15 thoughts on “Monday Message Board”

  1. John, I wonder if you’d like to comment on the Mont Pelerin Society general meeting currently being held in Sydney (Oct 10-15). The theme of the meeting is the 21st Century Liberal Enlightenment. I notice that there are many distinguished academic speakers there, including Deepak Lal and Peter Boettke. There are also some non-academicians including former PM John Howard and journalist Paul Kelly. To me the presence of these speakers gives the libertarian game away. These men are nothing but out and out social conservatives. And critics have argued that libertarianism is really an intellectual cover for empire and socially conservative views. Notably Brad Delong has blogged about Hayek’s social conservatism.
    What are your thoughts on this conference and the intellectual basis it comes from. In particular, perhaps you might to comment on the apparent social conservatism that libertarians seem to endorse and how this might be inconsistent with some of the logical conclusions of liberalism – such as open border migration policies etc. Thanks

  6. @Alice
    lol I wonder whether he knows that MPS are a hodge podge of fundamentalists who endorse things like removing prohibition on elicit drugs and open border migration and so on…

    But really, his presence there really gives away what they are all about: finding moral justification for social conservatism, protection of the rich and removing any kind of obligation to help the poor.

  7. @simmmo
    Of course JH knows simmmo – he is really one of the boys at Monty Pelican. They will probably congratulate JH on the highest order “freedom medal” George Bush awarded him whilst also chatting about the best methods as to sinking / imprisoning boatpeople, the Roma, Muslims, Aboriginies and any other refugees, the poor and the greens and sending women back to the kitchen.

  9. Today was the start of the abortion trial in Queensland; a crime against morality, apparently.

    WTF?? I’m not going to enter in to a long discussion about this, I just think that this is wrong (the law, that is).

    If it bothers you to, I suggest checking the GetUp! website and signing the petition they have going.

  10. @Donald Oats
    WTF is right Donald. Years..no decades ago I worked as a nurse in English hospitals and the poor girls that came from Ireland to have abortions in english hospitals when they probably could barely afford the trip. If it wasnt for Tony Abbotts twisted morality this woman wouldnt be on trial and neither would a whole lot of other women be placed through physical trials having invasive unsophisticated abortions in clinics and hospitalsn (at least thats one step up from the backyard abortions that went on in previous decades but its still not good enough). These men that think they have the right to decide what women do with their bodies and theor lifestyle choices must belong to the “freedom party”. The same sort of bunch of bullies attending the Monty Pelican meeting.

    The morning after pill should have been here in Australia decades ago.

  11. Agreed DO and Alice. I wonder if the trial will bring out why the police interest in the first instance. The male defendant is originally Ukrainian, the same origin as the pills – the chemical abortion agent which is a major contentious point (ie non-invasive and self administered). You can imagine these cops scouring the defendant’s home trying to pin something on the pair. Sound familiar for Queensland cops?

  12. I was listening to ABC this morning and apparently they are running some competition on who can offer the best 25 words on “what’s the most inspiring thing about the Chilean copper mine rescue” (following up from the Comm Games “inspiration”)

    Maybe I’m hard to inspire, but I don’t get it.

    I see nothing inspiring about what has happened or might happen to the Chilean copper miners — unless, moved by their situation, they become the spearhead for the overturn of Chilean capitalism and workers rule throughout the continent. That seems a long way off though.

    I hope that the rescue goes well and nobody who was down there ends up the worse for it in the long run. I’m no engineer, but I’d be willing to agree that digging a 650m ad hoc rescue shaft through differentiated layers of rock with sufficient accuracy and integrity to run a winched rescue capsule back and forth would be difficult to do and thus very impressive if it works. I’m glad that mining engineers rather than retired accountants were left in chrage. The people above ground seem to have worked pretty well, so kudos to them.

    But inspiration? Hardly.

  13. Aww shucks Fran, what about the miner who’s wife discovered his mistress while he was ‘grounded’ and who will surely all. feel inspirational all around when he surfaces? After that though it will be a bit back to earth. My guess is that all 33 of them will feel inspired for a while and whenever they have a reunion. But my guess is that none of them will want to remain a miner for many of the capitalist reasons you mention. There’s your ABC for you – enjoy the moment ‘coz it won’t last long.

  15. Gee, who could have predicted that?

    “The U.S. government’s bailout of financial firms through the Troubled Asset Relief Program provided taxpayers with higher returns than they could have made buying 30-year Treasury bonds — enough money to fund the Securities and Exchange Commission for the next two decades.

    The government has earned $25.2 billion on its investment of $309 billion in banks and insurance companies, an 8.2 percent return over two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That beat U.S. Treasuries, high-yield savings accounts, money- market funds and certificates of deposit. Investing in the stock market or gold would have paid off better.

    When the government first announced its intention to plow funds into the nation’s banks in October 2008 to resuscitate the financial system, many expected it to lose hundreds of billions of dollars. Two years later TARP’s bank and insurance investments have made money, and about two-thirds of the funds have been paid back. Yet Democrats are struggling to turn those gains into political capital, and the indirect costs of propping up banks could have longer-term consequences for the economy. ”

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-20/bailout-of-wall-street-returns-8-2-profit-to-taxpayers-beating-treasuries.html

Leave a comment