies, pardoning Julian Assange of Wikileaks, and freeing the founder of the dark web drug sales site Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, has earned him praise from many of the young, online right.

Several libertarian-leaning guests on Tim Pools YouTube show recently praised Mr. Ramaswamy for these promises. Mr. Ramaswamy is making the rounds of podcasts, YouTube shows, and other new media to attract this younger jaded crowd.

Mr. Ramaswamy shares the techno-libertarian origins of many in the New Right, and his diagnosis of Americas maladies aligns him with the Curtis Yarvin democracy has failed acolytes and national divorce proponents like the Libertarian Party, but his prescription is more optimistic and grounded in a unified constitutional republic. Mr. Ramaswamy opposes national divorce, embraces one person, one vote, and calls this a 1776 moment.

Yet he also throws red meat to this crowd, imagining himself as a more capable Mr. Trump, the embodiment of America First 2.0 that can successfully knee-cap birthright citizenship for offspring of illegal immigrants, secure the southern border, and speak truth Mr. Ramaswamys campaign slogan on culture war issues. The campaign posted signs around the Fenton property that articulated these so-called truths according to Ramaswamy: Reverse racism is racism, There are two genders, and, Human flourishing requires fossil fuels.

We have to speak truth, Mr. Fenton tells the Sun. I have definitely been talking to a lot of liberty people and Free Staters about why I think Vivek is the guy.

Mr. Trump is leading in Republican polls by large margins, but Mr. Ramaswamys rise indicates there is a hunger for this direct, revolutionary messaging. The main stalwarts of libertarianism, like Reason Magazine, may not be endorsing Mr. Ramaswamys agenda, which deviates significantly from libertarian orthodoxy, but a significant portion of the online New Right is.

Mr. Ramaswamy says the drive among Republicans to compromise in their beliefs is misguided. I reject show up in the middle and compromise, hold hands, sing Kumbaya, Mr. Ramaswamy said. Were not going to tinker around the edges, were going to get in there and shut it down. Thats how you revive a constitutional republic.

Link:
Ramaswamy Set To Tee Up a Plan To 'Eviscerate' the Administrative ... - The New York Sun

Hualapai Tribe

Hualapai Tribes historic Osterman Gas Station on Route 66.

A few months ago, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the Osterman Gas Station in Peach Springs on its list of Americas most endangered historic places.

The concrete block building was built in the early days of the Great Depression from a Sears Roebuck catalog. It serviced vehicles on the legendary Route 66 for decades. Since then, its fallen into disrepair crippled by windstorms, microbursts and time.

Its currently owned by the Hualapai Tribe, which has a plan to revive it and is looking for funding to do so.

The list of endangered places has been around since the 1980s, but not everyone thinks every historic building should be preserved. In fact, Timothy Sandefur says while preserving the past is a worthy goal, it also represents a tradeoff, with costs and benefits that must be weighed as well.

Sandefur is the vice president of legal affairs with the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think tank, and his views on historic preservation follow that libertarian streak. He was also, oddly enough, raised by a family of historic preservationists.

On the other hand, Beatrice Moore believes that preserving what little history we have in the metro Phoenix area is everything. Moore is the director of Grand Avenue Arts and Preservation and owner of multiple historic buildings in the Grand Avenue area.

The Show spoke with both Sandefur and Moore on their opinions on whether or not we should invest more into historic preservation.

See more here:
A debate over historic preservation and what deserves to be saved - KJZZ

I have talked to many of my friends and they feel the same way I feel. We are sick and tired of how our federal government currently operates.

It has been broken for a long time but we, the people, need to do something about it. It does not matter if you are Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian or other. If you love America, you should want to help.

I do not claim to have all the answers needed but I sincerely believe that establishing term limits on all branches of government would help. We have graft and corruption at every level and I think that could be helped some by term limits.

Will it fix all our problems? No, absolutely not! Will it help? Yes, I believe it is a good start.

If you agree with me, start spreading the word to your family and friends. Write your U.S. government representatives and senators to support this idea. Call them and tell them you support this idea.

Dont give up!

Never give up! We owe it to our children and grandchildren. More information to come. May God bless America!

Susan Slaughter

Belton

Read more:
Our federal government is broken | Letters To The Editor | tdtnews.com - Temple Daily Telegram

The centrist No Labels has been attacked by Democrats who fear the group will play spoiler in 2024 and end up electing Donald Trump. Yang stressed that he is an anyone-but-Trump guy, and that I would not run for president, if I thought that my running would be counterproductive, or if it would increase the chances of someone like Donald Trump becoming president again.

During the 45-minute meeting, Yang railed against the prospect that the 2024 presidential election is shaping up to be a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden.

He called the increasingly likely scenario terribly unrepresentative and borderline ridiculous and pointing to the advanced ages of both frontrunners.

I mean, youre talking about two guys whose combined age is 160, Yang said (the two men will be a combined 159 years old on Election Day 2024). In a country of 330 million people, you would choose these two gentlemen at this stage? I mean, it makes zero sense.

While openly against Trump, Yang also was bearish on Bidens chances. He laid out a detailed scenario in which third-party candidates could hurt the presidents campaign. He expects Cornel West, who is running on a Green Party ticket to attract two to three percent of voters in 2024 a larger vote share than Jill Stein attracted in 2016. He anticipates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will likely jump to the Libertarian Party ticket out of frustration of not getting a fair shake from the Democrats in the primary. Yang also predicted Kennedy could pull a similar number of voters as West, and pointed out that presidential elections are decided by a few hundred thousand votes across a handful of swing states.

When asked who he personally would vote for if he lived in one of those states, he refused to give a direct answer.

I mean, the fields still coming together, Yang said.

Yang, who left the Democratic Party nearly two years ago to launch his third party outfit, was in town to promote his political novel The Last Election. The Forward Party is pushing ranked-choice voting and doing away with partisan primaries.

The group, Yang said, was focusing its attention on local contests and races, hoping to affect national politics from the bottom up.

No Labels, by contrast, has put its focus on the presidential bid, attempting to gain ballot access in enough states to win the presidency with a unity ticket campaign. Among the names being discussed as part of such a ticket include current Gov. Chris Sununu (R-N.H.), former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.).

No Labels did respond to a request for comment.

Yang said Biden would benefit politically if he agreed to doing debates with his Democratic opponents, including Kennedy.

For his part, Yang said he was still planning to appear with one of those opponents, Marianne Williamson, but that the scheduling had not yet lined up.

He acknowledged that third parties rarely get national attention and said there is simply no money in down-ballot elections, which is part of the reason he had launched the Forward Party.

Theres no upside, he adds. So thats why everyone gets attracted to the presidential.

But when asked about whether a third-party presidential bid has a realistic shot, a dose of reality appeared to set in.

The question presumes that the goal of any third party is to win a presidential election, Yang explained, which is probably one of the mistakes [and] problems of the past.

Read the original here:
Andrew Yang says he's had 'conversations' with No Labels - POLITICO