Competition vs coordination
Posted on | February 8, 2010 | by Aschwin de Wolf
If there is one consistent theme in the fallout of the financial meltdown it is the demand for more policy “coordination.” In the case of the sovereign debt problems in the European Union it seems inconceivable that the “low debt” countries that are negatively impacted by the “high debt” countries would respond by withdrawing from the European Union and the Euro. As an article in the Wall Street Journal notes:
It was never going to be easy to make a single currency work for so many diverse countries with very different economic models. A central bank setting interest rates in a vacuum, while constituent governments have control over fiscal and economic policy, always looked flawed.
The typical globalist politician believes that if there is too much fiscal and economic policy diversity for monetary centralization to work, then let’s destroy such diversity to remove those obstacles.
There was a time that fear of a European superstate, let alone a world government, was seen as indicative of delusional conspiratory thinking. But as more and more politicians and opinion makers actually state their preference to move in this direction such fears can no longer be dismissed in this fashion.
The 21st century may witness a political struggle that is even more fundamental than the socio-political struggles of the 20th century because what will be at stake is not just what vision of the good society will prevail in a particular country but whether anyone would be able to escape it at all.
This struggle may not necessarily reflect the classic struggle between Liberty and Power. There are those who do not hesitate to support more centralization of power if it serves the cause of Liberty. But to others such reasoning is dangerous. How can one make an empirical case against one thing or the other if political reality is increasingly made ONE?
Ayn Rand: Russian fanatic
Posted on | February 3, 2010 | by Aschwin de Wolf
In some respects, Rand is almost Soviet. Her habit of remaking the past in accordance with her wishes or needs of the present is most striking… Allied to this [...] Continue Reading…
Peter Sloterdijk on the predatory German welfare state
Posted on | January 27, 2010 | by Aschwin de Wolf
As the United States makes rapid progress to become just another European-style welfare state, one of Germany’s most controversial intellectuals, Peter Sloterdijk, initiates a public debate with an offensive [...] Continue Reading…
Tags: Frankfurter Schule > Peter Sloterdijk > Philosophy > Welfare State
Barack Obama: Authoritarian
Posted on | January 26, 2010 | by Aschwin de Wolf
The surprising defeat of the Democrats in the recent Massachusetts elections has unleashed a great number of opinion pieces about the mistakes of the Obama administration. A common theme [...] Continue Reading…
Tags: Anarchism > Anti-Capitalism > Barack Obama > Individual Mandate > Michael Bakunin > Progressives > Social Democracy
A satire of the weather
Posted on | January 18, 2010 | by Aschwin de Wolf
The useless Constitution
Posted on | January 18, 2010 | by Aschwin de Wolf
Lysander Spooner expert and legal scholar Randy Barnett argues that Obamacare is unconstitutional. It does not seem likely that such an argument will prevail. Over the course of American [...] Continue Reading…
Tags: Anthony de Jasay > Constitution > Individual Mandate > Lysander Spooner > Obamacare > Randy Barnett
The ruling class
Posted on | January 16, 2010 | by Aschwin de Wolf
In an engaging piece about the lack of ideological diversity in American theater Harry Stein makes the following perceptive observation:
Like liberals everywhere, its creators imagine they’re speaking truth to [...] Continue Reading…
Libertarian centralism
Posted on | December 3, 2009 | by Aschwin de Wolf
“Centralization is ordinarily a sign of social decadence.” Russell Kirk
From a “skeptical empiricist” perspective (to use Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s useful phrase) neither “rationalist” nor public policy approaches to libertarianism [...] Continue Reading…
Tags: European Union > Libertarian Centralism > Nassim Nicholas Taleb > Roderick Long > United Nations
Man the unknown
Posted on | November 13, 2009 | by Aschwin de Wolf
In a recent review of two new Ayn Rand biographies Daniel J. Flynn makes the following observation:
Ayn Rand’s midcentury novels continue to strike a chord because they read as [...] Continue Reading…
Tags: Alexis Carrel > Ayn Rand > Conservatism > Eugenics > Man The Unknown > Transhumanism
James Burnham on liberalism and decline
Posted on | October 11, 2009 | by Aschwin de Wolf
James Burnham’s Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism proposes the thesis that modern liberalism is the ideology of a society in decline; [...] Continue Reading…
Tags: Conservatism > Counter-Modernism > James Burnham > Liberalism > Modern Liberalism > Sam Francis > Suicide of the West
