Friday Four

1. A few days ago, I was about to head out the door without donning a flat cap. I customarily do this during sunny days in the spring and fall, but we were making an evening trip to the mall. My two-year-old son objected, saying, "Hat!" and pointed to the hat rack. I obviously had to comply, and give him a turn wearing it. He also took along his little homburg hat for the trip.

2. On my blogroll, keep an eye out for updates from the blog of the Harry Binswanger Letter. The blog was recently re-launched under the title Value for Value, and now includes a post on "The Dollar and the Gun", about a common equivocation between political power and market power:

You are in a conversation with an acquaintance. The conversation turns to politics. You make it clear you are for capitalism, laissez-faire capitalism. Eloquently, you explain the case for capitalism in terms of man's rights, the banning of physical force, and the limitation of government to the function of protecting individual freedom. It seems clear, simple, unanswerable. But instead of seeing the "light-bulb look" on the face of your acquaintance, you see shock, bewilderment, antagonism. At the first opportunity, he rushes to object:

"But government has to protect helpless consumers from the power wielded by huge multinational corporations." [among other things --ed]

I have long found HBL, formerly The Harry Binswanger List, an invaluable resource. But don't take my word for it. Stop by Value for Value and see for yourself.

3. John Cook tells us of an author whose understanding of economics is self-destructively bad:

Suppose I want to read something by, I don't know, say, Ursula K. Le Guin. I doubt I could find a copy of any of her books, certainly not her less popular books, within 20 miles of my house, and I live in the 4th largest city in the US. There's nothing by her in the closest Barnes and Noble. But I could easy find anything she's ever written on Amazon.

This comes in reply to that author's admonition to boycott Amazon.

4. Bookish Babe has reminded me to consider Aesop's Fables for my children just in time for their birthdays, which are both this month. After looking at a three-star review in Amazon for a children's edition "updated to at least the 20th century", I have mixed feelings about purchasing that particular volume: I'll take advantage of the preview option before I decide. In any event, I have fond memories of the fables and would like to pass that along to my children.

-- CAV