Russian philosopher Leonid Nikonov explains the differences between socialism, cronyism, and free market capitalism.  Nikonov is a contributor to The Morality of Capitalism, a new book that is being distributed worldwide by the Atlas Network and the Students for Liberty.  (You can download the introduction to the book here.)  Students can obtain copies of the book here; all others can obtain copies here.)

Free Market Capitalism vs. Cronyism in Russia is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of a substantial wealth-creating business enterprise, explains the moral significance of business.  A longer interview with Mackey, along with other thinkers, can be found in The Morality of Capitalism, available here.  (The book is being distributed by the Atlas Network and Students for Liberty.)

The Morality of Business Enterprise is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

My old philosophy professor has died. He was the only person I’ve ever met who both received a vote in the electoral college for president of the United States and published leading textbooks in ethics and aesthetics. I am fairly confident that he was the only person of whom that will ever be said.

When I enrolled at the University of Southern California in 1973 to study philosophy, John was chairman of the department. I already knew about him, however, as I had read his book Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow and had heard him debate against socialism the year before, alongside the late R. A. Childs, Jr. That was when John was the first presidential candidate of the brand new Libertarian Party. (He and his running mate, the first woman ever to receive an electoral vote, Tonie Nathan, were on the ballot in only 2 states that year.) It wasn’t a very vigorous campaign, but it helped thousands of people to say, “You know, I don’t fit in with either the left or the right; they’re both abusive of liberty.” Besides that electoral vote the Hospers campaign helped to launch a long-term political alignment that is very much with us today, as people increasingly see issues in terms of personal liberty and responsibility, rather than as a battle between two different flavors of statism.

John was a gentleman, thoughtful, and kind. I remember meetings and seminars with him in his office, when he was always engaged, challenging, and willing to reexamine his own views when challenged in turn. He was a scholar and a thinker.

John Hospers was born on June 9, 1918, so he had just reached his 93rd birthday. He had a long life full of interesting experiences and left the world a better place than it would be had he not been here. He will be missed, but his legacy will continue on. He helped to nurture a movement for liberty that broke away from the absurd left/right spectrum. That alone is a worthy monument.

John Hospers, R.I.P. is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

It reminds us of the need to repeat, and repeat, and repeat the same messages.  Tornadoes, diseases, and wars are not good for “the economy.”  They may be good for hardware stores, doctors, and military contractors, but not for the rest of us.  Still, the New York Times couldn’t help but tell us on the front page that “Reconstruction Lifts Economy After Disasters.”

Frederic Bastiat exploded the fallacy long ago.  Here’s a modern (and shorter) retelling:

Broken Windows All Over is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

The astonishing changes sweeping the Arab world hold great promise for liberty and peace, but those goals are much less likely to be realized without the active input of libertarians.  Arab libertarians are organized in a number of networks, one of which held a series of programs recently in Cairo on building the institutions of liberty and development in a post-revolutionary society.  The director of the Arabic “Forum of Liberty” (Minbaralhurriyya.org), Dr. Nouh El Harmouzi (also a university professor of economics in Morocco) spoke at the massive rally on Tahrir Square April 8 with a clear message for Egyptians (in Arabic, with English subtitles):

Also speaking at the rally (on democracy and the rule of law) and in other programs in Cairo was Gurcharan Das, the former CEO of Procter and Gamble India, author of the best-selling books India Unbound and The Difficulty of Being Good, and chairman of India’s Centre for Civil Society.

Those who wish to contribute to the spread of liberty in the Middle East and North Africa can find more information here.

Libertarians and the Arab Spring is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Nathan Gardels at the Huffington Post writes (emphasis added):

No one — least of all someone like myself who has experienced the existential terror of California’s regular tremors and knows the big one is coming here next — would minimize the grief, suffering and disruption caused by Japan’s massive earthquake and tsunami.

But if one can look past the devastation, there is a silver lining. The need to rebuild a large swath of Japan will create huge opportunities for domestic economic growth, particularly in energy-efficient technologies, while also stimulating global demand and hastening the integration of East Asia.

But as French political economist Frédéric Bastiat noted, destruction isn’t stimulative because it cannot create wealth:

Bastiat on the Japanese Tsunami is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

CAFMI Director Mirsulzhan Namazaliev at 2009 Cato University

Kyrgyz libertarians are leading a series of coordinated voluntary efforts to provide emergency aid to the victims of the vicious attacks of the last few days in their country and to promote peace throughout the nation and the region.  I’ve been in regular touch with our friends there, and on Tuesday evening I talked to Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI) Director Mirsulzhan Namazaliev by Skype, as he was interrupted by a stream of volunteers working late into the night in the CAFMI offices.  He made their resolution clear:

“We are helping those who are suffering, but we are doing more.  For me personally this is not only a fight for life.  It is a fight for freedom.  We don’t want to be ruled by any authoritarian Central Asian or Russian regimes that would exploit this awful violence.  The violence we are suffering is a provocation designed to generate chaos and to overturn the chance for a constitutional regime.  We will not stand for it.  We want peace, we want freedom, and we want a lawful government.”

I was in Kyrgyzstan just last month to work with CAFMI and with the new acting minister of economic development, my friend Emil Umetaliev, a founding member of CAFMI’s board of directors.  (CAFMI was founded by two Cato graduates, former Cato intern Seyitbek Usmanov and Cato University graduate Mirsulzhan Namazaliev.)  There was guarded optimism about the country’s future, after the corrupt and increasingly authoritarian regime of Kurmanbek Bakiyev was ousted in an uprising after he tried to suppress demonstrations with deadly force.  But there was also fear of Bakiyev’s machinations, especially after the revelation of a recorded cell phone conversation between his son, Maksim, and his brother Janybek (who had given the orders to shoot protesters in April), in which they clearly plot violence to derail a new constitutional process and regain power, even proposing how many “fighters” to hire, arming them with iron bars and other implements, and how much to pay them to launch attacks.  The recording was chilling.  And with the money they looted from the country, they found the thugs to launch attacks on both Uzbek and Kyrgyz villages, in order to spark revenge attacks.  Their plans bore fruit this month, as hundreds were murdered, homes and businesses were burned, and between 80,000 and 100,000 people were made refugees.

As Namazaliev put it to me, “We will not stand for it.”

Volunteers Load Supplies to Deliver to Refugees

CAFMI’s staff and volunteers are almost all under 25.  Few have backgrounds in defense or security.  But they immediately put the talents they do have to work.  CAFMI volunteers worked with others to solicit, gather, and deliver humanitarian assistance for the thousands of people – mainly mothers and children – who had been driven from their homes, and to create a message of communal peace – of Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Russians, Uighurs, Tajiks and others who were standing together for peace and against murder and hatred.  They called together teams of computer experts, technological wizards, social networkers, and activists to build an umbrella coalition: “I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan”  –“Мен Қирғизистонда тинчлик бўлишини истайман!” in Uzbek, “Мен Кыргызстанга тынчтыкты каалайм!” in Kyrgyz, and “Я хочу мира в Кыргызстане!” in Russian.

I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan -- in Three Languages

Some Peace Graffiti (this one in English)

The “I want Peace in Kyrgyzstan” campaign has five coordinated elements:

1. Use cell phones, databases, and the internet to organize volunteers effectively and to create and disseminate maps (using Google Maps and other techniques) to guide deliveries of aid to victims and to help people to avoid areas in turmoil, burning buildings, and road blocks and ambushes set up by thugs.
2. Create a modern campaign for peace in three languages (Kyrygz, Uzbek, and Russian) – with a brand, a logo, street graffiti, slogans, t-shirts, stickers, leaflets, hand-written letters from children, radio interviews and public announcements, text messages, and other means to calm tensions and promote peace.  Representatives of the various ethnic groups appear together to pledge peace and to build the rule of law and freedom together.
3. Combat disinformation and misinformation that might fuel ethnic hatred and violence, and respond rapidly to malicious rumors and hate campaigns before they bear their evil fruit.
4. Contain the spread of reprisals and hatred throughout Central Asia, by providing reliable information to media, helping to combat ethnic smears and suppress revenge attacks against minorities in other countries, and quickly rebutting calls in nearby countries for military intervention into Kyrgyzstan, which carries the very real danger of regional war.
5. Create a “Peace Room” (not a “War Room”) in CAFMI’s Bishkek offices to be open 24 hours a day to coordinate the collection and dissemination of information.  Volunteers in the Peace Room utilize cell phones, social networking sites, twitter, text messages, phone trees, and more and monitor mass media constantly.  The CAFMI office is now fully staffed with volunteers and working around the clock.

The young volunteers and staff of CAFMI are donating their time, risking their lives, and contributing their scarce resources, in a country with a per-capita income of about $2,100. If you’d like to stand with a group of very brave, very determined, and very committed libertarians to stop the violence in their country, provide emergency aid to the victims, avoid regional war, and lead the region to peace and freedom, you can send a tax-deductible donation to the Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI) through the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which has provided support to CAFMI. Please write to Erin.Grant@AtlasNetwork.org and 100% of your donation will be dedicated to CAFMI’s work in Central Asia.  Even small donations will help.  It would be a decision you would not regret.  (You can follow CAFMI’s work on their Facebook page and Namazaliev writes in Russian and in English on NewEurasia.net, Twitter, and other media.  He covered the April uprising against Bakiyev’s authoritarian regime in The Independent and was quoted frequently by CNN and many other news organizations.)

Volunteers Working after Midnight for the "I Want Peace in Kyrgyzstan" Campaign at the CAFMI offices

Volunteers Collecting Donated Supplies in Bishkek Neighborhoods

CAFMI Volunteers After Days of Loading Donated Supplies at Manas Airport to Send to Victims of Violence in Osh and Jalalabad

Libertarians in Kyrgyzstan Spearhead Peace Campaign, Help Victims of Violence: You Can Help, Too is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

The professionally ignorant (and I’m thinking here of Lou Dobbs, among others) never “get it” about trade. They think it’s some complex swindle, in which we deny ourselves “jobs,” or that it should be about being “fair” or “balanced.” They don’t see how free trade creates prosperity and peace. I was inspired by the outstanding trade economist Doug Irwin of Dartmouth to explain what goes on when people trade. The challenge was to explain international trade in under 3 minutes. So here’s the result in 2:57: The Great Prosperity Machine.

Share it with your favorite protectionist, or with professors and teachers. (There’s more information at AtlasNetwork.org/BastiatLegacy.)

Watch and share:

How to Explain Free Trade in Less Than Three Minutes is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Last month, I talked with Reason senior editor Michael C. Moynihan on Reason.tv about my book Realizing Freedom: Libertarian Theory, History, and Practice.

Realizing Freedom is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

From the FreeKareem.org website:

Kareem’s final appeal

You can write to the Egyptian Ambassador to help his case. Please be polite and respectful.

More information available at www.FreeKareem.org. I wrote about the case in 2007 here and here.

Victim in Egyptian Jail… Letters Will Help is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

I was contacted by several people about the death of G. A. Cohen, to whose ideas I devoted a chapter of my book Realizing Freedom. (The chapter, originally published in Critical Review, is also available in a PDF form here.)

I’ll just make two points about Cohen here, as I believe it generally best (there are exceptions) not to speak ill of the dead. In a meeting in his office when he reviewed an early draft of the essay above, he admitted that I had found a serious flaw, but demanded to know (and “demanded” is the right word) what my point was: “Are you attacking the argument, or the conclusion?!” I said I did not understand the question. He answered, “Well, the conclusion does not follow from the argument, so which are you attacking?” I was rather flabbergasted, and replied that the conclusion of an argument is a part of the argument, not some separate thing. But that was not how he saw things, and it showed in his entire career.

There are arguments, and there are conclusions. You attach yourself to a conclusion, and then you look for arguments that lead to it. That’s why he was an “analytical Marxist,” i.e., someone who agreed with what he took to be Marx’s conclusions, but who thought that the arguments by which Marx reached them were erroneous or fallacious, so his job was to come up with new arguments. If those didn’t work, you kept the conclusion and looked for other arguments. (In this case, however, despite acknowledging to me that his argument failed to reach the conclusion, he never acknowledged it publicly, but took some pains to lobby journals not to publish my critique, as was confided to me by editors of those journals.)

To get a sense of what kind of man he was, think a bit on this defense of the Soviet Union:

The Soviet Union needed to be there as a defective model so that, with one eye on it, we could construct a better one. It created a non-capitalist mental space in which to think about socialism.*

Millions had to die so that Cohen and his rich friends could enjoy “a non-capitalist mental space in which to think about socialism.” Words almost fail me. But not entirely. He should have spent his life begging forgiveness from all of the people who suffered from his pro-Soviet (he spent a good bit of his youth as a Soviet propagandist, which was essentially a family enterprise) and pro-Communist activities. He was no different than any old National Socialist who might have regretted that National Socialism wasn’t nationally socialist enough, but who enjoyed the “mental space” it created to construct fantasies of an ideal life.

I will merely point out that his attacks on charity and assistance to others is consistent, not only with his political philosophy, but with his personality and life.

*From p. 250 of his 1995 book Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), in which he strings together the “argument” that does not lead to the “conclusion” that property rights are unjustified.

G. A. Cohen is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

The media discussion of events in Honduras is remarkably confused. Here’s CNN:

The president of the U.N. General Assembly scheduled a noon session Monday to discuss the situation in Honduras, following a military-led coup that ousted the sitting president.

and

Micheletti, the head of Congress, became president after lawmakers voted by a show of hands to strip Zelaya of his powers, with a resolution stating that Zelaya “provoked confrontations and divisions” within the country.

….

The coup came on the same day that he had vowed to follow through with a nonbinding referendum that the Honduran Supreme Court had ruled illegal.

Imagine that George Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan or some other American president had decided to overturn the Constitution so that he could stay in power beyond the constitutionally limited time. To do that, he orders a nationwide referendum that is not constitutionally authorized and blatantly illegal. The Federal Election Commission rules that it is illegal. The Supreme Court rules that it is illegal. The Congress votes to strip the president of his powers and, as members of Congress are not that good at overcoming the president’s personally loyal and handpicked bodyguards, they send police and military to arrest the president. Now, which party is guilty of leading a coup?

This is another example of populist, dictatorial, anti-democratic thought parading as “democratic.” I discuss the issue in my recent lecture on enduring democracy in New Delhi.

Spinning…When a President who Seeks Dictatorial Powers in an Illegal Move Is Removed by the Congress and by the Supreme Court, Is it a “Military Coup”? is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

A coalition of more than 70 groups around the world, from Canada to Brazil to Kyrgyzstan to Germany to China to Japan to Kenya, has joined together to stop the dangerous stirrings of protectionism.  The FreedomToTrade.org coalition (coordinated internationally by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and the International Policy Network) has circulated a petition (signed by over 1,000 economists and thousands of others) and is now producing documentaries to alert the public to the dangers posed by protectionism.  This one is on the role the Smoot-Hawley Tariff played in turning a serious recession into the Great Depression.

The mini-documentary is also being made available in 12 other languages.  The Spanish version will be available on Cato’s Spanish-language project, ElCato.org. Others are available on YouTube.

This information is important and needs to be widely shared.  Pass it on…

How Protectionism Crashed the World Economy…and How to Stop It This Time Around is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

AfricanLiberty.org has created a powerful short video on causes of the food crisis.

It’s also available in French from UnMondeLibre.org. A Portuguese version should be available Monday on OrdemLivre.org. Russian and other versions will be available soon.

Food Crisis is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

The Ugandan government has arrested Andrew Mwenda, a member of the 2008 International Selection Committee for the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, along with his fellow journalists Odobo Bichachi and John Njoroge. Andrew Mwenda is a brave journalist who tells it like he sees it. He is well known for standing up for the rights of others; his involvement in the Milton Friedman Prize is only one element of his long commitment to human rights. It’s time that others stand up for his rights and those of Odobo Bichachi and Jhohn Njoroge. Cordial email letters to the Ugandan Embassy and the Ugandan government urging them to release the journalists and respect press freedom can make a difference:

His Excellency Professor Perezi K. Kamunanwire

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Fax: (202) 726 1727
pkamunanwire@ugandaembassyus.org

Mr. Charles Ssentongo
Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM)/ Minister Counselor
Fax: (202) 726 1727
Cssentongo@ugandaembassyus.org

Mr. Emmanuel Bwomono Olobo
First Secretary
Fax: (202) 726 1727
ebwomono-olobo@ugandaembassyus.org

Mr. Michael Karugaba
Second Secretary
Fax: (202) 726 1727
mkarugaba@ugandaembassyus.org

(In addition to being an outspoken advocate and practitioner of a free press, Andrew Mwenda is an outspoken proponent of development through the free market. Here is Andrew explaining the failures of “foreign aid.”)

Milton Friedman Prize Selection Committee Member Arrested is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Atilla Yayla, the courageous leader of the Association for Liberal Thinking in Turkey, who has spoken at the Cato Institute and taken part in Cato conferences and programs, has been found guilty of allegedly insulting the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The 15 month prison sentence was suspended.

Background from my previous blog posts here and here.

The New York Times ran a piece on Friday on the likely direction for freedom of speech in Turkey, “Turkey to Alter Speech Law,” which focuses on Atilla’s case.

Atilla is a brave man and a friend of the liberty of everyone. Please write to the Turkish Ambassador in your country, respectfully (please) requesting that proceedings be undertaken to void the sentence. Here is the info for the Turkish Embassy in the USA.

Atilla Yayla Found Guilty is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

November 9 will mark 1 year in jail for an innocent young man, sentenced to four years in prison for expressing his opinions on his blog.

Raja Kamal of the University of Chicago and I told the story in “Freedom for an Egyptian Blogger and Freethinker” last February in the Washington Post. You can get more details, including how you can help take part in a dignified protest for human rights, write letters to Egyptian officials, and more, at www.freekareem.org.

Freedom for Kareem November 9 is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Arabs have had almost no access to the literature and the ideas of liberty….until now. The Misbah al Hurriyya (“Lamp of Liberty”) project of the Cato Institute is bringing Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and many more thinkers to the Arab public. The team behind the Lamp of Liberty, notably Editor Fadi Haddadin and Business and Promotions Manager Ghaleb Hijazi, have outdone themselves with a newly redesigned website for the project: www.misbahalhurriyya.org.

It’s got more than a new look, though. Now you can see the incredible success of Ghaleb’s syndication of hundreds of articles to the Arab press, find information on Misbah al Hurriyya books, including John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, Ludwig von Mises’s Economic Policy, F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, Johan Norberg’s In Defense of Global Capitalism, and the Economic Freedom of the World Report, and browse through hundreds of studies, articles, and essays. The site also features Mudawwanat al Hurriyya (“Blog of Liberty”), an interactive map of economic freedom (in the bottom left corner), policy debates, video streaming of interviews, online books, and much, much more.

Even those who can’t read Arabic will appreciate the ingenuity and brilliant design of the site. And when you know that it’s presenting a positive alternative to the violence, oppression, and poverty that have plagued so much of the Middle East and North Africa, you will know that the positive attractions of what Adam Smith called “the simple system of natural liberty” – rather than more violence and military force – are a powerful response to the ideas of statism and intolerance. Ideas aren’t generally defeated with mere force; ultimately, it takes another idea.

The re-designed Arabic Lamp of Liberty will be joined soon by its Kurdish [www.chiraiazadi.org] and Persian [www.cheragehazadi.org] sister projects. They’re all part of Cato’s Center for Promotion of Human Rights family of projects, including the existing Spanish [www.elcato.org] and Russian [www.cato.ru] projects (each with books, podcasts, websites, and more) and forthcoming Portuguese, Azeri, French, and African (in English, French, and Portuguese) initiatives. Ten team members of the African initiative will meet in Tanzania at the African Resource Bank meeting in a few weeks. Anyone who’s interested in supporting the promotion of libertarian ideas and policies around the world should contact the Institute. (Any funds specified for a particular language or region will be spent only on works in that language or region.)

Arabic Lamp of Liberty Re-Lit! is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

I’ve got a detailed piece on National Review Online on the case of Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, sentenced to four years in prison in Egypt for the crime of … blogging.

A Jailed Blogger and What You Can Do is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog

Friends of freedom will be at dignified rallies in cities around the world on behalf of Abdelkareem, who is awaiting sentencing in Egypt for expressing his opinions on his blog. Rallies will be held in New York, London, Ottawa, Chicago, Bucharest, Washington, Rome, and Paris, and we are hoping for other cities.

In Washington, friends of freedom will gather at noon on February 15 at the Egyptian Cultural and Educational Bureau: 1303 New Hampshire Ave, NW; Washington, DC, near Dupont Circle.

Visit http://www.freekareem.org/ for more details. If you can spare an hour on February 15, please join those who are standing for freedom of speech….and for the freedom of a young man who — agree with him or not — merely spoke his mind.

Free Kareem Rallies February 15 is a post from Cato @ Liberty - Cato Institute Blog